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Luck to the new kids on the Block
Downs footballers started it all in 1960
- 27/09/03 
By Ger Loughnane, Irish Star
Downs footballers started it all in 1960.
They strutted out onto Croke Park on All-Ireland final
day wearing tight shorts, behaving as if they'd owned the place and proceeding
to give Kerry a lesion in the game they thought was their preserve.
Things
have never been quite the same since.
All Kinds of wailing about professionalism,
unusual tactics and the irreparable damage done to the traditional game of football
followed, especially when Down repeated the dose a year later.
In the
early stages, newcomers on the big stage are met with open arms as all eyes focus
on the new characters.
The feelgood factor is everywhere. The county
is held up for all to see as an example of what can be done with the right attitude,
preparation and inspirational management.
However, as the players become
better known and supporters louder and more confident, a subtle change take place.
Voices, very low at first, begin to question the tactics used.
It is a general condemnation at first using every word in the dictionary that
means "dirty" but, of course, never the word itself.
Hand in hand with
this goes rumblings of discontent about the behaviour of the manager.
It's OK if he slags off the opposing team or even journalists but when he turns
on them, something has to be done about it and it will.
When the day
finally arrives that they are perceived as finished or gone, the rejoicing is
as great at their demise as if was at their arrival.
It is one of the
oldest adages of sport or business and it goes: the trick is not to play the same
game as the opposition but to play an entirely different game.
All teams
from non traditional counties that have made the break-through have done this.
Think of Down in the 60's, the Galway hurlers' passing game of the 80s,
Wexford's passion play of the 90's, Clare's pressure game and now Armagh's presence
and relentlessness and Tyrone's tactical adaptability.
Armagh and Tyrone
are now rightly telling their traditionalist southern brothers that they're only
jealous because now the ball is theirs and they will play with it any way they
like.
I hope Tyrone and Armagh give us a game that none of the traditional
counties can match for a few years to come.
The traditionalists had their
day two weeks ago when Cork and Kilkenny met for the umpteenth time in an All
Ireland final. The result? The dullest hurling final since they last met four
years ago.
Sunday is the day for the upstarts. The traditionalists will
be hoping to have their prejudices confirmed, the rest of us will be hoping for
a thriller.
May the better team take Sam across the border once again
and keep it there as long as possible.
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