What a difference a day makes.
What a difference one game makes. One win.
Down were written off from all corners of the country. The negative press never stopped. 14 games without a win will do that but reports suggested there was an exodus of sorts in the camp, that Eamonn Burns didn’t have the faith of the dressing room, that he had fallen out with the Kilcoo contingent.
A win over Meath and that all has changed. “A win that Mark Poland hopes will “do the players and the management the world of good”.
On the latest GAA Hour football show, the Down forward labelled a lot of the bad press that he and his team mates have received recently as “false information”. Poland himself was late coming back to the panel – but that’s just because he had a new baby boy. His absence wasn’t some sort of two fingers up to the manager, like a lot of the players’ exits have seemingly been portrayed as.
“Some people I speak to, they wouldn’t know if the ball was blew up or stuffed,” Poland said on SportsJOE’s GAA Hour. “They just hear other people doing it and they add their own wee bit to the fire.
“There was a lot of stuff written in the week previous… there was a lot of false information, a lot of it wasn’t true. The players weren’t happy themselves for the way they performed in the first two games. A lot of lads made their debuts, there were boys coming back from injury that weren’t match fit.
“[The false information included things like] the players weren’t happy with management and that players were walking away and this, that, and the other. A lot of stuff was in Down itself – I’m not sure what it was like outside the county – but everybody just seemed to be talking about Down and there were just a lot of false stories going about.”
Players leaving the panel is just a natural part of the GAA set-up.
“There were two or three that did go but that’s the same every year,” Poland explained.
“Like, I know Ryan Mallon particularly well and the lad has a lot going on outside of football. He didn’t leave because he wasn’t getting a chance or anything like that, he has a lot going on with work and different things.
“We still have the guts of nearly 40 players there.
“Every year since I’ve been in the Down panel, there have been lads that have decided to move on but there’s just been a lot made of those two or three players there that did decide to move on. But I think it was all amicable. Ryan addressed the players himself. It was all amicable and a big fuss made over nothing.
“I think with the Kilcoo lads, Jerome and Ryan [Johnston] both had quite serious injuries last year – both shoulder injuries – and the two lads were maybe just finding their feet. I know Jerome hadn’t kicked a ball in maybe 15 or 16 months or something like that – he did come back at club level but picked up a foot injury as well.
“A lot is made but you have to respect the management’s decision. The lads played on Saturday night and Darragh [O’Hanlon] had an outstanding game, as did Ryan and then Jerome came on too. They do add to the team, there’s absolutely no doubt about that. Kilcoo have won five championships in a row, they have a lot of very, very talented footballers. I was just glad to see those lads prove a point as such on Saturday night and hopefully they can continue that form for the rest of the year.”
For Down, they’ve had a problem with a turnover of players that goes far beyond Burns’ arrival last year. The 2010 All-Ireland final team dismantled very quickly, they see too many successful underage teams slip through the cracks into life outside of football and new faces come on board all the time.
It’s not ideal but it’s not new. And it’s not something that Poland is hoping will characterise this current side.
“If things weren’t good, I know personally that I wouldn’t be there. James [McCartan] had a very good team – I think a lot of people underrated the team we had back in 2010.
“But I don’t think the past 14 or 15 months are a true reflection on the footballers we have in Down.”
Listen to the full interview below (from 26:00). It’s well worth it.
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