YOU don’t walk away from an All-Ireland final loss without 'what ifs'. Down have played in six, won five, yet sometimes it feels like the one that got away is relived more than any of the rest.
Recency bias plays a part, of course, that wound sown into the soul 13 years on from Cork’s one-point victory on a sodden September Sunday, defeat on the biggest stage all the more difficult to digest when it hasn’t been tasted before.
The questions have eaten away since. What if Down held onto their five point lead until half-time, instead of allowing Cork to close the gap to three?
What if Paul McComiskey hadn’t been withdrawn heading into the final quarter?
What if they had worn red and black instead of bloody yellow? Maybe we’re clutching at straws with that one.
But the biggest what if? Ambrose. Always Ambrose.
If Ambrose Rogers had been playing that day, Down would have lifted Sam Maguire for a sixth time. No argument to the contrary will be entertained. Sorry.
Perhaps it has become a crutch, a coping mechanism to deal with the trauma of Croke Park disappointment, but the Ambrose clause has been written into the conversational contract for Down followers and cannot be revoked.
At his best, the Longstone midfielder was a force of nature. Where his late father, Ambrose sr, packed a fair bit of flair alongside his physical prowess, the son was all action, all energy, all go.
Injuries were a perpetual battle, but when Ambrose was on song, Down were on song. With those lung-busting runs towards the square, that eye for a score, he opened up opportunities for others. That’s why, no matter which player you speak to from that era, there is a reverence attached to his name.
Having returned from the ruptured spleen suffered against Wexford two years earlier, Ambrose was made captain by James McCartan in 2010. He was at the peak of his powers then. Surrounded by a stellar cast, it is no coincidence that Down should soar to such unforeseen heights that particular summer.
But disaster struck when, the week after defending champions Kerry were cast aside, he suffered a cruciate ligament tear playing for the ’Stone. Somehow - just six weeks later - Ambrose was named in the panel for the final, only to remain on the bench as the Rebels turned the screw in the second half.
“The key to it,” declared Joe Brolly in the RTE studio afterwards, “was that around the middle of the field, Down simply couldn’t get their hands on the ball.”
Injury stifled the rest of Ambrose Rogers’s county career until, in 2014, time was reluctantly called. Not since him have Down possessed such a dynamic, dominant figure around the middle, with manager after manager searching for solutions to Down’s big man void.
Despite their honest endeavours, attempts to pin a succession of square pegs into round holes bore little fruit.
“Listen, I remember ‘Wee James’ turning to me at the start of 2012 saying ‘I’ve a big job for you this year – you’re going to go to midfield’,” recalls former Down star Kevin McKernan.
“Even in 2011 I spent a bit of time there, between myself and Benny McArdle, Ryan Mallon… we were all 5’10”, 5’11” odds… I’m borderline six foot.
“We were in Division One at the time, so you’re lining up against Aidan Walsh, David Moran, Rory Kavanagh, Seamie O’Shea - kick-outs were a struggle. At times we worked them really well, hunted break ball really well, but you were up against it with men of that size.”
In McKernan’s Burren club-mate Odhrán Murdock, Down could have found the answer to a decade-long problem.
That may sound like an unfair amount of pressure to place upon young shoulders, no matter how broad. After all there’s plenty of other talent in the Down U20 team that swept to Ulster glory on Wednesday night too.
Oisin Savage was electric, finishing up with eight points, so too the livewire Jamie Doran in another classy cameo from the bench. Both could well go on to become attacking mainstays for years to come.
But Down have never had a problem producing nippy corner-forwards. The excitement that surrounds Murdock owes much to where he plays, and his physical make-up at 20.
That he comes from good stock helps too. Dad Gavin, a Burren stalwart, was part of the Down All-Ireland winning panel in 1994, while grandfather Pat Murtagh – on mum Joanne’s side – played a major part in the club’s domination at county, Ulster and All-Ireland level during the 1980s.
“He’s so quiet, keeps himself to himself, does what you ask him to do… one of them boys you wish everybody was like,” said former Down captain Darren O’Hagan.
“For a 20-year-old he’s so mature - I can’t wait to see him at 24, 25, 26...”
Although not a giant in terms of height – like Rogers, Murdock is around the 6’1” mark – it is his ability to read the game and use the ball effectively that continues to turn heads.
During the National League, he was Down’s stand-out performer most weeks. When staring into the mouth of defeat against Antrim and Westmeath, it was Murdock who shook Pairc Esler into life – winning ball, driving forward with purpose, making things happen.
It was the same on Wednesday. Three minutes before half-time, and with Derry captain Dan Higgins for company, Murdock moved out towards the stand at the Athletic Grounds, gesturing for Oisin Treacy to send it his way.
The Down ’keeper’s kick went behind both and looked bound for Derry hands until Murdock, arching backwards while running on the retreat, stuck out his left hand and instantly gathered the ball up to his chest.
In attempting the same manoeuvre, most mere mortals would have wound up doing seven reverse rolls before watching the ball trundle from their grasp, then trying to blame a team-mate.
Even more impressive was how effortlessly he changed direction before bounding towards the square, sparking panic in the Oak Leaf rearguard, the move eventually ending in a Savage score.
Murdock showed he was an option for the long ball in when collecting a Callum Rodgers pass and scoring Down’s crucial first goal when the game hung in the balance, but it was his contribution to their second three minutes from time that offered a further sign of things to come.
Picking up a break from another booming Treacy kick-out, he coolly exchanged passes with Cian Cunningham then drew the Derry defence before popping off for Doran to finish the job.
“Similar to Ambrose,” said McKernan, “a man like that coming through the middle attracts serious attention.”
Murdock would be playing against Armagh on Sunday too, had GAA bureaucracy not decreed otherwise. With the hope of plenty more big days to come, though, Down supporters should take solace in finding a missing piece of the jigsaw after so long.
