WHAT do Down’s footballers need to do to be successful? Give everything they have to the cause, according to Benny Coulter.
The Mayobridge clubman – an Allstar in 2010 – says Eamonn Burns’ class of 2017 have to believe in themselves and make the red and black jersey a way of life to have success this year.
“It’ll have to be life-changing for the lads,” said former Ireland International Rules star Coulter.
“They’ll have to give their all to Down football for the next 12 months. Everything they have, they’ll have to give. They can’t miss training sessions, they’ll have to do the recovery sessions, and they have to eat right and train hard.
“It has to be their life. Dublin are doing it, Kerry are doing it, Fermanagh are doing it, Armagh are doing it so Down have to do it.
“It doesn’t mean that they’re out training six nights a week, it means that they do their recovery the day after a game – go into the pool and get your recovery done and eat right.
“If you want to be the best and compete against the best you have to match the best. At the minute Dublin, Mayo, Kerry and Tyrone are a bit ahead of everybody else. Tyrone have the likes of Sean Cavanagh back training the past four or five weeks. That’s a man who has won three All-Irelands and been Player of the Year – if he can do all this work, the Down players certainly can do it too.
“Listen, I know a lot of the players – Mark Poland, Aidan Carr, Kevin McKernan, Darren O’Hagan… Those boys put a lot of work in and it’s up to the rest to follow.”
Coulter began his career in Down during Pete McGrath’s time in charge. He applauded the now Fermanagh manager’s recent statement of intent.
“Pete said Fermanagh can win an Ulster title and that’s great to hear,” said Coulter.
“There’s a lot of Down people saying ‘we might win something in 2021, or 2022’. Then you hear Pete saying: ‘We can win Ulster this year, we can compete with the best’.
“He wants his players to know that they are as good as any team – as good as Donegal, as good as Tyrone and that’s what you want to hear as a player.
“I think Pete will instil a lot of belief in the Fermanagh boys and I think everybody who’s involved with Down GAA should be saying ‘we can beat any team on our day and we can go and win Ulster’.
“Let’s be honest, we’re on the easier side of the draw this year in Ulster and I’m sure Kieran McGeeney (Armagh manager) is saying the same.
“Everyone involved with Down is talking about a couple of years’ time but it’s about here and now. There is development but if you set your stall out at the start of the year and work as hard as you can then anything is achievable.
“Look at 2010 with us when we got to the All-Ireland final. We worked hard and we competed and we knew that if we got together we could push a lot of teams hard.”
Coulter, now manager of Mayobridge, says Down need to take maximum points from their first two games in Division Two – home to Fermanagh and away to Clare – to lay the foundations for a successful League campaign.
“We need to get through the McKenna Cup and get the boys up to the pace of inter-county football,” he said.
“The game against Fermanagh in Newry on the 4th of February will tell a tale. Down should be pencilling the first two games in as two wins – if they’re going to do well in that division they’d be looking maximum points out of the first two games.”
