MOST people may not know it, but Peter Turley’s role in Down’s unexpected run to Sunday’s Ulster final owes much to a former Irish rugby international.
Indeed, had it not been for ex-Ulster centre Maurice Field – who won 17 caps for his country between 1994 and ’97 – the Mournemen would have been denied the services of Turley years ago.
At 33, the Downpatrick man may not fit the mould of the modern day midfielder.
Turley doesn’t have blistering pace. He’s big, but not the biggest. You won’t see him bombing up and down the length of the pitch all afternoon. He is unlikely to trouble the scoreboard too often (although this is something he still wants to improve).
But what Turley brings is quantifiable in other departments. He has superb positional sense, reads the game well, is disciplined in the tackle, reliable in possession and, crucially, is one of the real leaders of this youthful Down side.
Take the game against Cork on the last day of the League for example.
When the Mourne County found themselves four points behind in what was a win, draw or bust Division Two clash, Turley was the driving force after the break as a late surge saw Down snatch the point needed to stave off relegation.
Against Armagh and Monaghan in the ensuing Ulster campaign, he has barely put a foot wrong. Having made his debut in red and black a decade ago, called up by Ross Carr, it is now that Turley is exerting his greatest influence.
And yet, but for Field’s intervention, we could be talking about his county career in the past tense.
After joining the Fire & Rescue Service, gruelling shift patterns forced him into a sabbatical which, unfortunately for Turley, coincided with Down’s first appearance in an All-Ireland final in 16 years.
“It was bloody 2010, the year you’re mad to get into the team,” he says with a rueful smile.
2011 also came and went until some wise words from another sporting star convinced Turley the time was right to reignite his county career.
“It was all down to Maurice Field. He became my watch commander and basically said if I ever get a chance to go back to the county, to make sure and take it. He said he would do whatever he could to get me to training, he’d work with me 100 per cent.
“Before then, you might have had someone who just wasn’t into the Gaelic and didn’t know what it means to people. They’d just be doing their job but Maurice said if I get a chance to take it with both hands.”
There may have been times when Turley cursed Field’s name as Down endured season after season of disappointment in the years after coming so close to reaching the promised land.
A winless streak stretching to almost two years was as bad as it got. Turley was there through those dark days, and you sense that those experiences have made him appreciate all the more what has been achieved against the odds so far this summer.
The groundswell of support within the county tells its own tale.
At a meet and greet session in Newry prior to Down’s Ulster Championship opener against Armagh, Turley could have taken a head count of those who had made the effort.
Cathal Murray reckoned 10, Turley went for the slightly more optimistic 12. It was an indication of the esteem in which the county footballers were held at that time.
What a difference a month makes as, in the pre-Ulster final press night held at his home club last week, cars lined the grass verges outside the RGU. Parents and kids turned up in their droves and waited patiently to get pictures taken with their new heroes.
“It’s great to see it happening in Downpatrick. Before the Armagh game there was talk of it happening here but it switched to Newry. That may have been a mistake because there wasn’t that many that turned out.
“I don’t know what the numbers were but there was very few at it, no more than 12. Now there’s a bit of enthusiasm around the county.
“That’s what we needed but there was nobody else was going to do that apart from us. We knew that ourselves, we had to dig deep and work hard and we’re within reach of that reward now.”
In an inter-county career closer to the end than the beginning, all Turley has to show for his endeavours is a Dr McKenna Cup won back in 2009. Beyond that, there has been more torment than trophies.
They last appeared in an Ulster final five years ago, losing to Donegal, but this one feels different. Then, with Fermanagh and pre-Malachy O’Rourke standing in their way, Down were fancied to come through their side of the draw.
The same could hardly be said of 2017, as they overcame odds of 4/1 to down the Farneymen three weeks ago. Those odds are even longer this weekend against a Tyrone outfit who set tongues wagging with their semi-final trouncing of the men from Tir Chonaill.
Being cast in the role of underdog clearly suits Down but, make no mistake, there is genuine belief among this group of Mournemen.
“I don’t know what it is this year,” says Turley.
“I can remember [in 2014] playing Tyrone in Omagh and we lost in the replay. I was travelling up and down with boys - they weren’t in the starting 15 - and their attitude was ‘what’s the point? We’re not going to beat Tyrone’.
“I was saying ‘why are you coming all the way up here to training if you don’t believe we can beat them?’ That was the attitude we had and that’s the attitude we had against Monaghan last year. This year has just been completely different.
“We’re going to beat these boys - that’s the attitude we had for Monaghan. We felt that if it was in the melting pot in the last five minutes it could go our way, and that’s exactly what happened.
It was a 50-50 game. That’s what you’re aiming for, just to be in the game in the very last five minutes.
“It’s going from looking back and saying ‘I enjoyed myself but I never really won anything’ to a different story if we win this.
“I hope that’s the case because I don’t have many years left.”
