Football

No more Mr Nice Guy: Captain Darren O'Hagan happy to see Mournemen mixing it with the big boys

Sticky corner-back Darren O'Hagan insists Down won't change their approach when they take on Tyrone in tomorrow's Ulster final at Clones. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Sticky corner-back Darren O'Hagan insists Down won't change their approach when they take on Tyrone in tomorrow's Ulster final at Clones. Picture by Seamus Loughran Sticky corner-back Darren O'Hagan insists Down won't change their approach when they take on Tyrone in tomorrow's Ulster final at Clones. Picture by Seamus Loughran

THERE was only one minute and 24 seconds on the clock when Down laid down a marker at the Athletic Grounds three weeks ago.

Monaghan’s Vinny Corey picked up the ball around halfway and burst forward down the left, eventually laying off to Conor McManus looping around his outside.

But before the Farney talisman even had the chance to look at the posts, he felt the full force of Niall Donnelly’s forearm across his chest.

In the same split second of action, Corey was left in a heap after colliding with the inrushing Gerard McGovern, while Niall McParland fell into the prone McManus as he tumbled to the turf below.

It was like a scene from a Tom and Jerry cartoon, with limbs and hair flying everywhere beneath a cloud of smoke. Utter carnage.

McParland received a yellow card for his part but, if the roar from the Down support in Armagh was anything to go by, it had been well worth it.

Captain Darren O’Hagan might not admit it publicly, but he must have loved every millisecond of that exchange.

Too many times during his career in the red and black, Down have been rolled over. Brushed aside. With less then a minute and a half gone, they had shown they were ready to go toe-to-toe and further.

Nice guys finish last no more.

“At the end of the day, a referee can flash a red card at you pretty quickly,” says the tenacious corner-back in response to suggestions Down played right on the edge in that semi-final.

“We play the game as it is played, it's physical and hitting hard. It's the way Down used to play football, they were physical and in teams' faces. They hit hard and they play football.

“I suppose the likes of Niall McParland, Peter Turley, Niall Donnelly, they are big physical lads and that's the way they play football.

“We have those size of lads around the middle area and they won the tackle count. They aren't playing dirty, it's just the way they play football.

“I didn't think we were too bad against Monaghan. Monaghan probably hit us as hard as we hit them. It's probably something that has been lacking in Down this last couple of years, a bit of physicality.

“I think we brought that to the table the last day against Armagh as well. It helps the team. Maybe a good hit or a good tackle is as good as a score at the other end.”

One thing is for sure, following year upon year of failure and disappointment, the familiar schtick of Down being a ‘nice’ footballing team had long worn thin.

“Everybody knows Down for their football and not their physicality. We are still nowhere near the most physical team in Ireland.

“It has helped us over the last two games when we have upped it, but if you look at Tyrone, their physicality is far stronger than us. They are way down the road on that from us.”

With two Ulster titles from the last four years, Monaghan would also have been considered a different animal to Down. They’ve made the step up once, can they do it again?

Only tomorrow, against the reigning Ulster champions who shot the lights out against Donegal in the last four, will we find out the answer – but O’Hagan insists their approach to the game will be no different.

“Everyone is saying to me they are giving us no chance. But sure why should we have a chance?” asks the 26-year-old bricklayer.

“We struggled to stay in Division Two and people looked at Armagh, and even Monaghan in the top division. In my mind, the media wasn't doing anything wrong. They were right. Everybody got it right.

“Monaghan should have been hot favourites going into that game. I don't think Monaghan underestimated us either. In 2012 we came back from nine points down to beat them in the Ulster semi-final.

“Tyrone will definitely not underestimate us. They will be going in as hot favourites and rightly so. They are among the top two or three teams in Ireland.

“We will look at Tyrone as much as they will look at us. There may be a couple of weaknesses, there mightn't be too many but we will see where we can get scores how we can.”

A tenacious man-marker, O’Hagan relishes head-to-head battles with some of the top forwards in the game, but a different kind of challenge awaits against the Red Hands.

For large parts of their demolition of Donegal, Mark Bradley was the only man stationed in the full-forward line, with others joining at breakneck speed when the opportunity presented itself.

You might keep a lid on one or two but, with so many scoring options across the field, knowing where the next raid is coming from presents a huge problem – as the men from Tir Chonaill found to their cost.

“The way they play, they get a lot of boys back. Anybody can be a forward,” says O’Hagan.

“A couple of games I have watched them this year, you look up and Peter Harte was standing at the edge of the square as the front man.

“It all depends. If you are named to mark a man, mark him. You have to play it as you see it sometimes as well on the pitch. I will probably stay inside and at the end of the day, my job is to stay in around the full-back line.”

With the Ulster final now only a day away, focus on O’Hagan’s next big match has had to be put to one side – for the time being at least.

In October he will marry camogie star Paula Gribben, who has enjoyed considerable success with Down and Clonduff, and O’Hagan admits he needs to pick up a few trophies soon if he is to ever rival his fiancee’s collection.

“They [Clonduff camogs] have won Ulster intermediate, five or six club championships - they are a serious outfit.

“She would have a good medal haul and a couple of junior All-Ireland Championships there as well. “She gets the odd wee dig in about that!

“I have a long way to go before I catch up with her.”

Bringing home an Ulster Championship medal tomorrow night would be a decent place to start.