THE Champions League final is one thing, but another portion of the Down support that will be marked absent from Newry tonight will be accounted for by a big Burren-Newry wedding.
The clashing Kiev meeting of Liverpool and Real Madrid will tear a significant portion of laissez faire fans away, the nuptials of Burren’s Eamon Toner and Newry native Liz O’Hanlon will account for a few of the hardcore.
Among the guests in Cavan will be former Down forward Ronan Murtagh, who is a cousin of Toner, himself a handy club player with Burren and a Down under-21 back at the start of the current decade.
Murtagh will be keeping a quiet eye on proceedings during tonight’s celebrations. The Ballyholland man, whose county career ended in 2012 but who is still playing for the club, was at Down's home National League defeats to Cork and Clare.
Having reached last year’s Ulster final, Down were relegated to Division Three this spring after a disappointing league campaign. The lack of consistency in their play is a worrying sign in terms of the squad building on last summer, Murtagh believes.
“Their consistency in general over the last few seasons hasn’t been there. They’ve only won three championship games in four years.
“There are no Down supporters going to the match tomorrow 100 per cent confident. They don’t know where this Down team’s at.
“Reflecting on this year so far, with their league performances, it looks like there’s been no consistency has come through this year to say that this team’s building.
“They have some marquee players. Up front, Down have some forwards that would get on a lot of county teams.
“Millar’s a fair decent player, Maginn’s a decent player, McKernan's a decent player – though he'll probably play as a sweeper. Ryan Johnston won't stay corner-forward, he’ll come out and they’ll play a two-man full-forward line.
“Harrison’s one of those players, if he’s hot, he's really hot and he could bang in 2-3 if things are going his way. He is a proven player, last year he was very good."
The Harrison effect will have been impossible for Antrim to ignore in the build-up. The Glasdrumman man appeared out of nowhere last summer to earn an Allstar nomination for his displays at full-forward, and in the process made himself a marked man this year.
“That’s up to other forwards to step up to the plate,” says Murtagh.
“When we were playing, Benny Coulter was the marquee player and that’s when other forwards had to stand up. Hopefully tomorrow night there’ll be others that take the pressure off Harrison.”
Where the 36-year-old sees Down’s biggest problem is nothing unfamiliar. In recent seasons they have had real issues in retaining possession from their own kickouts, something which Murtagh spotted was again to the fore during the league.
“I’m hoping Marc Reid will have a kickout strategy because I didn’t see one in previous games.
“They have struggled with it and it’s such a massive part of the modern game. I’d hope it's something they’ve worked on and it’ll bear fruit tomorrow evening.
“It would be a disaster if we can’t retain our own kickouts. Niall McKeever is fully fit for Antrim and he’s a fair decent player.
“Peter Turley’s been a great servant for Down and he’s good in the air too, but him and Niall Donnelly will have their hands full. I would hope Down have a plan B if plan A isn’t working."
He also feels that the loss of defensive cousins Gerard and Conaill McGovern, both of whom opted out at the beginning of the year, is significant, but paid tribute to the form of Darren O’Hagan.
“The loss of Gerard and Conaill McGovern are massive losses too, though Colm Flanagan will make his championship debut and he has plenty of pace.
“I think they’re playing Darren O'Hagan at five to pick up Paddy McBride, who’s very quick. Darren's the best defender in Down and has been this last number of years, and he’s been consistently good for Down.”
Páirc Esler could see as few as 5,000 through the turnstiles for what will only be the hosts’ second designated home Ulster championship game in the last 19 years.
The other one came last summer. You could have fried an egg on the tarmac that day last June and over 16,000 brought a sea of colour and an atmosphere to match.
The weather is likely to be better still this weekend, but there’ll be plenty of potential supporters packed into bars and living rooms for Liverpool’s game after Ulster Council stuck to their guns over the 7pm throw-in time.
They cited the need to facilitate the small number of Antrim fans who may want to watch both their under-21 hurlers, who play Carlow at 2pm in Abbottstown.
Murtagh says the talk locally has been that, due to the clash, people will side with the soccer.
“I find it very disappointing that the GAA couldn’t move the game away from the Champions League, because they would have had a lot more support.
“Talking to people from the county, a lot of them are more interested in Liverpool to be honest. They would have had a lot more at the game if they’d moved the time.
“I think Down will lose a lot of support tomorrow evening, from talking to people that’s what they’re asking – why did they not move the game to 5pm? I think it’s a big mistake.”
As for a verdict, while he says the threat of Antrim and their “shrewd” manager Lenny Harbinson is not to be underestimated, it’s a home win.
“I’m working with Antrim guys here on the site and they’re telling me it's as good an Antrim team as they've had in a long time.
“They'll be well set up but I do expect Down to prevail with three-to-five points to spare.”
