IN HIS report to the Down county convention on Wednesday, secretary Sean Óg McAteer will urge all Mourne county followers to say 2017 is the year “when we start to rise again.”
During last season, the Mourne senior footballers failed to beat a single inter-county team and were relegated from the top flight. In the Ulster championship, they were hammered by Monaghan and beaten in round one of the qualifiers by Longford.
Despite what was a disastrous season, McAteer will simultaneously attempt to put these failures into context and issue a rallying cry for the year ahead: “In my report to convention last year, I spoke of the darkest hour being just before the dawn and I hoped that 2016 would be the year of that dawn,” he will say.
“Alas, that was not to be and as some people were very keen to point out and have you believe that 2016 was the worst year in our history. That point can indeed be argued but where would the benefit in that be?
“At this stage though, before the prophets of doom take over there are some heartening things to point out. In the time from 1960 to 2016 - a period of 56 years, Down remain the most successful Ulster county. We have five All-Irelands and 11 Ulster titles and, in the national rankings over that period, Down rank at fourth.”
Although conceding some may argue “this is all in the past”, McAteer will contend that that glorious history can act as a spur in the present: “I argue that these facts give us a sense of who we are, a pride in our place and in our history,” he insists.
“We may be in a slump at present but when we look at these facts we should see that we have nothing to fear. The Down teams of 2017 will be the inheritors of a great tradition, but rather than that tradition being a burden on their shoulders it should be the X factor that says ‘we fear no one, we are Down'. Let us in 2017 as a county open the shoulders and say ‘let this year be the year when we start to rise again’ and any Down team on the rise is a Down team to be feared.”
In a wide ranging report, McAteer will also argue there is no need for the Club Players' Association and that the needs of the club player should be able to be looked after within the GAA organisation itself.
“The Club Players' Association has arisen because of a perceived neglect of the club player within counties, we do not need another body, the Gaelic Athletic Association is one body and one people,” says McAteer.
“It should be able to find accommodation in its workings to ensure the club player is looked after. This might be one of those uncomfortable conversations that I mentioned earlier that have to take place within counties to ensure that the club player gets regular games and that he knows when he is playing, and that he knows the game will take place.
“That to me is achievable without the founding of another association within the association. That just needs goodwill and communication and commitment from all sides. A case of where we need to invest in all of our people.”
