Down boss prepares for big Tyrone test

SUNDAY’s Ulster final will determine who’s number one in the country’s strongest football province, Down boss Paddy O’Rourke believes.

While the Ulster championship has come in for its customary criticism this year as promoting a dour, claustrophobic brand of football, statistically speaking, it is hard to argue with O'Rourke's assertion five of the teams in the last 12 of the All-Ireland series are from Ulster.

"I think that is a true reflection on Ulster as a province," O'Rourke said. "It is the strongest footballing province, there are some very high quality teams in Ulster. People are very quick to knock our championship, but the strength of it has been proven by how well Ulster teams have done this year."

O'Rourke, who has been credited with restoring some of the lost pride in Down football, is bringing a team with a changed mentality to face

Tyrone on Sunday. After two victories inside the province for the first time in four years, the swagger has returned to Mourne football.

"When I took over, I wasn't aware that confidence and belief were at such a low ebb," revealed O'Rourke, whose ambition since retirement was to manage the county he skippered to All-Ireland success in 1991.

"A Down team hadn't won a championship match at senior or U21 level since 1999, so apart from the older players, I was dealing with a team that had never experienced championship success.

"That was why getting over the Monaghan game was so important for us, it made the players realise that if they put in the work and prepare themselves well, there is no reason why Down can't compete"

O'Rourke has a decent template to work off. His predecessor Pete McGrath took over a Down team drained of confidence too, and lead them to two All-Irelands.

"Well, you have to have the players with the talent, but that isn't enough. They have to be prepared to knuckle down too and put in the work. I think Pete came at the right time, he always had a great love for Down football, and it was his enthusiasm as well as the players' willingness to knuckle down that helped us create a team that could stand somewhere beside the great Down teams of the 60s.

"We are still a long way off that, but I think Down people are happy to see Down competing against the top teams again, and the red and black being back in a final again. Happy but realistic expectations wouldn't be that high. We are playing Tyrone, who in my mind, are one of the top three teams in the country and were very unfortunate to lose to Armagh last year.

"The most exciting thing about Sunday is that it will tell us a lot about where this Down team are at the moment.

"I am wise enough to know that there is still a lot of hard work to do but I do believe that with plenty of hard work, Down can be one of the top teams again.

"Tyrone are a couple of years further down the road than us, but this is the first time this Down team have compete against such a high-quality team at this level. It will tell a lot," he said.

Expectations may be low in Down. They certainly aren't in Tyrone. After retaining the Allianz League title, not even an Ulster championship is likely to satisfy the masses in the Red Hand county, something Mickey Harte is aware of.

"Expectation has been high in Tyrone for the past decade or more," Harte says. "You have to take whatever comes with that. We know the public demand but it would be no different from what the management demand or what the players should demand of themselves. If you don't reach for the stars, you won't get there and we are aiming high in Tyrone.

"The pressure has always been there, with Armagh doing it last year and Derry and Donegal doing it in recent years, when your near neighbour does it, it does compound the expectation."

Despite having to toil harder than expected against Antrim, Harte's side remain among the credible challengers for All-Ireland glory with their work-rate as much as their pretty football now being remarked upon.

"That has pleased me," Harte said. "People are beginning to notice we are a hard-working team. Talent alone doesn't make the man, it takes that bit extra. And the lads have really fought for each other this year. After the first Derry game, there was a lot of doubts and questions about our performance. And until we go all the way, I suppose, there will still be questions about our team."

One member of Harte's team who will never questioned is Peter Canavan. With Cananvan leading the charge to erase his unwanted title of best player never to win an All-Ireland, Harte took time to wax lyrical about his talisman yesterday.

"The ambition to be the best that he can be, that is what has kept Peter at the top of the game for so long. He has all the talent in the world, but he is such a single-minded, determined character. He is driven by this inner force to push him to be the best he can."

Tyrone will need Canavan and Eoin Mulligan on song in Clones. While they enter this game heavy favourites, Down in an Ulster final are a different proposition to Down anywhere else.