McCartan ready for Clarke exit

DOWN football boss James McCartan has admitted it’s likely Aussie Rules side Collingwood will try to lure Marty Clarke back to Australia.

Former All-Ireland minor winner Clarke returned from a three-year spell with the AFL side late last year and has had a massive influence on the Down team since.

His form in the half-forward line and the manner in which he has dovetailed with brother and fellow forward, John, has earned promotion for Down and a place in Sunday’s Division 2 final.

Unfortunately for Down, Marty’s sparkling form hasn’t gone unnoticed back in Australia. Earlier this month Collingwood CEO Gary Pert confirmed they have been in contact with Clarke in an attempt to bring him back.

Pert said the club respected Clarke’s ‘personal reasons’ for leaving the club last year but noted pointedly that ‘to go over to Ireland to recruit Marty was a big and time consuming exercise’.

McCartan was pragmatic at yesterday’s launch of the Allianz league finals when asked about the prospect of losing the county’s hottest talent all over again.

“I would guess there is certainly something to the rumours because he’s a good enough player so there could well be something in it,” said McCartan.

“I just have to be happy he’s available for this weekend. I’m assuming he’s available for the summer until he tells me otherwise. We’re delighted to have him and we’ll be doing everything in our power to try and make sure he isn’t tempted back. Unfortunately they can offer something that we can’t.”

Asked what exactly Down can do to convince Clarke to stay, McCartan replied, ‘I told his brother, John, that if Marty went he was being dropped straight away! I was hoping that would have some impact’.

McCartan revealed the sort of pressure Marty has been working under since returning to play for Down.

“What I find with Marty is that people are trying to hit him, but he is well able to handle that,” continued McCartan, twice an All-Ireland winner in 1991 and 1994.

“He is well used to being the centre of attention. He was telling me that out in Australia he was well used to getting verbal abuse about being the ‘Irish wimp’.

“I always warn him about certain players. Because he is back from Australia he is going to be getting the verbals and is going to be the centre of attention.

“He says: ‘Okay, I’m well used to that’. You would assume that if he is used to it in Australia he is okay with it back here. It is not a factor for him.”

Clarke’s top form and that of the team in general saw Down secure their second straight promotion with an impressive six wins and a draw from seven Division 2 games this year.

One of those wins was a convincing seven point victory over Armagh last month in Round 5 – the side they face again in Sunday’s Croke Park final.

It’s an intriguing prospect for McCartan in particular as Armagh are managed by his Burren clubmate Paddy O’Rourke who was his colleague and captain when they won 1991 All-Ireland together with Down.

“It’s not really an issue, it’s made out by the press to be something more that it is,” said McCartan. “You shake hands before the game and you don’t really see him until afterwards and you shake hands again so it’s not really odd or anything to be honest.

“No, it’s about the players these days. We’re just at it for you guys in the media to try to make a story out of it.”

McCartan said Down should never have been operating in the lower reaches of Division 3 football.

But he admitted that gaining promotion to the top flight in his first season as manager still came as a surprise.

“Down were just promoted coming into this year and they were two years in Division 3 so there was nothing to suggest that they’d be able to kick on again and the first port of call was survival,” he revealed.

“You hear Premier League managers saying they wanted to get to that 40 points mark which is maybe the same as six or seven points in our National League. We got to seven points and we tried to kick on and we managed to do that.”

McCartan said forwards Benny Coulter (ribs) and John Clarke (knee) should be available on Sunday though Ambrose Rogers (foot) is doubtful and Liam Doyle (knee) is a long-term absentee. Opponents Armagh have welcomed back veterans Enda McNulty and Martin O’Rourke to the panel.