Armagh’s O’Rourke plans to box clever
You see it’s not just at Croke Park tomorrow that the pair will face off in different corners.
Tomorrow week, the Burren club mates and 1991 All-Ireland winning Down colleagues will be the headline act in an exhibition fight night to raise funds for Burren Youth Club.
In the promotional release for the event, O’Rourke jokes that, “I can’t see James getting close at all” to which Down manager McCartan jovially retorts, “He may be taller but he’ll just have further to fall”.
In typical GAA fashion, the pair toned down the level of their insults as they considered their more immediate engagement at Croke Park tomorrow.
O’Rourke did, however, insist he’ll have no great difficulty with squaring up to his old buddy and club mate McCartan and sending he and thousands of Down fans back up the M1 motorway disappointed.
“I concentrate on the job I have to do and, probably, I’m fairly placid about the whole thing,” said O’Rourke. “It is only football. It is only sport. Probably some people make it out to be more than that. But it’s not. I think James and me will both approach the match in that way. We are both looking for big performances from our teams.
“We want those performances to continue right throughout the summer.”
O’Rourke believes his pragmatic approach to taking on his native county is replicated among both sets of fans who, he claims, traditionally observe a healthy rivalry between the two north eastern football strongholds.
“There is a lot of banter, a lot of good fun among the supporters,” continued Down’s 1991 All-Ireland winning captain and centre-back.
“I know from being from Down that when Armagh went on and got to their All-Ireland finals they had a hell of a lot of support from Down.
“An awful lot of Down people, including myself, wanted to see them go on and win that title. And we got a lot of satisfaction out of it when they did. Okay, at that stage maybe we wanted to get out and beat them the next year but that’s the way sport is. So there is a good rivalry but it is healthy and I think that will continue on Sunday.”
The managers, of course, have already faced off once in this year’s league campaign with McCartan and Down coming out on top in round five.
Down put up a big score early on that evening in Newry and ran out convincing seven-point winners though O’Rourke insists it’s not a cloud that hangs over his team approaching this heavyweight rematch.
“I suppose the players were fairly disappointed with their performance that night, we were all fairly disappointed but we have moved on from it,” said O’Rourke.
“We felt after the game in Newry that night that we could win the next two games and still get promotion. That was our main aim and we went on and achieved that.”
Realistically, O’Rourke will use the national decider as a welcome opportunity to assess his team one last time in competitive fare before their Ulster SFC opener with Derry in three weeks’ time at Celtic Park.
One of the more intriguing switches this year in the Armagh team has been the placement of wing-back Aaron Kernan at centre-forward.
“I think if you don’t gamble with things you will never find out,” reasoned O’Rourke. “There was no point in trying it for half a game or one game. We made a decision that we were going to do it for the complete national league and see where it took him and took the team.
“I think it has worked out fairly well so far. We’ll know more about it on Sunday evening and then will probably make a decision on it after that. At the minute I am happy enough with it. He is a very talented lad. There is no reason why he can’t play in any position on the field.”
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