Down manager Conor Laverty before the Tailteann Cup Final match between Down and Laois at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By Paul Keane
No-one understood Down's need for a change of luck at Croke Park better than Conor Laverty.
Sure, they'd won games there over the years, as recently as last year when the Kilcoo icon managed them to an 8-16 demolition of Laois, securing a Tailteann Cup final place.
But that final ended in defeat, just like the 2010 All-Ireland final did for Down when Laverty himself came on as a substitute against Cork, and they lost another final there to Westmeath in this year's National League.
So while it wasn't the most polished performance that secured them a 0-14 to 2-6 Tailteann Cup final win over Laois this afternoon, the W was all that mattered.
"Listen, when you have a record of losing in finals, no matter what a manager says, and no matter what the players are saying among themselves, there's still external pressure on that," said Down manager Laverty.
"History is a big pressure, particularly when you're on that losing train because it's very hard to get off when you're on it. It probably gathers momentum and creates its own pressure.
"So I don't think it was the prettiest performance and it definitely wasn't our best performance of the year but in a final, to get over the line, that's what it's all about. Now to have that monkey off the back, particularly after last year, and after the league final this year, it's huge. I would have taken any kind of win today.
"And I told the boys that during the week, we knew it wasn't going to be an open football game, particularly after the scoreline last year. We knew that Laois were going to come and defend with 15 behind the ball, with a deep block."
The Laois manager Justin McNulty and Down manager Conor Laverty after the Tailteann Cup Final match between Down and Laois at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
Laois improved by 26 points on their 2023 concession to Laois, coughing up just 14 points this time, and no goals at all, but they just couldn't score enough themselves.
"You don't win finals when you only score 2-6, you don't win many finals at Croke Park scoring eight times," said Laois manager Justin McNulty.
The former Armagh defender also said that his Laois team is only performing at around 60 percent of its potential, meaning supporters could be in for an exciting few years.
They could have even stolen the win here, as much as it would have been against the run of play. The woodwork denied Laois a possible 1-1 midway through the second-half while they forced Down to clear a ball off the goal line right at the end of stoppage time.
"Even though we weren't firing all over the pitch, we still were able to claw ourselves into a position where we could maybe have stolen it in the end, very much against the run of play," said McNulty.
Considering how Down pushed Armagh in this year's Ulster semi-final, they will fancy their chances of being competitive in the 2025 All-Ireland SFC.
"I can't say winning this was the objective at the start of this year because we had real ambitions of getting to an Ulster final and competing for the Sam Maguire Cup this year but after the Armagh game we refocused together, we took a few weeks off and we decided we were going to give this competition everything we had," said Laverty.
"Going into Division 2 next year, the pressure of not knowing if you had Sam Maguire Cup football ahead of you, and looking over your shoulder all the time and waiting on provincial draws and thinking how they might work out and wondering would you be in the Sam Maguire, that's all gone, so we're over the moon."
An interesting angle to the day was that Laverty's son, Setanta, was as interested in showing off his prized sheep at a show elsewhere as he was in the goings on at Croke Park.
"He brought a rosette home with him, he was in the top four, I think," smiled Laverty, a part-time sheep farmer. "So he's delighted and he made the match in good time."
