A FEW YEARS back, the former All-Ireland winning Down defender Miceál Magill was retelling a few yarns of old, specifically around the year Down won the All-Ireland in 1994.
The odd thing about that year is that it started in rag order. Attendances at training were so low that manager Pete McGrath could have counted everyone on the fingers of one hand.
James McCartan was away off playing soccer with Glenavon. Greg Blaney was absent, flirting with hurling. DJ Kane, who would go on to lift Sam Maguire that year, was on the verge of quitting.
So it was all a bit downbeat, apart from one person living the dream. And we will get to that in a bit.
First, we go back to last Sunday. Down manager Conor Laverty is speaking and saying more than he normally does. He’s poured years into this and he has just become the first manager to take the scalp of Jim McGuinness on home turf in the Ulster championship as they beat Donegal.
Glowing from the achievement, he mentioned his joy at meeting Pete McGrath on the pitch afterwards.
Somehow during Kilcoo’s ongoing run of success, the perception grew that they were anti-Down. Anti-establishment? Surely. But anti-Down?
Not Laverty.
Back to Miceál Magill’s yarn.
“We did a lot of our field sessions in Ballykinlar, which is a two-mile camel trek to get to. Rain, hail or shine, it didn’t matter. There was always this young kid who would’ve stood in the corner of the changing rooms with his father,” Magill recalled
“After training was over, you’d have extra gear; boots, socks, shorts and this wee kid would have gone around asking you if you had anything to spare.”
The wee kid was Conor Laverty. His father, Gerry, a football obsessive.
***
Kilcoo’s dominance has brought begrudgery.
Sure, they really have not helped themselves at times. But when a club dominate, they end up in more games than anyone else. More games means more slights, real or imagined.
Laverty has been at the centre of their success. He is the most decorated club footballer in Down with 14 county titles. He joint-captained them to two Ulster club titles and an All-Ireland.
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Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
His county career brought frustrations and no real success.
He came on as a late sub in the 2010 All-Ireland final when Down had a glimpse of nicking an unlikely Sam Maguire. He played in the 2012 Ulster final when they were overwhelmed by Donegal.
In 2015 he was made captain and they won promotion back to Division 1. But championship defeats to Derry and Wexford ended their season. Manager Jim McCorry quit at the end of the year and Laverty was dispensed with, despite being one of the top attackers in the county.
By then he was training teams within his club. At 16, he was taking the club U12s.
In an interview with the Farmer’s Journal in 2021, he was neck-deep in coaching.
“I do a bit of coaching at the club,” he understated.
I do the 7s and the 9s and help out with the minors. Och, I love the 7s and 9s. I love them, I love them. It’s my favourite thing of the whole lot. Wee boys just love playing football, you’d want to see them going at it. They’re brilliant.”
He popped up in 2019 as a coach helping St Michael’s Enniskillen as they won the MacRory and Hogan Cups.
Off the back of that, Seamus McEnaney brought him into the Monaghan coaching set-up. There, he was third in the coaching order behind David McCague and Peter Donnelly.
“You just know a bluffer and someone who’s not,” says Darren Hughes, one of Monaghan’s key players at the time.
“He had a great way about him. He got lads to buy in by talking a lot of sense. What he took was drills to improve on specific game-based scenarios. Generally defensive shape.”
By 2021, he had taken the Down U20 job. They won an Ulster title against Monaghan, who were left devastated by the car crash that claimed the life of their captain Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh just hours after they won their semi-final against Donegal.
At the final whistle of the final, Laverty got onto the pitch and curtailed celebrations. Instead, the Down players were ordered to seek out Monaghan players and connect with them, offering condolences for their loss.
After the Ulster U20 win. Declan Roughan / INPHO
Declan Roughan / INPHO / INPHO
Beside him in that campaign was former Meath manager Seán Boylan along with coaches Marty Clarke and Declan Morgan.
He was expected to take the senior job after that, but it did not materialise. Instead, the Down board asked James McCartan at very late notice. McCartan’s first spell had been exceptional but this time around, it ended in a total mess.
When Laverty came in, he retained Clarke and Morgan. He added the former Tyrone and Derry underage manager Mickey Donnelly, and he landed a serious coup by bringing in Jim McGuinness.
Ciaran Meenagh came in the year after and when he left over the winter to become the Derry manager, Laverty reached out for Tony McEntee. If ever anyone wanted the unvarnished truth, they would ask Tony McEntee.
With Tony McEntee. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
Dr Ciarán Kearney is a sports psychologist who has worked with Kilcoo and followed Laverty’s progress with huge interest.
“There’s something in his appetite for learning that I admire,” says Kearney of Laverty.
“I think Conor has adjusted to the fact that there are areas of expertise that aren’t his forte and he is learning that art of being the conductor of the orchestra more, as he goes along.
“So I think he has made a really impressive transition. He’s not quite relinquished his playing, the last couple of years coming on in a cameo role for Kilcoo.
“When you have embodied all of that, being in the thick of the action as a player, you want to be able to kick every ball and make the moves on the field. But you can’t.
With his sons Conor Óg, Fiachra, Setanta and Conlaoch after another Kilcoo win. Bryan Keane / INPHO
Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO
“To watch his body language on the line, he has made that adjustment. I’ve seen him a bit more animated. Over the past few years he has settled into that role.”
He continues, “As for the motivational stuff, he knows about playing with a chip on your shoulder. Just as long as it is not a bag of spuds. Conor understands that you need something to work with, to have petrol for the fire. If that was what he used at the weekend, so be it.
“He’s become more psychologically informed. He’s learned tactically, learned a lot about conditioning and environments. It’s good to see that the learning is leading to results.”
Laverty is unlike a great deal of his contemporaries. He wasn’t a College Boy, but the course he did in Technical College was enough to get a job coaching around the schools for the county board.
All the same, he ended up becoming a big influence on many students of Trinity, where he worked as GAA Development Officer.
That work has to be balanced with his other commitments. He and Roisín have six boys. He has a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep and some beef cattle that graze on the Mourne Mountains. Is there anything more ‘Down’ than that?
And lambing season typically begins in April. His method of relaxing away from it all is with his sheep dogs, which he also breeds, a lot of this knowledge handed down from his father in law, Kevin.
He surely couldn’t have any spare time, but he also has a couple of coffee carts on the go as well.
***
Last year, he mainly played a watching role as Kilcoo won another county title, but lost the final to a Rory Beggan-inspired Scotstown.
It might be tricky enough, having a county manager on your playing roster, but for Joe McMahon, who spent last winter coaching Kilcoo, Laverty’s presence there made things easier for him and manager Martin Corey.
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“Conor was an intelligent footballer. I remember looking at him and playing against him. He was always clever and read the game well,” says the former Tyrone player.
“When I was at Kilcoo he was great to have. He was constantly reinforcing our key messages that we were trying to get across. He would add his own emotional value to it. He brought his thoughts and ideas, but it was never forceful, it was always supportive of what we were doing.”
In his role as a coach, Laverty visited McMahon’s own club of Omagh St Enda’s a few years back to deliver a course.
“And people still talk about him, how passionate he was about the game that day,” he says.
“It comes back to working hard and no bullshit whatsoever, so our coaches would still talk about him and how they developed and learned from him. His energy is something else.”
One final yarn.
Last year, the local Primary school of St Malachy’s had a handy group of boys. Some of them hurled for the local Liatroim club. Others were game.
Laverty was already coaching them in football but recognised they had a chance to do something in the small ball through their Cumann na Bunscoil games. And so he asked his hurling counterpart, Ronan Sheehan, if he wouldn’t mind helping out with the crop of hurlers.
They beat Ballygalget in the hurling final to make it a unique double.
“It was very clear when you are there with the kids, they idolise him,” says Sheehan.
“He is a dynamic character and an inspiring character. He is Down through and through. His commitment to his club and county is second to none. He will have a very clear vision of where he wants Down to go.”
For now, it’s a sunny day in Clones, and an Ulster semi-final against Armagh.
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Sheep, farming and football obsession: Meet Conor Laverty
A FEW YEARS back, the former All-Ireland winning Down defender Miceál Magill was retelling a few yarns of old, specifically around the year Down won the All-Ireland in 1994.
The odd thing about that year is that it started in rag order. Attendances at training were so low that manager Pete McGrath could have counted everyone on the fingers of one hand.
James McCartan was away off playing soccer with Glenavon. Greg Blaney was absent, flirting with hurling. DJ Kane, who would go on to lift Sam Maguire that year, was on the verge of quitting.
So it was all a bit downbeat, apart from one person living the dream. And we will get to that in a bit.
First, we go back to last Sunday. Down manager Conor Laverty is speaking and saying more than he normally does. He’s poured years into this and he has just become the first manager to take the scalp of Jim McGuinness on home turf in the Ulster championship as they beat Donegal.
Glowing from the achievement, he mentioned his joy at meeting Pete McGrath on the pitch afterwards.
Somehow during Kilcoo’s ongoing run of success, the perception grew that they were anti-Down. Anti-establishment? Surely. But anti-Down?
Not Laverty.
Back to Miceál Magill’s yarn.
“We did a lot of our field sessions in Ballykinlar, which is a two-mile camel trek to get to. Rain, hail or shine, it didn’t matter. There was always this young kid who would’ve stood in the corner of the changing rooms with his father,” Magill recalled
“After training was over, you’d have extra gear; boots, socks, shorts and this wee kid would have gone around asking you if you had anything to spare.”
The wee kid was Conor Laverty. His father, Gerry, a football obsessive.
***
Kilcoo’s dominance has brought begrudgery.
Sure, they really have not helped themselves at times. But when a club dominate, they end up in more games than anyone else. More games means more slights, real or imagined.
Laverty has been at the centre of their success. He is the most decorated club footballer in Down with 14 county titles. He joint-captained them to two Ulster club titles and an All-Ireland.
His county career brought frustrations and no real success.
He came on as a late sub in the 2010 All-Ireland final when Down had a glimpse of nicking an unlikely Sam Maguire. He played in the 2012 Ulster final when they were overwhelmed by Donegal.
In 2015 he was made captain and they won promotion back to Division 1. But championship defeats to Derry and Wexford ended their season. Manager Jim McCorry quit at the end of the year and Laverty was dispensed with, despite being one of the top attackers in the county.
By then he was training teams within his club. At 16, he was taking the club U12s.
In an interview with the Farmer’s Journal in 2021, he was neck-deep in coaching.
“I do a bit of coaching at the club,” he understated.
He popped up in 2019 as a coach helping St Michael’s Enniskillen as they won the MacRory and Hogan Cups.
Off the back of that, Seamus McEnaney brought him into the Monaghan coaching set-up. There, he was third in the coaching order behind David McCague and Peter Donnelly.
“You just know a bluffer and someone who’s not,” says Darren Hughes, one of Monaghan’s key players at the time.
“He had a great way about him. He got lads to buy in by talking a lot of sense. What he took was drills to improve on specific game-based scenarios. Generally defensive shape.”
By 2021, he had taken the Down U20 job. They won an Ulster title against Monaghan, who were left devastated by the car crash that claimed the life of their captain Brendan Óg Ó Dufaigh just hours after they won their semi-final against Donegal.
At the final whistle of the final, Laverty got onto the pitch and curtailed celebrations. Instead, the Down players were ordered to seek out Monaghan players and connect with them, offering condolences for their loss.
Beside him in that campaign was former Meath manager Seán Boylan along with coaches Marty Clarke and Declan Morgan.
He was expected to take the senior job after that, but it did not materialise. Instead, the Down board asked James McCartan at very late notice. McCartan’s first spell had been exceptional but this time around, it ended in a total mess.
When Laverty came in, he retained Clarke and Morgan. He added the former Tyrone and Derry underage manager Mickey Donnelly, and he landed a serious coup by bringing in Jim McGuinness.
Ciaran Meenagh came in the year after and when he left over the winter to become the Derry manager, Laverty reached out for Tony McEntee. If ever anyone wanted the unvarnished truth, they would ask Tony McEntee.
Dr Ciarán Kearney is a sports psychologist who has worked with Kilcoo and followed Laverty’s progress with huge interest.
“There’s something in his appetite for learning that I admire,” says Kearney of Laverty.
“I think Conor has adjusted to the fact that there are areas of expertise that aren’t his forte and he is learning that art of being the conductor of the orchestra more, as he goes along.
“So I think he has made a really impressive transition. He’s not quite relinquished his playing, the last couple of years coming on in a cameo role for Kilcoo.
“When you have embodied all of that, being in the thick of the action as a player, you want to be able to kick every ball and make the moves on the field. But you can’t.
“To watch his body language on the line, he has made that adjustment. I’ve seen him a bit more animated. Over the past few years he has settled into that role.”
He continues, “As for the motivational stuff, he knows about playing with a chip on your shoulder. Just as long as it is not a bag of spuds. Conor understands that you need something to work with, to have petrol for the fire. If that was what he used at the weekend, so be it.
“He’s become more psychologically informed. He’s learned tactically, learned a lot about conditioning and environments. It’s good to see that the learning is leading to results.”
Laverty is unlike a great deal of his contemporaries. He wasn’t a College Boy, but the course he did in Technical College was enough to get a job coaching around the schools for the county board.
All the same, he ended up becoming a big influence on many students of Trinity, where he worked as GAA Development Officer.
That work has to be balanced with his other commitments. He and Roisín have six boys. He has a flock of Scottish Blackface sheep and some beef cattle that graze on the Mourne Mountains. Is there anything more ‘Down’ than that?
And lambing season typically begins in April. His method of relaxing away from it all is with his sheep dogs, which he also breeds, a lot of this knowledge handed down from his father in law, Kevin.
He surely couldn’t have any spare time, but he also has a couple of coffee carts on the go as well.
***
Last year, he mainly played a watching role as Kilcoo won another county title, but lost the final to a Rory Beggan-inspired Scotstown.
It might be tricky enough, having a county manager on your playing roster, but for Joe McMahon, who spent last winter coaching Kilcoo, Laverty’s presence there made things easier for him and manager Martin Corey.
“Conor was an intelligent footballer. I remember looking at him and playing against him. He was always clever and read the game well,” says the former Tyrone player.
“When I was at Kilcoo he was great to have. He was constantly reinforcing our key messages that we were trying to get across. He would add his own emotional value to it. He brought his thoughts and ideas, but it was never forceful, it was always supportive of what we were doing.”
In his role as a coach, Laverty visited McMahon’s own club of Omagh St Enda’s a few years back to deliver a course.
“And people still talk about him, how passionate he was about the game that day,” he says.
“It comes back to working hard and no bullshit whatsoever, so our coaches would still talk about him and how they developed and learned from him. His energy is something else.”
One final yarn.
Last year, the local Primary school of St Malachy’s had a handy group of boys. Some of them hurled for the local Liatroim club. Others were game.
Laverty was already coaching them in football but recognised they had a chance to do something in the small ball through their Cumann na Bunscoil games. And so he asked his hurling counterpart, Ronan Sheehan, if he wouldn’t mind helping out with the crop of hurlers.
They beat Ballygalget in the hurling final to make it a unique double.
“It was very clear when you are there with the kids, they idolise him,” says Sheehan.
“He is a dynamic character and an inspiring character. He is Down through and through. His commitment to his club and county is second to none. He will have a very clear vision of where he wants Down to go.”
For now, it’s a sunny day in Clones, and an Ulster semi-final against Armagh.
Check out the latest episode of The42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
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