THIS IS HOW it was.
A Sunday in Croke Park, the stadium packed with the eyes of the nation on the pair of them.
The 2010 All-Ireland football championship was a striking one – novel storylines, dramatic provincial finals and a pair of breathless semi-finals. Cork and Down were the last two teams standing, they slugged it out that September with the former squeezing over the line with a point to spare.
And this is how it is now.
A Sunday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the 2020 National football league and the type of Division 3 encounter where the calls of the players on the pitch will likely echo around a largely empty stadium.
It’s certainly changed times for Cork and Down football, far from the elite bracket where they once resided.
Current playing survivors are thin on the ground from that Sam Maguire tussle. Paul Kerrigan remains a fixture for Cork, ploughing on despite their slide through the tiers and making his seasonal bow as a second-half substitute in Carrick-on-Shannon last Sunday. He was the only player who featured during that 2010 triumph to line out for Cork last summer.
This spring he has had the returning Ciaran Sheehan for company, 1-5 to date in the league after six years based in Melbourne. Mark Collins was on the fringes for that success, he trained that summer as part of the extended panel before making a playing breakthrough in 2011 and was sprung from the bench in the qualifier win that July against Down. He’s currently on the injury comeback trail.
In the Down colours a few pillars remain. Kevin McKernan and Conor Maginn started on their opening day in Clonmel against Tipperary. Last Saturday night against Derry, McArdle and McKernan manned the central defensive positions.
And yet while Sunday may be a third tier game, it remains one of significance for both. From the last two contesting for the ultimate prize in Gaelic football in 2010 to a league campaign that they know is intrinsically linked to their hopes of still being in that championship race in 2020.
If they don’t earn one of the promotion spots on offer in this division, they must negotiate a path to their respective provincial finals. Cork have been pitted against Kerry in the Munster semi-final. Down face Fermanagh in their quarter-final with Monaghan, Cavan and Antrim joining them for company in that side of the Ulster draw. Neither task is straightforward.
It is striking that they have been regular sparring partners in the league over the last while. Since the 2010 All-Ireland final, they have met seven times in the league. The chain of results does not make for good reading for Down, losing six and a draw in 2017. Three of their defeats have come in Páirc Uí Rinn, along with a pair in Newry and a reversal in a semi-final in Croke Park in 2012, so they may welcome playing in a different venue on Leeside.
In 2016 they were both relegated from Division 1. Down failed to win a game that spring. Neither made a concerted promotion push from Division 2 the following year, Cork finished 4th and Down 6th. The Mourne men were relegated to Division 3 in 2018, Cork only surviving by virtue of the head-to-head as they had fashioned a 1-13 to 0-10 win in Páirc Esler that February.
Last year neither enjoyed a positive experience on closing day in the league. Cork could not perform another escape, their late burst of form unable to repair the damage inflicted by their dreadful start in Division 2. A last day win over Armagh was fruitless as they made the drop.
Down were left their own sense of searing disappointment. They lost to Louth by a point and were thus pipped on scoring difference (+13) for the promotion spots by Laois (+14) and Westmeath (+15). Fine margins.
Manager Paddy Tally captured their mood at the time.
‘It’s gutting. We shouldn’t have been relying on anyone else though. Our destiny was in our own hands today and we didn’t take it. But that’s the way it goes; we weren’t good enough.”
Over in Armagh that day as Cork faced up to relegation, their boss Ronan McCarthy was issuing words of warning.
“If people think there’s a short-term fix here, they’re naive in the extreme. We have to be patient and persevere. It will come right but look, the world won’t stop turning.
“I’m sure Derry thought when they went down to Division 3, that was as low as it could get. This notion that we’re going to drop down to Division 3 and people are going to lie down and let us win matches, that’s part of our problem if we think that.
“It will be difficult to get out of it but bottoming out? I don’t know.”
They have both been forced to accept a new reality. Cork made the Super 8s last summer, their first time reaching that stage since their showing in the old quarter-finals in 2014. Since then Kildare, Donegal, Mayo and Tyrone have been their knockout conquerors in championship. Their last semi-final showing was back in 2012.
Down have not fared much better. They took a bad beating from Cork in a 2011 qualifier, then contested a quarter-final when Mayo breezed past them twelve months later. That 2012 outing was the last time they grace the last eight stage. Since then Derry, Kildare, Wexford, Longford, Monaghan, Cavan and Mayo have all pushed them out in qualifiers.
The provinces have not been kinder to either. Cork’s last Munster title was in 2012, Down have not reigned in Ulster since 1994.
What of the spring to date? Cork looked shaky early on against Offaly before gradually stamping their authority and pulling clear in a strong fashion. They won by double scores in Carrick-on-Shannon last Sunday but it took them time to dispose of Leitrim. Down had to share the spoils with Tipperary and there was a palpable sense of relief mixed with joy after they toughed it out to overcome Derry last Saturday night.
And so with the football eyes locked elsewhere on Sunday studying the big games in Letterkenny, Navan and Omagh, a pair of former giants will face off in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The crowd will be modest, just one lower tier of the South Stand in line to be open.
But they are both still amongst the group favoured for spring promotion. The Kilcoo and Nemo groups are back in harness after their All-Ireland club campaigns. Neither have slipped up to ship a defeat so far.
A win on Sunday would build up some momentum and ignite their hopes that perhaps this is a year where they can start to turn the corner again.
The journey back has to start somewhere.
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