Optimism in Down

Optimism in Down

12 December 2018

DOWN GAA are holding their annual convention in the Canal Court Hotel, Newry, tonight.

Delegates will hear county secretary Sean Og McAteer deliver a wide-ranging report that reflects on the past year and look ahead to the future with optimism.

He accepts that 2018 has been a frustrating season in terms of success at county level.

The loss of senior football manager Eamon Burns following Down’s relegation to Division 3 of the Allianz NFL and an early exit from the Ulster Championship and All-Ireland Qualifiers were extreme disappointments. 

“My optimism did not find any excitement or success for Down teams in 2018. However, we can now look forward to 2019 with a new senior football team management in place, but with no guarantees of success,” his report states. 

“We have to believe, though, that indeed the corner will be turned and as we look back to 25 years without inter-county senior success in football, there is surely a catalyst there for players to say they are going to make it happen.” 

Mr McAteer points out that it will take a concerted effort from all involved in the game to get Down challenging for honours again.

“It must come from within us all, players must want to make it happen in their efforts in training and on match days.

“Administrators have to make sure that the environment is right for Down teams to be successful. If both of those two forces can come together then I do believe that we can be successful again.”

The county secretary believes that the project to develop a county training facility at Ballykinlar is another initiative to be positive about and he hopes that planning permission can be achieved in 2019.

“The hopes of many will take a further step forward early in 2019 as we move to appoint a planning consultant and a design team for our centre at Ballykinlar,” he says.

“The past year has been spent being careful to ensure that all of the right steps were being taken hopefully to obtain full planning permission by the end of 2019.”

While Mr McAteer praises written media within the county and thanks them for their excellent coverage of Gaelic games, he reserves some criticism for TV coverage.

He says he is concerned by the coverage provided by the BBC and UTV.

“There is an imbalance and this imbalance gives scant recognition of the fact that Gaelic Games are the best attended sporting events in the North of Ireland and also have now the greatest levels of participation by male and female participants.

“I do not wish this issue to become a political football whereby MLAs try to outscore each other on the back of an imbalance. I would prefer that this matter was championed by Ulster GAA and the GAA nationally to improve the coverage of our games. We need at the very least, parity in terms of live and deferred TV coverage by BBC in particular and a better recognition of our games by UTV.”

Mr McAteer also pulls no punches when he covers some of the more controversial moments of 2018.

“There were good things happened in Down GAA in 2018, occasions when we hung out our brightest colours and showed how can deliver to the highest standard.

“There were other occasions when mediocrity was the norm and we became very good at mediocracy and then there was the ugly when we showed the country our poor and unacceptable side. 

“Yes, for Down GAA it was a year of mixed feelings and mixed emotions, pride and shame shared equal space in 2018 in the world of Down GAA.

“The eyes of the country and indeed if we take social media into account, the eyes of the world were focused upon us when images from one of our fixtures went viral and everyone was shocked by what they saw. The images represented all that should not be about the GAA.

“Physical violence has no place in our games or indeed at any level in our association. The fact that they might take place within the confines of GAA property is not excuse for acceptance of and turning a blind eye to such incidents.

“If these incidents were happening on a public street after a Saturday night out they would be deemed to be assault and grievous bodily harm. They would lead to prosecutions and possible sentencing all of which can have a huge impact on the life of the victim and the transgressor. Someone will get badly hurt in some of these incidents if they are to continue at our grounds.”

Mr McAteer adds: ”The one punch message has been part of a campaign by the GAA and the authorities in recent times and it is a very real message. Facts are that one punch could kill and that is in honesty something none of us would ever dare to dream of happening at a GAA game, but reality is that it could. For a moment, let us think of the repercussions and the consequences of such for one person.

“It could mean the end of their life and all because they attended a GAA game.”