Glen Dimplex Camogie All-Ireland Senior Championship
Group Two
Down 0-6 Dublin 4-19
By Séamas McAleenan
DOWN were already relegated from the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship before Saturday’s clash with a Dublin side who needed the victory to reach this weekend’s quarter-finals.
Therefore, it was no huge surprise that the Dubs made it through to a date with Kilkenny following a very comfortable 4-19 to 0-6 win.
Aoife McDowell scored all six points for Down who struggled during the first half but improved after the break. McDowell and defenders Orlaith McCusker and Clare McGilligan were the pick of their players on Saturday.
It has been some journey for Down since 2018 when Martina Rooney took over as manager towards the end of a league campaign that didn’t go very well and resulted in the manager in situ walking away.
However, Rooney galvanised the group and five weeks later they were shock winners of the Ulster Championship for the first time since 2005 when they beat holders Derry in Páirc Esler.
Later that summer they reached the All-Ireland final only to lose to Cork, but the seeds had been sown. Players began to drift back to the county set up and they were stronger in 2019.
Although they retained their Ulster title, Down lost their way in the semi-final and went down to eventual champions Westmeath.
The following year saw the Covid lockdown. No Ulster championship, but an end of year stripped down All-Ireland Intermediate title-race. Down players however had committed to a lockdown strength and conditioning plan and breezed to a second All-Ireland title, 22 years on from their first.
That Down team, by and large, was an experienced group with half a dozen hanging around the inter-county scene for more than a decade.
They stuck together to collect the Division Two league crown in June the following season, retained the Ulster senior title and gave a decent account of themselves in the All-Ireland Senior Championship despite being drawn in a difficult group.
However, later that summer, the team started to break up; a couple of the older players stepped back from county, another couple had started a family while Sorcha McCartan’s commute was just too much. McCartan transferred to Cork and last year won an All-Ireland senior medal.
Down lost the Ulster final of 2022 to Antrim who had followed them as Intermediate All-Ireland champions. Although the county retained its senior status in both league and championship, more players were stepping away.
The surprise last year was that they outsmarted Antrim and regained the provincial crown as well as staying up in senior league and championship.
However, at the start of this season, just three remained from the 15 who had started the 2020 All-Ireland Intermediate final; Dearbhla Magee, Beth Fitzpatrick and Clara Cowan.
Down has fared poorly at under-age level over the past decade and a half and only recently have featured at schools’ level. The supply of talented underage players already with underage successes behind them had dried up and it was expected that Paul Donnelly’s crew would struggle in 2024.
It is to their credit that they travelled to Kerry for the final group game and did enough to retain Division One league status for a fourth season, but they were well beaten in the Ulster semi-final by Derry and lost heavily in all their group games to end their four-year stint in the senior championship.
Nevertheless, there were positives to be drawn from a difficult six months; the emergence of younger players like Orlaith McCusker, Niamh and Sophie McGrath and the find of the season, Emily Fitzpatrick.
However, it will be very difficult for them to regain All-Ireland senior status and real challenge to remain in Division 1B of the league.
Donnelly and his management team have completed three years in charge. They may step down now and hand over the reins to a new group.
For the team however, it will be important for them to stick together now and rebuild. They need to be patient and not expect the overnight revolution that Martina Rooney spearheaded six years ago.
