The Down manager is realistic about the possibilities of losing Marty Clarke, writes GAVIN CUMMISKEY

DOWN’S ROOKIE manager James McCartan doesn’t take the media inquisition too seriously. And he is probably right.

On the valid news point of Marty Clarke’s potential return to Collingwood, despite this being the 22-year-old’s first season back playing for Down after a three-year spell in the AFL, McCartan jokingly threatened to drop elder brother John Clarke should Marty get itchy feet again.

“To be honest I didn’t think it was my place to start quizzing Marty a week or 10 days before the (Division Two) league final (against Armagh on Sunday in Croke Park).

“There is no doubt that the guy performed very well when he was out there and there is no reason to think that his ex-team wouldn’t want him back the same way as when he left that Down wanted him back.

“I would guess that there is certainly something to the rumours because he’s a good enough player. I just have to be happy with the here and now and I’m assuming that he’s available for the summer until he tells me otherwise.

“We’re delighted to have him and we’ll be doing everything in our power to try and make sure he isn’t tempted back, unfortunately they can offer something that we can’t.

“I told his brother John that if Marty went he was being dropped straight away. I was hoping that would have some impact, I was trying to think outside the box and I thought that was as good as any.”

Clarke is employed in a coaching capacity by the Down County Board, with Sunday marking his first game back at Croke Park since he lit up the 2005 minor final.

“He can be a playmaker, he can take scores and he is definitely bringing out the best in the other players,” McCartan continued.

“What I find with Marty is that people are trying to hit him and he is able to handle that. He is well used to being the centre of attention.

“I always warn him about certain players – because he is back from Australia he is going to be getting the verbals and is going to be the centre of attention. He was telling me that out in Australia he was well used to getting verbal abuse about being the Irish wimp.

“You would assume that if he is used to it in Australia he is okay with it back here.”

Considering Clarke’s impact in the AFL, the hype surrounding his ability was sure to follow him into his first senior football championship. He will certainly take the burden of expectation off Benny Coulter’s shoulders but whether Down can deliver like McCartan’s team did in the 1990s is one of this year’s pre-championship conundrums.

“Marty is going to be judged in the championship. A league final or the league to date is going to be meaningless. It is the same for me as manager, and all the other players.

“The jury is going to be out on Marty until you guys see him perform at a level which you guys deem appropriate for his so-called qualities.”

The next topic for McCartan was Down’s approach to football in recent times and how it has hindered their progress through the rough and ready terrain of the Ulster championship – they start their campaign against Donegal in Ballybofey on May 30th.

“Some people would say we only had one stylish footballer over the last couple of years. That we were a one-man team and that was Benny Coulter.

“Are you asking me have we changed the style? No, we still play six on six up front, don’t we?

“In years gone by, when I was playing football and Down were winning All-Irelands, we played with Ross Carr and Gary Mason in the half-forward line and those guys played defensively so when they talk about the new tactic I know when I played at number 12 in 1994 I spent a lot of my time beside (goalkeeper) Neil Collins. To say (defending) has evolved and Down didn’t used to do it that way is, to a certain extent, not completely true.

“I know what you are saying but from the teams I have been in that were successful you defended as a team and you attacked as a team.”

So, the game hasn’t really changed that much?

“Whenever I was playing for Down and we lost the ball I tried my damndest to affect the outcome at the other end as much as I could at my end. Maybe I was doing that all on me own back then, I dunno.

“What I’ve tried to instil in the players to date is to work on the theory of winning the ball back in (the opponents) corner-back position as it is a lot shorter to their goal and they wouldn’t have enough time to get that many men behind the ball.

“If we lose the ball we don’t try to get everybody back inside our 50 and win the ball there, if we can win the ball where we lost it, wouldn’t that be a better philosophy?”