At long, long last, Benny Coulter looks like delivering on a decade of promise and inspiring a sustained revival in Down’s flagging fortunes.
It was a winter’s day, six or seven years ago. An early round of an Ulster club championship match in Newry, with Down’s Mayobridge taking on Ardara of Donegal in front of a few hundred hardy souls. There’s no close-season in the GAA, not for the hardcore.
The sides had drawn the previous week and another close contest was expected for the replay. It turned out to be nothing of the sort, with the Down men putting 2-17 on the board to win by 15. The passage of time takes its toll and few of the details of the game are remembered with any great clarity. Neither goal, for instance, has attached itself to the retina to be replayed at a whim.
There is one moment, however, which will never be forgotten. I was surrounded by a number of Donegal men and women and when it happened, there was a collective gasp. It was awe, nothing more and nothing less. Footage of the incident may exist somewhere, but I haven’t seen it. My memories are not coloured by camera angles or slow-motion replays.
A long high ball was punted into the Ardara full back line where Benny Coulter, as he is in most games, was being marked by a taller player. No matter. He rose majestically into the air, his knees seemingly around his opponent’s head, to take a catch which was, literally, breathtaking. I’m not sure a score came of it but it doesn’t matter. It transcended the game we were watching, and hinted at the talent which has made Coulter one of the most promising forwards in the country for a decade.
International tour of duty
There has been recognition, of course there has. He has been the allotted danger-man for every Down championship game during that time. Five times he has been selected for International Rules series against Australia. But for a long time it seemed that the limit of his achievement in a Down jersey would be the All-Ireland minor win in 1999, in which so many of his contemporaries burned too bright, too young.
On the face of it, eleven years on from his Down senior debut, Coulter should be at the thin end of his career. However, it looks like only now has the county produced a team capable of delivering him to the high-stakes games of July or August.
Coulter was dazzling against Donegal on Sunday. There won’t be a better point scored in the Championship this year than his 55-metre, outside-of-the-boot effort which brought Down level with two minutes to go.
The key to Down’s victory, and their revival under James McCartan this year, was that on the occasion when Coulter found himself short of possession or space – he was bottled up by Neil McGee for most of the middle third of the game – others filled the breach. Mark Poland was good, Danny Hughes was excellent.
But it is perhaps no coincidence that Coulter’s form, and the ascent of players such as Poland and Hughes, has come at a time when Down have a new player to shoulder the burden of stardom. Marty Clarke is just 22 and played his first senior Championship match with the Mournemen on Sunday but he is already anointed. He scored two fine points from play and stroked another superb score from a 45. His problem is that the expectations are so high, inflated by a couple of years of first-team football with Collingwood in Aussie Rules.
If he can meet those expectations somewhere beyond halfway, his teammates will continue to be sustained. And that can only be good for Benny Coulter, and Down, and football in general.
