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68TUESDAY DECEMBER 13 2016 SPORT In the first of a two-part feature, Neil Loughran looks back at the rise of Peter Withnell from virtual obscurity to ‘I wasn’t deeply involved forming part of the devastating Down forward line that ended in GAA. I didn’t know the county’s 23-year search for Sam Maguire… all the top players HE men’s toilets of any They were a band of brothers that hostelry aren’t normally summer, no doubt. But Withnell was around the country. the place you would always different, right from the very want to spend too much start. T time of an afternoon, but While the likes of James McCartan, on Sunday, August 11 1991 the Mickey Linden and Ross Carr were Names and players restrooms of the Carrickdale Hotel honing their skills in the hot and outside Newry are like a Wall Street heavy environs of schools football, trading floor. Withnell was messing about with Amid the sound of running taps and his mates on the concrete jungle the whirring of hand-dryers, groups out the front of Ballynahinch High didn’t really mean of men happily stand and shoot the School. breeze. Cigarettes are lit, smoked Gaelic football couldn’t have been and stubbed before another is further from his thoughts. swiftly unfurled from the pack. A couple of sessions with the anything to me – it was The thronging crowds outside can Loughinisland U10s weren’t enough wait, the pints will still be there to reel him in and, besides, he was when they come back. already receiving admiring glances For now, serious business is under from Irish League soccer clubs after discussion. starring for the underage teams at just a game of football’ ‘Unbelievable… just unbelievable’ Drumaness Mills. ‘What about Witherall’ But when some of his friends ‘Who?’ started going to the St Colman’s ‘Big Witherall… isn’t it Witherall?’ GAA club in Drumaness a couple of ‘Withnell?’ nights a week for training, Withnell ‘Aye, the big lad who got the two decided to give it another go not goals?’ long after his 15th birthday. ‘That’s him’ “We used to go out to the local field, Just hours earlier, 60-odd miles Paradise Park. If you’d seen it, it down the road, they had watched in was far from paradise. It was like awe as Peter Withnell trod all over something from The Jungle Book. Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final. If you were playing in the forward If some of those Kingdom stars were line, it had a slope like that,” he already seeing the light go out on explained, holding his hand at a 45 their careers, they were plunged degree angle, “and then it levelled into near darkness that day. itself off. The Down support didn’t care. At “There were two electric poles at long last, the red and black were either side that went right across back in an All-Ireland final for the the field, the sheep were the grass- first time since 1968. cutters, they grazed on the field so Then, young men like Brendan you had sheep’s s***e all over the weekend and I thought ‘there’s able for it.” meekly to Meath in the All-Ireland Sloan, Mickey Cole, Ray McConville place. The changing room was an nothing to be lost’, so I asked him By the time the National League junior final. Little did he know then and Colm McAlarney strode Ormo bread van. along.” hit full flow, Withnell had made the the memories he would create at fearlessly onto the hallowed turf at “You might have been able to hear By now, the likes of Linden, number 14 jersey his own. the famous old stadium just three Croke Park to secure instant legend all the action, but you couldn’t see McCartan and Greg Blaney were The Mournemen had an indifferent years later. status within the county. it because of the slope. Then all household names across the campaign but, as ever, expectations With each win, each surge of Now they had another. of a sudden you saw this clatter county, but their status meant were high heading into the Ulster momentum, word spread further Just 21 years old, Withnell was the of heads, then the ball, then the nothing to Withnell. Championship. about Down’s new ‘bear in the wrecking ball forward Down had shoulders and the chest and the “I walked into the changing room Armagh were cast aside in the square’. been crying out for. legs would all appear – suddenly and I didn’t know anybody. They all quarter-finals, and Down needed Not that Tom Spillane had taken Chest puffed out, shoulders as there was a stampede coming and knew each other but I didn’t know a replay before getting past Derry. much notice. Injury meant he hadn’t broad as the Mourne Mountains and you had to get ready for action. anybody. Defending champions Donegal lay featured for Kerry all year, only to sporting a crew-cut hairstyle that “That was Drumaness.” “My path didn’t cross with these in wait. be drafted back in by Mickey Ned saw him bear closer resemblance to Work, or a lack of it, took Withnell guys because they were playing Withnell missed a gilt-edged goal O’Sullivan for the semi-final. a US marine than a Gaelic footballer, to England towards the end of his division one or division two chance but his bustling, all-action A four-time All-Ireland winner and he didn’t like the big stage – he teenage years. football, and I was only back from style had given Down something three-time Allstar, the veteran loved it. A trial at English league side England.” different, something new as his full-back was more concerned with And once you saw Peter Withnell, Reading showed promise, but he Being a fish out of water didn’t unsettling influence afforded space getting himself right rather than you never forgot him. wasn’t in the mood to wait around bother him. for the other forwards to run riot. worrying about Withnell. ‘I’d never heard tell of him before at youth level for a chance to prove McGrath missed the challenge game “He brought something that was “Not a bit, not a bit,” he said when this year and then he goes and does himself. against Louth with the ’flu’ but maybe lacking in Down forward asked whether he had studied his that’ Homesickness expedited his assistant John Murphy liked what lines for quite a while,” said opponent ahead of that last four ‘Ah, it was unreal. Spillane couldn’t planned return, and soon Withnell he saw and Withnell was invited McGrath. clash. handle him, couldn’t get near him’ was back out on Paradise Park. back for winter training. “Down always had very talented Ten minutes in, Spillane might have ‘Witherall had his number from the Having attended development At an indoor training players who could play over the been regretting that decision. start’ squad trials in the past and been session the following top of the ground but we were Beneath a baking hot summer sun, ‘Withnell…’ left frustrated, the county team week, McGrath recalls his maybe lacking that raw physical Withnell left his vaunted opponent ‘Aye, that’s right… wasn’t on his agenda. attention being instantly strength to allow players to play in his wake as he played a clever “They’ll not forget his name down Peter Withnell wasn’t on Pete drawn to the new boy. off that. one-two with Mickey Linden before in Kerry any time soon, that’s for McGrath’s radar either. “We were doing circuits “Peter brought that and lashing the ball low past Charlie sure…’ The pair were brought together and that kind of thing, as the season wore on Nelligan with his left foot. when the Down boss received and I just remember he gained experience, It would get worse for Spillane. With OOKING out the window a phone call out of the blue thinking ‘this guy, if his decision-making seven minutes left on the clock, and of Costa Coffee on a mizzly suggesting he check out the nothing else, damn became better and Kerry trailing by three, Withnell LNovember afternoon in Newry, it he’s athletic’ better. He had beautifully read the bounce from a powerhouse midfielder running Peter Withnell furrows his brow as the show week-in, week-out for because he was explosive power, long Barry Breen ball to find himself he pauses for thought. Drumaness. just bouncing off strength and in space. The conversation has turned to the “Despite the fact I had been the floor.” fearlessness.” Spillane desperately attempted reunions that took place during the managing the minor team in the “I was super-fit,” Having got their to close the space but, just in the summer to mark that momentous county since 1982 prior to all of adds Withnell. hands on the nick of time, Withnell fired home an All-Ireland success 25 years ago. this, I had never come across Peter “Pete used to Anglo-Celt, Down unstoppable shot, this time with his “The sad thing is,” he says, “when Withnell – I knew nothing about have us running were back at Croke right foot. we all finished our playing careers, him,” admitted McGrath (right). up the mountain Park – and so too was “He was a very fine footballer, very we went our separate ways. I “I got a call from a man in at Kilbroney Forest Withnell.

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