Since his move to London last summer, Kevin Downes has found himself on the receiving end of a Nicky Rackard Cup All Star for his efforts with Cavan's hurlers last season, as well as starring in RTE's Celebrity Bainisteoir programme for his new football side Tir Chonnail Gaels. Now the 25-year-old is hoping that further strides can be made with both club and county in 2009. Cavan GAA enthusiasts flicking through the stations of their television sets last Christmas may have been surprised to see one of their own, quite literally, starring in the red and white of London side Tir Chonnail Gaels, but that's Kevin Downes for you - the man can simply be found anywhere. In October '07, the Cork-born dual player was lining out for Cavan Gaels at right-half forward in the county championship final, where he notched two vital points against Gowna to help the club to their ninth Cavan SFC title at Kingspan Breffni Park. Eight months later the prospect of a steady job and opportunity to "get away" presented itself and Downes, as he almost always does, took his chance. No less than a month after finding his feet as the Health and Safety Manager with the Galldris construction in Enfield, London were local clubs coming knocking on Downes' door. By mid-July he was taking the placed kicks with London's football champions Tir Chonnail Gaels and hurling with the famous Robert Emmets club in the English capital. "I've been out here since the second week of June and got the transfer in Mid-July," said Downes. "They made the approach and I saw it as a chance to keep playing football and hurling while I was over here, so I decided to move. The Gaels weren't going to be flying me back and forth for every game, so there was no problem with the transfer. With the death of the Celtic Tiger, Cavan Gaels look to be the one club in the Breffni County that can afford to cut men loose to go abroad for work purposes, given the size and talent they boast within their senior squad, and Downes admits that he "still tries to keep up to date with them". However, when you're winning senior football and hurling championships of your own that can be a tough task. Twelve months on from his last championship performance for Cavan Gaels and Downes was playing a leading role in taking his new Gaels to the London SFC title, scoring four points in a one-point victory over Neasden in Ruislip to earn himself the 'Man of the Match' award for the decider. A few weeks later the Cavan man had played his part in leading Robert Emmets to the London Senior Hurling Championship crown. Downes, whose father, Tom, hails from county Clare, stresses though that it was no walk in the park, by any means. "It's a pretty high standard of football over here," he admitted. "It would be very physical. I suppose with the teams you are playing over here a lot of them would be developed players. You very seldom have young players. Most would be around the 24-25 mark." As London's football champions, Tir Chonnail Gaels had earned the right to compete in the All-Ireland club SFC, but not before the players would get their 15 minutes of fame under new/temporary management. London's finest were taken over by comedian Patrick Kielty for RTE's Celebrity Bainisteoir Christmas special and in the early weeks of December travelled over to Westmeath to take on the previous year's winners, Maryland. "It was a great experience," explained Downes. "The winner of the London senior championship were invited to play in a one-off Christmas special against last year's Celebrity Bainisteoir winners Maryland. We didn't know who the manager would be, the rumours going round were that it was going to be Dara O'Brian or Graham Norton, we didn't pass any remarks and then one day Kielty just arrived down to training and introduced himself." Although it was made look as though the Exiles had gone through intense preparations for the match, the players had only met Kielty twice before they flew over for the game in the first weekend of November. "It was a good experience, I suppose," said Downes, "but at the same time it was all really production and not football. It was good for the squad to have something different like that, but at times training was very stop and start with the cameras on you." That didn't seem to affect Downes in the slightest though. The attacker struck four points and set up the pivotal goal in front of RTE's cameras as Tir Chonnail Gaels ran out 1-6 to 0-7 winners over Marty Whelan's Maryland. The win had ended things firmly on a high-note for Downes on the football pitch for 2008, but, out from the success with newly adopted club Robert Emmets, events had not been going just as well on the hurling front with his county. Things had got off to such a promising start for Cavan's hurlers under the training regime of Frankie Quinn from the Ulster with an opening National Hurling League win against Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon and a narrow loss to a formidable Fermanagh outfit in Ballyconnell the following weekend. "We actually won a match or two, so I suppose you can call it an improvement," shrugged Downes. "We had a few back from long term injuries, which was a major boost to us because in Cavan I think you need everyone you can get, especially in the championship." Cavan entered into an Ulster Championship that, for the first time in history, contained all nine Ulster counties as well as London and it was neighbours Monaghan at home that were drawn out of the hat by the Breffni boys. Frank Brady's side had already beaten Cavan in the league, but Michael Wall's charges weren't about to let their rivals turn them over the same way on their home turf. "We played Monaghan in Breffni Park and to say we were robbed would be an understatement," Downes pointed out. "We had matched them the whole game and pulled away by two points towards the end, but the referee played six or seven minutes of injury-time and Monaghan got a goal in the end that won them the game." After battling bravely, Cavan had to swallow down the crushing defeat and prepare for the Nicky Rackard Cup, where they would try and salvage at least another win before the season was out. That came against Warwickshire in July when Downes nailed 11 points between the sticks at Breffni Park to help register a 0-16 to 0-12 victory. A third defeat to Monaghan in one season saw Cavan exit the competition prematurely, but Downes' efforts were not to go entirely in vain. In December, the Breffni sharpshooter was honoured with a Nicky Rackard Cup All Star at Croke Park for his distinct performances with Cavan in the competition. "It was a nice acknowledgement to get," reflected Downes. "I was actually home for Christmas, so I didn't have to go out of my way to travel. It was good because you got to meet and talk to a lot of the players that you'd come up against in games." That was certainly Downes' icing on the cake for 2008, but the season wasn't over quite yet. There was still the small matter of an All-Ireland quarter-final to contest for Downes as Tir Chonaill Gaels took on the mighty Corofin of Galway two weeks into the New Year. Cast as huge underdogs in the betting markets, with some bookies pricing them as distant as 10/1 to emerge into the last four, were it not for two soft goals conceded in the first-half against the Connacht champions some bookmakers could well have been left with sore pockets. "We decided to play with the wind in the first-half and it just went against us," Downes recalled. "Our goalkeeper's kick-outs weren't great against the breeze and they (Corofin) struck two goals, one after the other." The defeat drew a close to what had been a hectic season for Downes, but with another just around the corner, he is hoping to recover from his groin operation as soon as possible so as he can get back on the playing field to serve both club and county in each code. And the marksman is particularly looking forward to playing under the county's new managership in John Hunt. "John is coming in with a lot of experience and I think so far things have gone well in training under him," he said. "He's managed in many different counties and hopefully under him we can win more games this year." Downes doesn't expect Hunt to work any miracles in his first year in charge, as he believes the real problems in Cavan hurling stretch outside the county's senior team, but believes that the new Lory Meagher Cup competition should be a priority for the Breffni County in '09. "If they had a better club structure for a start it would be a major boost," stated Breffni man. "Only Mullahoran and Ballymachugh are senior clubs in Cavan, while the other hurling strongholds in Ulster would have double figures in senior. "It needs to be promoted in the schools more as well, but in Cavan football is the number one sport and it's going to be though to try and break that. "If you're realistic, you have to say you want to win it (the Lory Meagher Cup). When you look at the other teams in it and the players we have, you'd say that we are as good as any other team there." Tweet

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