Marty Clarke: 'Win or learn' has been Down's mantra

Down assistant manager Marty Clarke says the lessons learned from defeat this season have helped steer the county to this weekend's Tailteann Cup final.

Under the watch of manager Conor Laverty, Clarke, Mickey Donnelly and Declan Morgan, the Down panel has trained diligently since last November with the biggest learnings coming after defeats to Cavan and Fermanagh (league), Armagh (Ulster Championship) and Meath (Tailteann Cup).

Along the way they also recorded five league wins, beat Donegal in Ulster and now face Meath in Saturday's Tailteann Cup decider at Croke Park, live on RTÉ.

"The No 1 takeaway is what we learned from our defeats," said Clarke.

"It’s not something that Conor has to deal with a lot in his career with Kilcoo so losing doesn’t sit well with him," he smiled.

"It’s win or learn, that’s our mantra. Against Fermanagh and Cavan, those were tough defeats to take.

"We had to work out why we didn’t win and hopefully we took something from those because we never lost two games in row and we bounced back and learn from each loss."

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Watch highlights of Down's eight-goal hammering of Laois in the Tailteann Cup semi-finals

As he sits and chats football, Clarke is a man who looks totally at ease. Family and football - those are his two obsessions outside of work.

Down are lucky to have him in the fold. A class act as a player, he retired from the game at 29 after being diagnosed with Addison’s Disease - a disorder which results in the adrenal glands not