Well, it was his turn last Sunday and the truth of it is that a bit of puke football wouldn't have gone astray against Monaghan. Down were beaten by the better side in the end but they still scored 1-15. For that total not to have won an Ulster championship match is bordering on the criminal.

They got cleaned out by two spring-heeled cornerforwards who both had the beating of the various men that were sent out to try and put manners on them.

Tommy Freeman and Ciaran Hanratty had a field day, mostly because they were allowed to. When Tyrone set about curbing the influence of Colm Cooper and Mike Frank Russell in 2003, they did so by sending in an extra man in the half-back line to cut off the diagonal balls that Darragh O Se and others were sending into them. Had Carr and DJ Kane done likewise after 20 minutes in Newry, Monaghan would have, at the very least, had to find another way to rack up their 2-15.

Instead, Freeman and Hanratty kept being presented with the kind of ball corner-forwards dream of.

Angled so they could run on to it half-turned, flat and chest-high so they could take it in their stride. Without a man sweeping or cutting off the diagonal, Down left marker after marker exposed to a one-on-one. Hanratty was devastating in the first half, Freeman more prominent in the second.

Maybe Carr was making a stand for his principles.

Maybe he doesn't want to put his name to that kind of football. And fair enough if that's the case. His beliefs might cause him a degree of pain before he sees a return, though. Doing the right thing can be costly. Mind you, we've just put the Greens into government so maybe there's something in the air.

As for Monaghan, Seamus McEnaney had no qualms at all sending Dick Clerkin and Stephen Gollogly back to hang around the midfield and Damien Freeman back to scavenge in the half-back line.

The free-running of Freeman and Gollogly, in particular, paid tribute to Martin McElkennon's fitness work with the side and, overall, it wasn't hard to work out which side was three years into its development and which was only starting off.

Down haven't been big into the qualifiers in the past few years so it will be interesting to see whether or not Carr can get them to bother with the rest of the summer. If he can, if he finds a way to protect Dan Gordon's high-fielding and if he can bring Benny Coulter out the field and into the game a bit more, they could make shapes somewhere along the way.

They might have to show a less agreeable side to them, though.