Down assistant manager Donnelly: Time for provincial championships to be played before league

DOWN TOWN: Danny Magill of Down celebrates with Pat Havern after he scored a goal. Pic Credit: Andrew Paton, Inpho.

The Division 3 final is not exactly the richest game in football but right now it feels close to that realm for Mickey Donnelly and Down.

A win on Saturday won’t guarantee either side a spot in the Sam Maguire series, Cavan can already attest to that after their 2023 victory.

But it will help their seeding and that could be crucial. Even if they lose, Down or Westmeath can still make it into the top-tier championship by reaching a provincial final.

The true significance of Saturday won’t become apparent until later in the season.

“They used to talk about the championship (play-off) in English soccer being the most lucrative game in the world because teams were trying to get into the Premiership,” said Down assistant manager Donnelly at the launch of the Ulster championship this week.

“Listen, ourselves or Westmeath could get over the line on Saturday evening and still not get to play in the Sam Maguire. There is something ethically wrong about that and there is a question there have we got the competitions right? We probably don’t. Ultimately, a provincial series, followed by a league followed by a championship, there is absolute clarity then.

“Now the timing of that would be difficult of course, because then maybe you dilute the value of the Ulster championship which we all hold so dear but to have gone through the league unbeaten with 13 points and have to go toe-to-toe with a Westmeath team that ran Tyrone and Armagh really close last year, it is going to be a huge battle, it really is.”

What is undeniable is that Down are on the rise under Conor Laverty. They won five league games last year. They are undefeated in their current campaign. They would be “exceptionally disappointed” to end up in the Tailteann Cup again, but Donnelly stresses it is ultimately in their hands. They have the power to keep this progression going.

The worst-case hypothetical, but plausible, scenario would unfold like this. Meath are guaranteed a spot in the Sam Maguire thanks to their Tailteann Cup triumph. If the form line holds in each province, Galway and Mayo, Clare and Kerry, Derry and Armagh, Dublin and Louth would progress as provincial finalists.

League positioning would then lock Tyrone, Donegal, Roscommon, Monaghan, Cavan, Cork in. That would leave one place in the final 16 for the winners of the Division 3 decider.

“You have teams who have a really good National League and then maybe one poor performance in their provincial championship and it scuppers everything,” Donnelly said. “I think we have to look at it.

“I know Peter Canavan was talking during the week about maybe taking away the league final, and there is an argument for that absolutely, but ourselves - and I know that Andy Moran was vocal over the last couple of days - we want to play as many games as we can with this group of players in Croke Park.

"We don’t get that many opportunities so we will be grabbing it with both hands on Saturday evening.”

In 2023, Down allowed extended panel members to play with their clubs at certain times during the year. They are striving to keep the squad and county satisfied.

“It suits us to keep a happy group of players. We are ultimately looking to develop this group long-term; you are not going to develop a lad who misses out on being in the 26, who togs out and does not get any game-time.

"We all know in our own clubs and in our neighbouring clubs dozens of examples of excellent Gaelic footballers who did not go to the top level probably because they were stagnant in the county panel for a long period of time.

“We do what suits us and there might be times over the course of the year where we have to tighten the nut again. Last year, it suited us to release players and it went some way to get a sense of goodwill behind the county team because there was a body of work to do with that as well in terms of getting people supporting Down and ultimately, people are not going to be supporting the county team if you are extracting their players all the time without getting a wee bit back.”