IF they are feeling twitchy in Down this week, it has nothing to do with awaits them in Letterkenny on Sunday.
The prospect of dethroning the Ulster champions, freshly-tanned from their training camp in the Algarve and with League medals to show for an impressive spring, always felt remote.
However, what happened in Tullamore last weekend just made the situation a little more desperate.
The tremors caused by the four goals scored by Westmeath in slaying Meath weren’t only felt in Leinster. It had them shaking in Newry, too.
If Mark McHugh’s impressive midlanders maintain their form and dispense with Kildare to reach a provincial final, Down will be staring at a summer of Tailteann Cup football – unless they reach the Ulster decider.
Down manager Conor Laverty
That was not part of the plan. Conor Laverty had taken the northern aristocrats out of the second-tier competition in 2024 and the hope was they wouldn’t see it again, for a long time, if ever.
Even if it’s the inherent flaws of the system which could send them back there, it will still wound their pride.
Down enjoyed being back among Gaelic football’s elite last year, conjuring up two of the best games of the summer, against Monaghan and Galway, while beating newly-crowned Leinster champions Louth on a famous afternoon in Páirc Esler.
The county’s rich history and innate self-belief and confidence bordering on arrogance means that Down believe they belong among the elite.
The sense within the county is that they should be competing for the Sam Maguire Cup, which has nestled in the Mourne Mountains on five different occasions.
And it’s not just supporters who feel the Tailteann Cup is beneath them. In 2022, before Laverty was appointed, a number of players pulled out of the squad after losing in Ulster with one suggesting it was pointless playing in the second-tier championship.
Laverty took over in August of that year after a season in which Down lurched from one crisis to the next.
They didn’t win a game and legendary figure James McCartan, back for an ill-fated second spell after leading the county to within a point of an All-Ireland title in 2010, departed.
The anger at how the two-time All-Ireland winner had been treated underlined a toxic atmosphere.
When Laverty took charge, it was felt that the best players weren’t playing for Down. The new manager didn’t have to look too far to see that.
He had been part of a Kilcoo side that had club football in the county in a stranglehold and ended up as All-Ireland champions in January 2022.
They had only one player on the team that was dumped out of the Tailteann Cup by Cavan that summer.
Odhrán Murdock emerged as a real star over the course of last season
‘I just have honestly no ambition to play for Down, because I think there’s a core of players with Down who don’t know how to win,’ Eugene Branagan said after winning the Club Footballer of the Year award in 2022.
‘They haven’t the winning mentality. That’s the difference between Kilcoo and the county.’
However, Laverty’s arrival ensured that there was buy-in from his native club.
Branagan was one of the players coaxed into the county set-up. And there was a change in attitude.
Having led Down Under 20s to the Ulster title the year before, the new manager had little trouble gaining respect in the dressing-room.
Progress was slow, but steady. In Laverty’s first year in charge, they reached the Tailteann Cup final.
The following year, they won it and also got promotion back to Division 2.
And while they were unfortunate to be relegated last season – they finished on six points and just went down on the head to head with Laois – they asked plenty of questions of Donegal in the Ulster semi-final before making an impact in the All-Ireland group stages.
Odhrán Murdock, a star of the U20 sides that won Ulster titles in 2021 and 2023, emerged as a real star over the course of last season, augmenting the likes of Daniel Guinness and Pat Havern, who was the two-point king in the first summer of the new rules.
Even though they racked up big scores last summer, hitting 0-25 against Louth in Newry for example, Down still have a small core of trusted shooters – Murdock, Havern, Guinness and Ryan McEvoy.
The ACL injury suffered by Danny Magill robs the Mourne County of another scorer and creator on Sunday. In a way, it illustrates how well Laverty has done in building this Down team that he has done it with so few options up front.
Another issue for Down is size.
Their two recent Ulster U20 titles had churned out some gifted ball-players (and one NFL kicker in Charlie Smyth), but talk to anyone in the county this week and they will fear how their smaller side will fare against Donegal’s giants in the middle third — the likes of Jason McGee, Caolan McGonagle, Michael Langan and Hugh McFadden.
Ryan McEvoy is one of Down’s trusted shooters
It will be a challenge, but since Laverty lifted a team whose morale was through the floor just four years ago, there has been plenty of challenges. And they have passed every one.
And Laverty himself will relish pitting his wits against Jim McGuinness, who he brought in to take some sessions in 2023.
It pointed to how Laverty —whose background is as head of sport at Trinity College — is able to think outside the box and keep things fresh by changing the voices that players hear.
When he was Down U20 boss, Laverty asked Meath legend Seán Boylan to come on board and the result was an Ulster title.
He had Ciaran Meenagh in his backroom for the past two seasons, before he left to take charge of Derry once more.
Laverty sought out the highly-rated Tony McEntee to replace Meenagh. He is not afraid to have strong voices in the dugout and is a better manager because of that.
But events in Tullamore have changed the dynamic for Sunday.
If Westmeath reach the Leinster final, the Mourne County will end up in the Tailteann Cup, something they hadn’t bargained for, especially after edging Wexford in the Division 3 final.
A second year in Sam Maguire was charted as key in the development of this Down team. It is where they were supposed to be at this point.
The pride and cockiness, which returned with aplomb last summer, will take a hit if they fall back into the second tier of the championship.
They can render all permutations redundant by causing a shock in O’Donnell Park.
Given who they are, and their innate self-confidence, they may be the one county capable of doing that.
