Down hoping to bounce back in the Ulster Championship after Division 2 relegation

​It’s back to business for Down, having had a few weeks off to recover and digest the disappointment of failing to remain in Division 2 of the Allianz League.

Still, travelling to Brewster Park to take on Fermanagh in the Ulster Championship on the back of a victory over Monaghan in the final league fixture is a confidence-boosting place to be for Conor Laverty’s men.

The manager was delighted with that win and the overall performance and progression of his players throughout the league campaign, despite it not being enough and coach Mickey Donnelly concurs.

“I think in life you have to make peace with the fact that you can only control what you can control,” said Donnelly.

“We had given ourselves a mountain to climb having to beat Monaghan regardless. Monaghan are one of the better teams in the country, and have consistently been a Division 1 team, so to bring it down to the last game, it was always going to be very, very difficult.

‘Hell of a good performance’

“I think you have to take satisfaction out of the fact that, we needed to go to Clones to get a result and Monaghan still needed something out of the game to guarantee promotion. It was a hell of a good performance, so I think you have to take that satisfaction.

“It's disappointing to go back to Division 3, but I think we showed in all seven games that we were competitive and that we were certainly at the right grade.”

Donnelly is stoic in contemplating the long game as well, citing neighbours Armagh as an example of a team who have been where Down are now.

“The All-Ireland champions Armagh went from [Division] 3 to 2 and back to 3 before they got a bit of a, not a stranglehold, but even just finding yourself establishing your place. I suppose that's frustrating for us.

“It would have been lovely for the lads just to get another year, and again with the teams coming down out of [Division] 1, it makes it even stronger.

"Derry and Tyrone are in Division 2 next year - it's going to be a very, very competitive division and it would have been lovely to play in those types of games.

“But we are where we are, and we have to take a wee bit of satisfaction out of it. None of the seven performances did we come away from it saying, 'that was a horrendous performance'.

“Some of the games were a wee bit substandard in terms of standards set for ourselves, but ultimately we were competitive in all seven games and it gives us a mini bounce if you like, going into the Championship.”

Different team

Down have had over three weeks to analyse Fermanagh’s strengths and weaknesses and work on their approach to Saturday’s Ulster quarter-final at Brewster Park.

“The first year under Conor's tutelage, we went to Ederney, in a game we had to win to go up, and when Fermanagh turned us over, it was a huge. It was a pivotal, pivotal game, a lot of that Fermanagh team will be playing, whereas there's been a massive turnover probably in our playing personnel.

“I looked at the team that played that game the other day, and I'd say we may have six or seven of those lads playing now, because Conor Poland, Niall Donnelly, Owen McCabe started that game, Liam Kerr, there are a lot of players just for one reason or another who aren't with the panel at the moment.”

The good news is that all is well for Down on the injury front.

“I think a lot of credit has to go to Aaron Bradley. Aaron is our strength and conditioning coach, and the lads are in great nick. We've tried to be sensible with load, we've tried to sometimes work smart and work hard. Sometimes harder doesn't always mean smarter at times, so we're just trying to trust the sports science and make sure the lads can get on the pitch as much as they can.

“At the same time, we want to make sure that they're robust and they're resilient and they're willing to work hard,” said Donnelly.

"We've got a great bunch of lads there at the minute, good culture, and we're very happy with the path that they're on.”

Learn from experience

That path will hopefully get Down past Fermanagh and beyond with the red and black back in the Sam Maguire later on in the year,

“I think probably every life experience, good or bad, you're going to take some learnings out of it, and that applies to all aspects of life.

“Over the course of the last two and a bit years we've had a lot of kicks in the teeth, as I said that Fermanagh game in Ederney, the league final last year, the Armagh game in the Championship last year, those games cut very deep.

“You've got to take learnings out of that and say what did we not do as well as we could. I think it's lazy to say we're unlucky. You have to be pragmatic and you have to be resilient and big enough to stand up and say what went wrong and I suppose we've had a lot of those experiences over the last couple of years now to draw on.

“It's a huge game, going down to Enniskillen is not easy. We'll give Fermanagh the ultimate respect, they're well coached with Kieran Donnelly, Ronan Gallagher, Ronan O'Neill, they're a damn good side who'll be really, really well prepared, and we'll just be throwing the kitchen sink at it.”