Down Senior footballers ‘really looking forward to knock-out football’: Donnelly

Down Senior footballers have had a few weeks to decompress after a busy few months and assistant manager Mickey Donnelly says the team is really looking forward to knock-out football against Wicklow this Saturday.

“That's what the traditionalist in us all love. That's why we fell in love with Gaelic Football, the knock-out nature of it, so we're looking forward to that,” Donnelly told the Newry Reporter before their opposition was known.

After an unbeaten run in their Tailteann Cup group with victories over Limerick, London and Offaly, Down advanced to the quarter-finals against Wicklow, who finished third in their group, and beat Leitrim in the preliminary quarter-final last weekend.

After wins in their first two fixtures and facing Offaly in the last group game, who had no points on the board, with London and Limerick battling it out for second place, Down were already guaranteed to top the group so they could afford to test out the squad in Pairc Esler in that game and that’s just what manager Conor Laverty did.

“We had a couple of lads who had been involved in the U20s. Jamie Doran came in and did well. Finn Murdock started, so absolutely it was good and then obviously we obviously wanted to give our squad a bit of game-time and we managed to do that and still get a result, which was encouraging,” said Donnelly.

"The performance wasn't out of this world by any manner of means but it can be difficult in circumstances like that, when both teams come into the game with nothing to play for really. It had the hallmarks of a challenge game because both teams were very open defensively. We've done a lot of work this week just making sure we're better defensively at the weekend.”

Some of the more experienced players have had a few weeks off ahead of the quarter-final and that has it's advantages and disadvantages.

“I suppose there's no magic formula. Every county management throughout the country and in every sport I suppose encounters the same problem at some stage. Is it good to have recovery or is it good to have plenty of games and be battle-ready and battle-hardened going into the game? The nature of the games we've played, the last proper match we had was the Armagh match in the Ulster Championship and that's over six week's ago. That's a fair gap but you have to exercise that squad depth over those Tailteann Cup games and now we know we're in for a real challenge next Saturday because it's back to knock-out football.”

And that's something that Donnelly feels is the bread and butter for every GAA player and supporter.

Down had a comfortable 0-18 to 0-13 victory over Wicklow in tricky conditions in Aughrim for their opening Allianz League Division 3 fixture.

Since then, Wicklow were relegated with only one league victory and that was a one-point win against Limerick who finished bottom of the table.

In the Leinster Championship, Wicklow beat Westmeath in the preliminary round before falling foul of Kildare in the quarter-final.

They beat Carlow in their Tailteann Cup group following defeats to Fermanagh and Laois but that win against Leitrim saw them into the quarters.

And although Donnelly didn't know when we spoke who Down would play it would have been the same of any of the potential teams in the hat. As has been the case so far in the campaign, Down will be heading into the game as favourites once again, which has it's own pressure, but the players have been taking it in their stride.

“I have to say I've been very impressed with the lads' attitude. The boys are very determined to try and go and win the competition and that's the bottom line.”

And the incentives are certainly worth that determination with a guarantee of Sam Maguire football next year one less thing to worry about and of course the drought of silverware lifted.

“The bottom line is, we got out of Division 3. We got to a league final. We definitely gave a better show of ourselves this season against Armagh than we did last year, so we think we're on the right trajectory. It hasn't maybe been as acute or spiked as we would have liked because we would have liked to have been in the Ulster final, we would have liked to playing Sam Maguire now, but I think most people would agree that there is progress being made and it would be great to top it off with silverware. We all play Gaelic games and every sport for trophies and we're three games away from that and that’s what we want to achieve ultimately.”

It's been said before by manager Conor Laverty that Down have one of the best management teams in the country and Donnelly feels the players are buying into the system wholeheartedly.

“I think there's a sense from the lads that we're in this thing together to be honest,” he said. “We care deeply about the lads. It's not just about trying to get results. We think a lot of them as young men and what they go on to achieve in life, never-mind just on the football field. There's a camaraderie there and a bond and we just want then to give the best of themselves in everything they do and next weekend is another part of that.”