DOWN are targeting a place in the new All-Ireland Super 8s this year, says defender Niall McParland.
The new format – which replaces the traditional quarter-final stage by dividing the eight teams into a two-group, round robin format with the top two counties in each group progressing to the All-Ireland semi-finals – will be run for the first time in the summer and Glenn clubman McParland is confident the Mournemen can be a part of it.
Down haven’t reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals since McParland’s first year at senior level (2012) and since then there have been many more bad days than good ones for the county’s footballers.
However, last summer’s unexpected renaissance - when Eamonn Burns’ underdogs beat Armagh and Monaghan to reach the Ulster final – means that Down begin 2018 with optimism and a sense of purpose.
But before they get to the Championship, Down have to negotiate their way through a difficult Division Two campaign that includes trips to Louth, Roscommon, Cavan and Meath and only three home games; against Cork, Clare and Tipperary.
“This year we will get stuck with the favourites’ tag a bit more which is something new we’ll have to deal with,” said McParland.
“Teams will know about us and that’s a new challenge for the boys but I can’t see why we shouldn’t compete in Division Two, we stayed there last year and hopefully we’ve taken a step forward since that.
“If you have a good League it sets you up for the Championship. We won’t be going out to lose a game, but it is a very competitive League and if you’re in the mix come the last couple of games you’d be happy enough.
“It would be no harm to go up to the first division and play against the Tyrone, Kerry or Dublin every week. That is the aim, we’re hoping to get back to the big time.
“Our aim this year is to reach the Super 8 – we were one step away last year and we would have made it if we had beat Monaghan. It’s only natural to want to go one step further.”
Down have lost five of the players who featured in that round four Qualifier against Monaghan at Croke Park in July - Aidan Carr and Mark Poland (retired) and Michael Cunningham, Conaill McGovern and Joe Murphy (all unavailable).
McParland says that the changing of the guard could be a “blessing in disguise” for the team.
“We lost a couple of the older boys but it can be a blessing in disguise at the same time because they were our leaders,” he explained.
“Mark Poland and Aidan Carr are leaders and you always looked to them to lead and nobody else did anything. But with them gone you’re looking around the changing room and thinking ‘there’s not too many older than me here, it’s my turn to step up’.
“A lot of the boys around my age like Gerard McGovern and Darragh O’Hanlon feel like this is our team now so it could be a good thing in the long run for us that we’re forced to take ownership of our own team.”
Down lost to Derry and Armagh in the Dr McKenna Cup but McParland insists that the competition had served its purpose.
“The McKenna Cup has been very useful for us because it gave the management a chance to look at some new players,” he said.
“We know what Caolan Mooney and Darragh O’Hanlon are capable of, but it’s good to get the likes of Ronan Millar and James Guinness a bit of game-time.”
