DONEGAL boss Declan Bonner says it would “not be the end of the world” if the county were to be relegated from Division One.
They’ve spent just one season outside the top flight since 2011, and almost managed All-Ireland success in the same year, reaching the final in 2014 after having earlier been promoted alongside Division Two champions Monaghan.
They find themselves in the very thick of the battle to avoid the drop, but were boosted by last weekend’s win over a Kildare side that looks almost certain to drop back out of the top tier after suffering four straight defeats.
Who will go down with them seems like a three-way battle between Donegal, Tyrone and Mayo, though Kerry could yet get sucked into it.
No team has stayed up in Division One with less than six points since Armagh in 2011, leaving Donegal realistically needing to win two of their last three fixtures against Tyrone (A), Monaghan (A) and Mayo (H).
While the progression of some of Donegal’s young players over the past twelve months has been helped by playing Division One football, Bonner says that his mind has always been on the ‘bigger picture’ of championship.
“I made it well known that it’s not going to be the end of the world if we didn’t stay in Division One, I said that from the outset.
“I knew we had a couple of very difficult opening games, away in Dublin and Kerry, and Galway we knew had a huge amount of work done and they’ve proven the form team in Division One.
“We had a lot of new lads coming in, I think we had four five the first day playing league matches for the first time. That’s all part of the learning, but two points [against Kildare] was vital from that sense.
“Every day you go out you want to win and we want to be competitive, but is it the end of the world? No.
“The bigger picture for us was always going to be down the line in championship, and that’s where we’re going to be judged at the end of the year.
“Everything was geared towards that and that’s the way we looked at bringing back the more senior players, so they’d be coming in fresh and hungry towards championship time.
“Did we put huge emphasis on the league? In terms of getting new personnel and getting new systems of play, yes we had to against the top teams, but not in other ways.
“It’s not going to be the biggest disaster in the world if we did go down but naturally enough we want to go to Omagh and win, and we want to stay in Division One.”
