Allianz NFL Division Two relegation play-off: Down v Laois (tonight, 6.15pm, Pairc Esler – live on GAAGO)
IT’S only five weeks since football returned and already a potentially season-defining encounter awaits Down and Laois at Pairc Esler tonight.
Provincial Championships should, for the sake of their long-term survival, offer out hope for the majority of counties participating in them. Ulster is the only one of the four that comes close to this.
Yet Down will be enormous underdogs in their preliminary round clash with Donegal, and rightly so. Laois go into their Leinster quarter-final against Westmeath knowing a maximum of two games, and the hope of a possible final where they will likely suffer a dispiriting beating at Dublin’s merciless hands, is the best they can hope for.
Therefore, particularly in the absence of a back door Championship, the preservation of Division Two status takes on an added significance. This is the most important game of the year for both, make no mistake.
So who walks from the field in Newry, fists pumping, and whose heads are bowed as the sorry prospect of a return to tier three looms? It is difficult to make a case for either, given what has gone thus far.
Laois lost heavily in all three games against Clare, Cork and Kildare. After a promising start in Mayo, Down were brushed aside in the rain.
It got worse against Meath where the Royals romped across the line, the game gone long before the whistle came. The win over Westmeath at least showed there was still among the ranks of the Mournemen, but how much can really be read into a dead rubber?
Down’s problems remain worryingly familiar. Too easily punished on their own kick-outs, difficulties winning primary possession around the middle, while Cory Quinn has carried too much of the scoring load in the absence of regular sharp-shooters like Jerome Johnston and Donal O’Hare.
Tally has been in two minds about which goalkeeper to go with too, having given starts to both Rory Burns and Marc Reid through the League.
And then there is something of a defensive crisis to navigate. Gerard McGovern is still serving a suspension following his late red card against Meath, while his replacement, Benny McArdle, limped off with a hamstring injury against Westmeath and appears highly unlikely to feature tonight.
Bringing Patrick Murdock from the corner to full-back looks the most likely move. The Warrenpoint man is more at home there, and taking Ryan McEvoy out of the midfield role in which he performed well against Westmeath a fortnight ago wouldn’t make much sense.
There is also a chance Darren O’Hagan could drop back into the full-back line in a bid to shore things up, with Down not lacking in options at half-back.
Laois, on the other hand, are set to welcome back some key personnel, with boss Mike Quirke having shuffled the pack a bit for that final game against the Lilywhites. Towering forward Donie Kingston - who, alongside Evan O’Carroll, caused an inexperienced Down full-back line so much bother two years ago – is in contention after limping out of the Cork game last month.
The experienced Colm Begley, forced off with a hamstring injury a minute into that Rebels defeat, has been training and could be in line for a return, while Shane Bolger is also back in the frame.
The heavy totals conceded have been a concern, though Quirke has also been left frustrated by the amount of opportunities passed up – they have averaged just 11 points per game so far, the lowest across the entire four divisions.
Tonight, they know that can’t be the case and, with question marks hanging over the Down defence, the leading lights of Laois will fancy righting some wrongs when it really matters.
The O’Moore men to secure Division Two status and send Down down.
