I WAS one of the many thousands in attendance at the Down and Westmeath game last weekend. I was impressed with Dessie Dolan’s men in the first half, particularly John Heslin.
Not for the first time, Down started sluggishly and had Westmeath finished with a goal before half-time the gap would've been too great to recover from.
To be honest though, you wouldn’t bet against Down at the minute no matter what the scoreline suggests.
For the last 20 minutes of the game, with Westmeath retreating en-masse, Down dominated the ball and the game.
They were now winning second balls. Down have real character about them - nothing is a lost cause.
This doesn’t happen overnight; a significant amount of time has been spent on the training field building this sort of resilience.
The Mournemen go into this weekend's game against Division Three favourites Cavan with their tails up.
To achieve promotion, Down will need a result, a draw or a win.
That is where Conor Laverty and his management team will have wanted to be.
Fermanagh are thereabouts too and remain in the hunt.
The Offaly defeat may well count against them in the end. However, it remains in their own hands.
With Westmeath guaranteed a place in the main championship, other than the division winners, promotion as runners-up in Division Three is no guarantee of qualification.
It's not straightforward.
The Ulster Championship comes so quickly after the League finishes, teams will not have much time to dwell on disappointments.
2023 Allianz Football League: Fixtures, results and tables
The other divisions are playing out pretty much as we thought they would.
Ulster counties occupy the bottom four teams of Division One.
When Tyrone won their fourth All-Ireland, it looked as if it could re-start another period of Ulster dominance, however this hasn’t materialised.
Donegal are weathering the storm post Michael Murphy and sometimes this happens; players step up when such dominating figures step away.
Armagh are close.
They should avoid trouble, but will be disappointed they find themselves on three points.
Over the next couple of seasons, silverware in whatever form will be important for this group.
A National League, an Anglo-Celt or Sam Maguire are the only gigs in town. They received a fair bit of criticism in how they approached last weekend’s tie against Kerry.
As exciting as the Orchard are going forward, they have defensive issues.
Some people may argue that the best form of defence is attack. However, as the saying goes, forwards will win you games, but defences win you titles.
I think back to my own experience with Down.
We always had a forward line capable of beating any team but our Achilles heel was our defence; when this improved so too did our results and consistency.
I don’t blame 'Geezer' for setting them up to be difficult to break down in a one-off game, the context being that this was an away game against the All-Ireland champions.
I was at the Champions League game between Liverpool and Real Madrid last week.
Liverpool at 2-0 up continued to push forward, which is Klopp's way.
Had Klopp realised this was a brilliant lead to take to Madrid, a formation change to a four-four-two in order to tighten up the defence would have been smart.
Liverpool paid a heavy price shipping five goals.
Likewise, Armagh need to be able to be flexible in how they play the game.
After all, is this not what League football is about, preparing yourself for the Championship?
Meanwhile, Monaghan do what Monaghan do.
They beat Roscommon, a team top of the League and playing very well.
The Farneymen have character in spades and again demonstrate the best qualities of their manager Vinny Corey.
The run-in reads Galway, Tyrone and Mayo.
Two of those teams are above Monaghan and are likely to stave off relegation.
Tyrone are not one of these and if I was a betting man, they appear to be heading down.
Their only consistency is their inconsistency.
The Red Hands are not the team they were.
I don't buy into the narrative that they were lucky a few years back when they won their All-Ireland though.
The teams they beat in the Championship that year were brilliant.
They deserved their title; Tyrone were the best team in 2021.
Tyrone will just have to re-build and if I had to swap, I would still love to be in their position.
They have their centre of excellence in Garvaghey, a very competitive club scene and a psychological siege mentality ingrained in them.
Down need to get here. Small steps.
One person’s misfortune is another’s opportunity and if Tyrone are dabbling with relegation, their neighbours Derry are staring at promotion, possibly passing each other on the way.
Their game has developed since last year.
History has a shown us that past behaviour is a pretty strong indication of future behaviours.
Donegal, when Rory Gallagher was involved, went from semi-finalists in 2011 to a more expansive and offensive team, winning the Sam Maguire in 2012.
Derry are very much on that trajectory.
With the Dubs in town this weekend, this is now a test of just how far the Oak Leaf have come under Gallagher.
There is no doubt about it, Dublin are a pale shadow of the team that dominated a decade.
The banner almost pulled off a famous win last weekend.
There was a time a few years ago that it seemed Dublin would go on forever, title after title.
Now Derry, in Celtic Park, will be favourites to secure two points and almost guarantee top flight football in 2024.
From Division Four to Division One. In any man's language, the job that Gallagher has done is extraordinary.
Jim McGuinness has a God-like aura in Donegal, however, it is beginning to look more obvious to me that Gallagher’s influence should not be understated.
The job he has done is as impressive given the starting point.
I would argue that the Derry and Armagh squads find themselves in exactly the same place.
The group are ready to win titles now and for every season that passes them by is an opportunity missed.
To be fair, both Donegal and Tyrone teams of the past ultimately delivered at least multiple Ulster titles and an All-Ireland.
All squads, teams, players and eras come to an end.
And, very few end on a high.
The key is to make hay while the sun shines.
