NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE AND NEWS:TOMORROW EVENING in Longford one of football's big counties, Down, round off a season of quiet restoration. Having slipped up in the run for the tape last year, the Ulster team with the most successful modern All-Ireland pedigree – five in the last 50 years – have won promotion back to the top half of the league.
Manager Ross Carr, a veteran of the most recent Sam Maguire triumphs in 1991 and ’94, concedes the Division Three final against the season’s surprise team, Tipperary, isn’t critical beyond deciding who goes up as champions but is reluctant to talk down the opportunity presented.
“The goal was promotion but we haven’t been winning that many titles in recent years to take anything lightly. We’re not complacent because one of the reasons we were in Division Three was inconsistency. Better teams win more consistently. Top teams win more than they lose and come out on the right side of tight margins. We don’t want to lose our last match before the championship.”
League status is important to teams in the modern game and fiercely contested. The bridge Down and Tipperary cross into next season spans arguably the biggest divide in the National Football League. A year ago Fermanagh and Wexford took 100 per cent records into the Division Three final, with Wexford winning and both counties having excellent championship campaigns. This season, however, both have plummeted straight back down from Division Two.
Carr is unsure about how his team will fare in the higher-calibre surroundings next year. “I can’t answer that but I do know in certain games in Division Three you can win with a couple of better players even if the overall display is indifferent. That won’t happen in the top half of the league and if we have aspirations to consider ourselves one of the better teams we have to be able to remain in Division Two.”
They’ve certainly earned promotion in what has been the most competitive division in the league. On the final day, the six teams in the division apart from Down and Tipperary all stood a chance of being relegated.
As a player in the 1990s Carr is sceptical about modern assertions of greater fitness levels and more ferocious commitment in the game nowadays. But he believes circumstances have made the league a lot more difficult to negotiate than when he was a player. The most obvious difference is the introduction in 2001 of a calendar-year schedule for the league, which made the competition more compact but also harder for teams to get through.
“Everything is condensed into one year. Compared to 15 years ago fitness levels are said to be a lot higher and involvement more intense. I don’t necessarily go along with that but there are differences from when I was playing.
“You could have a good winter and pick things up in February. Now it’s straight into the McKenna Cup or whatever pre-season competition you’re contesting in January and immediately afterwards the league. It’s nearly over before you know it.”
This has led to greater pressure on counties with thinner playing resources. Not alone is there the concurrent Sigerson Cup and under-21 competitions to distract senior teams, but the rapid-fire nature of the fixture schedules means absence through suspension or injury comes at a higher price than used to be the case.
“Another thing that’s more common now is injuries,” says Carr. “What happens is that a Wexford, Fermanagh or Westmeath bust a gut to get somewhere but then they pick up injuries or suffer absences for whatever reason and they’re immediately under pressure. I haven’t had all my key players available at any stage this season but we’ve survived. That would be harder next season.
“In the past your matches came at leisurely intervals, every two or three weeks but now there are sustained periods where you’re playing every week and injuries hurt you. The upside is that any team with momentum flies.”
Having stood accused of inconsistency in the past two seasons, Down – who have also been boosted by their under-21s qualifying for the All-Ireland final – need that momentum just three weeks before facing Fermanagh in the Ulster championship.
“I’ll be in a good position,” says Carr about tomorrow evening. “If we win I’ll be happy and if we get beaten I’ll be saying that it doesn’t matter – but I’ll also be trying to convince myself that that’s true.”
TIPPERARY (SF v Down): P Fitzgerald; C Morrissey, C McDonald, A Morrissey (capt); B Fox, H Coghlan, C Aylward; G Hannigan, B Jones; S Carey, N Fitzgerald, B Mulvihill; J Tierney, B Coen, B Grogan.
CORK (SF v Monaghan): A Quirke; R Carey, M Shields, A Lynch; N O’Leary, G Canty (capt), G Spillane; A O’Connor, N Murphy; P O’Flynn, P Kelly, P Kerrigan; J Masters, D O’Connor, D Goulding.
