Tuesday afternoon and Ryan Magill is in Croke Park. Truth be told, he doesn’t really want to be here. Over in the corner, the Tailteann Cup is perched on a high table. This wasn’t part of the plan.
Down, finalists in 2023 and champions in 2024, thought they were done with the Tailteann Cup. However, a series of results have culminated in Conor Laverty’s side being frozen out of the All-Ireland series and again consigned to Gaelic football’s second-tier competition for the summer ahead.
Despite winning the Division Three league title, Down have missed out on a place in the Sam Maguire competition primarily because of Westmeath’s achievement in reaching the Leinster decider – as a provincial final appearance supersedes league standings.
Failure to beat Armagh on Sunday in Clones confirmed their Tailteann Cup status. And so, just two days after suffering a record 28-point Ulster semi-final defeat, Magill was dispatched to Croke Park as Down’s representative at the launch of the Tailteann Cup.
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“We have to embrace it,” he says. “We’d love to be in the Sam Maguire, but it is what it is.
“It’s been a tough 48 hours after Armagh but we need to box it and move on. There’s a competition that we are going to try and go and win. It gets us a free ticket into Sam Maguire next year, but there are a load of decent teams in this competition.”
Magill came off the bench and scored two points in Clones on Sunday but Armagh were already out of sight by that stage. By full-time, Armagh had run out 3-33 to 0-14 winners.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s gut-wrenching how bad it went near the end,” admits Magill. “We can have no complaints. We didn’t perform, Armagh were very good. That’s just how it went.”
Magill feels Down have no other option but to leave last Sunday behind them and instead immediately turn their focus to a Tailteann Cup opener against Leitrim on Saturday week, May 16th. Down, yes. But not out.
“We have to [park it], because if you can’t park it and it’s always in the back of your mind coming to this competition, there are teams here that will beat you,” he says.
“You can’t just have it lingering, it needs to be parked. We need to get back together, be positive and see how far we can go.”
Down have played in the Tailteann Cup in three of the four years since its inception in 2022. On the back of winning the competition in 2024, they played in the All-Ireland series last year but are now back in the Tailteann Cup for 2026.
Magill feels the prize of guaranteed Sam Maguire football in 2027 should focus the Down players over the coming weeks.
“It’s a massive incentive. Next year in Division Two, it will be tough to win three or four games to make sure you’re still in Division two the following year, and that you have your spot.
“But it even works out that another Division Three or Four team could get to a provincial final and you could lose your spot. So, you need to be finishing as high up in Division Two as possible.
“So there is that incentive that we can get maybe into the Sam Maguire next year from winning this competition, which we have done before.”
And he insists the Tailteann Cup is not a competition the Down players can afford to turn their noses up at.
“No, it’s definitely not beneath us. We are where we are,” he says. “Any team here is able to win it, we’re all on similar levels.”
Down will at least have home advantage for their opener against Leitrim – but the visitors have the benefit of inside knowledge given Down native Steven Poacher is their manager.
“He’ll know us inside out,” says Magill. “He had a lot of us at minor level, so he’ll know us. They’re a great outfit, some great players and they’re also a team that are looking to bounce back from a defeat, so they’ll be ready for us.”
Ryan Magill was speaking at the launch of the 2026 Tailteann Cup in Croke Park
