In the first of a two-part series ranking all 32 of Ireland's footballing counties, Padraig Kelly assesses the performances of teams in the lower half of the Championship rankings after a very challenging 2020...
16 DOWN
PADDY Tally and his players will enter the 2021 season still wondering how they didn’t reach last year’s Ulster final.
With Jerome Johnston and Caolan Mooney causing havoc, they led eventual champions Cavan by 10 points at one stage in the semi-final before completely collapsing after the interval.
Still, the side are back in Division Two now and they should be stronger this year with Connaire Harrison likely to be back while team captain Darren O’Hagan should return at some stage this season after going under the knife a number of times in 2020. It may be towards the end of the condensed National League when the Clonduff ace appears though.
Tally is forming an exciting, hard-working side though and Mourne fans will be happy with the progress. Division Two will be tough this year, but it will be great exposure for this young side.
Mark Doran will remain with the management team despite taking up a coaching role with Monaghan club Ballybay.
17 LAOIS
IT was a year of discovery for Laois manager Mick Quirke in his first season in charge in 2020.
The Kerry man used 46 different players over the elongated season, and he will hope to have a better grasp of his strongest squad in the coming months.
Quirke said after their 22-point loss to Dublin that they were physically well behind the champions but, perhaps more importantly, Dessie Farrell’s side were miles ahead in the skills department.
Laois finished mid-table in Division Two last year with a round six loss to Westmeath proving costly to their promotion ambitions. They don’t look ready for the top tier yet, so another season of safety would probably be acceptable.
After that a Leinster title is out of the question, so a run until they meet Dublin and some progress in the Qualifiers would quantify a good season.
18 CLARE
PERHAPS there is a bit of disrespect being shown to Clare having them this far down the list. After all, they are preparing for their fifth straight season in Division Two.
They actually came close to Division One too. In their round seven game with Armagh the scores were level after 60 minutes. A win would have seen them go up, but they eventually lost by five points.
The Banner county underwhelmed in the 2020 Championship though as they lost to Tipperary by three points in the Munster quarter-final.
Colm Collins is the longest serving manager currently in inter-county football but with his current term up, he has said that he is unsure whether he will be seeking an extension or not. Gordon Kelly has announced his retirement after 15 years with the Munster side.
19 DERRY
THE pressure will be on Rory Gallagher and Derry from the off as they attempt to escape the clutches of the Taitleann Cup. With participation to be decided after the League campaign, promotion will ensure they avoid it as would a run to the Ulster final.
Longford, Cavan and Fermanagh look set to be the hurdles between them and the promotion play-offs, but it’s an achievable goal. Gallagher has set the side up well defensively, only four sides conceded less in last year’s League over the top three divisions, and the next task will be to find ways to supplement the attack.
Shane McGuigan has carried that can for too long, although the Oakleaf boss also holds out huge hopes for Niall Loughlin. Conor Glass’s return from the AFL is also a major boost moving forward.
Over the last few weeks, details have emerged of a proposed new coaching strategy for the county following the work of a committee led by Damian Cassidy. Long-term, they feel that they can get Derry back towards the top. Gallagher’s time-frame is much shorter though, and promotion will be the key aim of the season.
20 FERMANAGH
FERMANAGH endured a difficult season last year and they’re already experiencing choppy waters ahead of the new campaign.
Manager Ryan McMenamin has lost the services of former captain Ryan Jones, Conall Jones, Tomás Corrigan and Ruairi Corrigan. Ché Cullen is also unlikely to be available.
‘Ricey’ has taken the news in his stride and has said that the squad is in a good place, especially with Sean Quigley back fighting for his place.
Fermanagh dropped into Division Three after a pretty wretched League campaign with their win over Roscommon the only points they picked up. The performance in the 13-point loss to Armagh was particularly disappointing.
A new season brings new opportunity though and promotion back to Division Two will be on the agenda in this condensed season. A good start will be absolutely vital in a few weeks’ time, otherwise it could be another tricky campaign for the Erne county.
21 LONGFORD
Longford started 2020 with a bang as they claimed the O’Byrne Cup, but there wasn’t a whole lot to write about after that.
They finished mid-table in Division Three with their two-point loss to Down early on ultimately costing them a shot at promotion. For Covid reasons they conceded their final game with Cork.
In Leinster they were two-point winners over Louth before losing to Laois by the same margin.
Padraic Davis has been reappointed for another two-year term and they will be a tough opponent in what is sure to be a competitive Division Three with provincial champions Cavan and Tipperary in there alongside them – although they can only potentially meet the latter in the play-offs.
22 OFFALY
JOHN Maughan was reappointed as Offaly manager a few weeks ago and he’ll be hoping to instil a bit of consistency into the group this term.
It was their home form that cost them last year in the League as they drew with Longford before losing to Down and Derry, the latter in horrendous weather conditions. They defeated Louth and Leitrim on the road though, and they also went to Cork and Tipperary and were pretty competitive.
Their Leinster campaign was decent. They beat Carlow in a high-scoring thriller before losing narrowly to Kildare. Youngster Cian Farrell impressed in both of those matches and he is certainly one to watch this year.
Maughan had actually been one of the loudest voices against the Championship continuing back in May when Covid-19 was threatening the season, but when all was said and done he would have been pleased with how his team performed.
23 LIMERICK
LIMERICK are a team on the rise and all of a sudden the usual bottom order in Munster is starting to look a lot stronger.
Tipperary, obviously, and Clare have made real progress in recent years and the Treaty will be hoping to follow their lead.
They topped the Division Four title last year, swatted aside Waterford in Munster and looked a certainty for the Munster final until Tipp’s Conor Sweeney kicked a wonder score to force extra-time. A McGrath Cup early in the year was also a nice bonus.
Billy Lee has a year left on his deal so he will lead the Limerick into the third tier, and they won’t be there just to make up the numbers.
Wicklow, Offaly and Tipperary look set to be their opposition – so they will feel that they can survive.
24 WICKLOW
LIKE Limerick, Wicklow had a massively encouraging 2020 as they nudged Antrim out for the second promotion spot in Division Four. Their 7-11 to 0-7 win over the Saffron county was ultimately decisive, and truly emphatic.
Unfortunately they conceded seven goals this year too as Meath dumped them out of the Championship at the quarter-final stage in Leinster. Prior to that they had travelled to Wexford Park and earned an impressive 2-9 to 0-11 win over the hosts.
Davy Burke is one of the youngest managers in the inter-county game but he is obviously very talented having led Kildare to the U20 All-Ireland title a few years ago and guided Sarsfields to the Kildare title.
When appointed last year on a three-year term, getting out of Division Four was labelled as the main aim. That has already been achieved, so there will be a bit of freedom for the Garden county this season.
25 ANTRIM
ANTRIM remain in a lowly position but Enda McGinley’s appointment as manager should being a bit of a spark.
The three-time All-Ireland winner with Tyrone held off some stiff competition – including a ticket of Tony McEntee and Kevin Madden – and his backroom team will include former Red Hand teammate Steven O’Neill.
Lenny Harbinson, who stood down as manager in November, will still be wondering what happened on their trip to Wicklow where they lost by 25 points but, in truth, the one-point loss to Sligo earlier in the campaign was probably more gutting.
The side gave eventual champions Cavan a scare in Ulster and if Patrick Gallagher had kept his second-half shot low (the player’s balance put off by a nudge) it seemed unlikely that the Breffni county would have recovered.
It’s the same story for the Saffron county. The talent is obviously there, it’s just about showing that on a consistent basis. Paddy Cunningham’s decision to stick around will be a great relief given his scoring prowess.
26 LOUTH
SO, did anything happen in Louth lately?
Mickey Harte’s move to the Wee county just a few weeks after ending his long association with Tyrone was one of the major shocks of 2020, and there will be a huge buzz around Louth football when the season starts.
Harte has pulled together a preliminary panel with plenty of experience and the one player Louth fans will be looking forward to seeing this season is Sam Mulroy.
The St Martin’s man is a real class act and was the side’s only scorer in their 1-9 to 1-7 Leinster loss to Longford.
Harte will come up against his old players Enda McGinley and Steven O’Neill (Antrim), a player he had to deal with from the sideline in Tony McEntee (Sligo) and a former managerial opponent in Terry Hyland (Leitrim) – so never has Division Four had such intrigue.
27 LEITRIM
IT’S going to a busy started to the year for Terry Hyland. Not only will he be preparing for Leitrim’s Division Four campaign but he has agreed to be an advisor for the Cavan U20s under new manager Damien Donohoe.
This will be Hyland’s third year in charge and he said the reaction from their players after the Connacht loss to Mayo made up his mind for him. They had seen the gap that existed on the day and were committed to closing it.
The Ridge county may have been relegated back to Division Four, but they were hardly out of their depth. It’s been a promising few seasons for the side and they must bounce back with a good League showing to keep the good vibes going.
28 SLIGO
IN a winter of big appointments, Tony McEntee’s move to Sligo went under the radar somewhat.
This is, after all, a man with a few club All-Ireland Club titles to his name when in charge of his native Crossmaglen while he was also with Mayo previously.
McEntee had tried and failed to nab the vacant Louth and Antrim positions, so what we can gather from that is that he was hungry to get back into the game.
Still, he would have only have taken Sligo if he felt that he could improve them, and it’s a safe bet that he will do exactly that. Included in his backroom team will be Donegal’s All-Ireland winning goalkeeper Paul Durcan.
The Yeats County finished 30th out of the 32 teams in the National League last year while they didn’t even play in the Championship having conceded their game against Galway due to Covid-19 concerns. Expect much, much more from them in 2021.
29 WEXFORD
WEXFORD will look forward to putting a messy 2020 behind them and will now turn their attention to a promotion push.
The lockdown disrupted their plans like every county in Ireland, but in September their season was thrown into disarray as manager Paul Galvin stepped down.
Shane Roche, who had been in Galvin’s backroom team, stepped in as interim boss and he will be ratified as their full-time boss moving forward at a Wexford County Board meeting later this month.
Wexford were unlucky not to escape Division Four last year and no team conceded less. They had home advantage for their round seven match with Wicklow with the winner to earn promotion, but it was the visitors who came out on top. Two weeks later the same scenario would play out as Wicklow won in Wexford to knock the hosts out of the Leinster Championship.
30 CARLOW
CARLOW are trying to find a new path after the end of the successful Turlough O’Brien-Steven Poacher management team.
Niall Carew was the man who was trying to follow that hard act, and he had limited time with the squad last season after his August appointment as O’Brien stepped away during lockdown.
He didn’t do too badly in that short window though and actually won both their Division Four games, although one was a walkover against London.
They entered the Leinster Championship confident that they could do something against Offaly, but despite scoring 20 points they lost by three points.
O’Brien was a strong opponent to the Taitleann Cup but it will be interesting to see how Carew approaches it with the Leinster side only set to avoid competing in it if they reach a provincial final.
31 WATERFORD
WATERFORD have a long-held problem of losing Division Four games by narrow margins and it continually prevents them from making any sort of genuine promotion push.
Over the last five years they have lost 10 games by three points or less, an average of two a season. If they could find a way to win those tight encounters then they really do have the potential to move up the Division Four rankings. Last season’s League campaign did end with an unseemly fiasco regarding their match with Antrim, the Saffrons eventually hammering them in Louth with Waterford not coming across well in the whole affair.
Last year’s Championship was a reminder of the road that still needs travelled though. A home game with Limerick in tough conditions seemed like a good chance to ruffle some feathers, but the Treaty men dismissed them with ease.
Since then Benji Whelan has stepped down after two years in charge and Na Déise are yet to announce a successor.
32 LONDON
EVERY county has been hampered by the current pandemic but extra sympathy must go to the teams – including London – who are not based in Ireland.
Due to the overseas travel that would have been necessary, the Exiles had to forfeit their final two National League games while their Connacht meeting with Roscommon in Ruislip also didn’t go ahead with the Rossies advancing.
Before that match, manager Michael Maher had told the Irish News that his team were working hard for the game individually during lockdown, so the news would have been hard to digest.
