Down will hold few secrets from interim Donegal boss Aidan O’Rourke as the sides face off in Newry on Sunday.
The All-Ireland medal winner was part of James McCartan’s backroom team during two stints as manager with the Mourne County and the Dromintee native went to school in Down.
And, while All-Ireland winning manager of 2012 Jim McGuiness has been taking coaching sessions with the Mourne County, O’Rourke does not believe that McGuinness’s experience and knowledge of Donegal football was necessarily a deliberate move by Down to gain some extra information about Donegal, highlighting the progress already made by new Down manager Conor Laverty this year.
“There isn’t a team in the Ulster championship that we would be afraid of,” said O’Rourke.
The former Armagh player has plenty of contacts in Down and when asked how he viewed them as a team, he said: “I have a lot of time for football in Down, not unlike Armagh, and went to school in Newry and half the class was Down and half the class was Armagh, and the teachers had the same ratio.
"I have the height of respect for Down football and there are enough good footballers in every county to challenge at the very top.
“It is about harnessing it and people willing to push in the right direction and Conor (Laverty) has done a great job in focusing minds and getting everyone to buy in.
“Their U20s are going very well too, and Down were very unlucky not to get out of Division Three.
“They had some great performances in the League against Westmeath and Antrim, and they have a lot of potential, so it is a matter of us meeting that and matching that.
“No more than anywhere else, Down football is trying to move forward, and Sunday will be the measure of progress for everybody.”
Read more: Odhran Murdock will play for Down in Ulster SFC at expense of U20 final
O'Rourke has rich experience of coaching throughout Ulster and is no stranger to the man he will face on the sideline at Páirc Esler this weekend.
“Yes, I know Conor well, as he was Development Officer in Trinity when I was Development Officer in Queen's," he said.
“We worked together on various stuff, and I know Conor reasonably although we would not be best friends. I have a lot of regard for how he goes about things, and he is a very good coach.”
When asked what made Laverty stand out in his native county, O’Rourke said that “he has all the best players wanting to play for Down.
“That is a huge plus and they have been training very hard for a very long time and that is a plus and that is a good starting point.”
More in Ulster SFC news: Paddy Carr call was difficult but had to be made: Dáire Ó Baoill
When asked if he could identify any fingerprints on the Down team that speaks of McGuinness’s sessions he said: “That is a difficult one to answer as there are a big number of coaches in the Down set-up.
“I know the players responded well to Jim’s sessions and he brought a different dynamic to the sessions that he has taken.
“The players felt there was a lot of energy in those sessions and his messaging was building on what Conor was doing, and I don’t think it is necessarily anything different that he is adding, but maybe he is adding percentages to what they are trying to do.”
When asked if he was “worried” about the effect that McGuinness might have as a Donegal man in that camp, O'Rourke said:
“That is a very small part of the build-up to the game and I don’t think that should be a focus really.
“I mean teams bring in coaches all the time to do things, do things differently, freshen things up, add a bit of impetus and I can understand where Conor was coming from with that one.
“But I don’t necessarily think that, because Jim is a Donegal man, that that was part of the reasoning, but Jim McGuinness is one of the best coaches in the country and would add value anywhere he went.”
