By Niall McCoy

DOWN camogie manager Derek Dunne has said that it could be “10 to 15 years” before the county returns to the All-Ireland Senior Championship if they lose this weekend’s relegation play-off with Westmeath.

Dunne is placing incredible importance on the fixture in Inniskeen after last week’s relegation semi-final loss to Offaly, and he hopes that his troops can pull it out of the fire as they have had to deal with a number of setbacks in recent weeks.

A number of players have missed recent fixtures through injury or Covid-related issues and star midfielder Paula O’Hagan is currently unavailable.

It all paints a less than rosy picture ahead of a clash with a Westmeath outfit that defeated them by a point in the 2019 All-Ireland Intermediate semi-final, but the Mourne manager still feels that they are a much better side now even with those setbacks.

“Three points (one against Waterford and two against Dublin or vice-versa) scored more and we are in an All-Ireland quarter-final this weekend.

“This is our third relegation match in-a-row really when you consider that Dublin match and it’s hard to keep lifting it after being just a couple of points short.

“Westmeath beat us in 2019 in the semi-final and I think it will be a real dogged affair, I think it will be really tough going by the encounters we’ve had in the past with them.

“Things are fairly evenly matched although we have improved a lot since two years ago. But have they continued to develop or are they going back?

“Gloves are off, it’s bare knuckle stuff on Saturday. It’s another All-Ireland final.

“If we don’t get over the line on Saturday it could be another 10 or 15 years before we’re back in the Senior Championship. That’s how important this match is.”

A patched up side lost out 5-12 to 1-16 to Offaly at Kingspan Breffni last weekend, with the Faithful county hitting a brace of goals just prior to the second-half water break to streak away.

Dunne said that he was delighted to see their scoring higher than it had been, but losses of concentration at key moments had caused their downfall.

“We had a little bit of disruption, a couple of Covid cases and injuries, and we had two people in their normal positions in defence. It unsettled us.

“We did get caught napping though. If you look all year, over our three championship games we probably conceded the least amount of scores in the Senior Championship.

“We just didn’t get enough scores and on Saturday it was the reverse. We worked so hard on trying to get more scores over the last two weeks and we clocked up 1-16 but then we concede three or four goals from the 20-yard line.

“Just lapses of concentration, a whole reverse.”

Karen McMullan and Catherine Rocks both missed the Offaly match but Rocks resumed training this week while McMullan will undergo a late fitness test to see if she is available for the tie.