By Shaun Casey

WINNING in Croke Park is a good habit to get into. Climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand and raising some silverware, no matter what level, is important. Not every player gets to experience that feeling.

While Down have bigger fish to fry in the coming weeks, with Division One league champions Donegal up first in the Ulster Championship, winning the Division Three league title, at HQ, will do Down’s confidence absolutely no harm.

The Mourne men certainly weren’t at their best last Saturday night but showed resilience and steel to eventually navigate their way past a good Wexford side after extra time.

Down’s ambitions under Conor Laverty are much loftier than a Division Three league triumph, but it’s a stepping stone towards where they want to be and all but guarantees Sam Maguire football for the upcoming season.

“I’m about this game long enough to know how difficult it is to win matches and to win trophies,” said Down selector Mickey Donnelly. “Down’s record in finals has been very well documented but we’re two in a row now.

“The magnitude or the respect others have for the competitions, that’s not for us to judge but it’s certainly good to get a trophy. It maybe didn’t feel like a huge night but maybe when we look back on this journey in five or ten years’ time, we’ll think that it was a huge night.

“There are big moments on teams journey’s along the way that are difficult, sticky moments when they didn’t play as well as they could have, but they got over the line and Saturday was one of those nights maybe.”

Winning when you’re not playing well is the sign of a good team and winning is something Down have got used to in 2026. Outside of the Laois game, when they tasted their first defeat in the final round of the league after already being promoted, it’s been all win, win, win.

“With eight minutes to go we were two down and struggling with ball, struggling to make any impact on the Wexford defence,” Donnelly continued.

“Lav said immediately after the match, it’s a great sign of the lads resilience and character and I think they showed that in great spades on Saturday night, but I’d be delighted if they did it less often!”

Once the draw for the Ulster Championship was made back before Christmas, Down knew they were in for a big test heading to Donegal, who are chasing a first ever three in a row of Anglo Celts.

Now, after Sunday’s demolition of All-Ireland champions Kerry, it seems almost like an impossible mission. Down ran them close in the semi-final last season and if they’d have taken even one of their goal chances that day, things could have panned out differently.

Ultimately, it was Jim McGuinness’ Tir Chonaill men that prevailed and looking at their Division One final performance, and the entire league campaign, Donnelly understands the task that is ahead of them.

“You can pull out all the David and Goliath analogies, Wimbledon and Liverpool and all these sporting analogies but we’re there to give it a go and to give it our best shot,” Donnelly continued, looking ahead to the Letterkenny clash at the end of April.

“We have over four weeks to prepare and to really throw the kitchen sink at it and that’s what we’re prepared to do. We have a management team that are very diligent and we take great pride in trying to set up a team to be as competitive as we possibly can.

“We watched a brilliant Donegal performance on Sunday but ultimately, teams can have off days, and we could have a really good day. We probably just need the perform storm that will meet somewhere in between.

“Donegal have unearthed new players as well and it’s difficult to prepare for Donegal because there’s that many fires that you have to put out.

“You look at the Donegal team last Sunday without (Shaun) Patton, without Daire Ó Baoill, without Oisin Gallen, Ciaran Thompson is coming back, Ciaran Moore, these lads are all household names.

“Finnbarr Roarty only came off the bench because of his involvement the u-20s. They’re a serious, serious outfit with a huge depth chart in terms of playing ability. We’ll have four weeks of intense prep, and we haven’t been far away when we’ve had that lead in to big games.”