By Michael McMullan

A NATIONAL title is up for grabs but Saturday’s Division Three final brings a level of uncertainty for Down and Wexford.

With Kildare relegated from Division Two but still guaranteed a ticket to the Sam Maguire race, the winners from this game will have their fingers crossed.

Should any team below them in the overall league leaderboard make a provincial final, Down or Wexford will join Cavan (2023) and Offaly last year as Division Three winners destined for the Tailteann Cup.

“It’s like winning a ticket to a raffle,” joked Down selector Mickey Donnelly. “The winning ticket is a pink number 97, you bring it up, only to be told it’s a different coloured number 97.

“That’s a wee bit like what’s at stake this weekend. You’re certainly competing with Sam Maguire in mind, but you’re realistic to recognise that it could be taken away from you.”

The uncertainty will be irrelevant if Down can knock Donegal out of the Ulster Championship on the way to booking a spot in the final.

That’s an April discussion. Speaking on his way to Monday’s training session in Ballykinlar, Donnelly has Saturday in Croke Park in his sights.

“When we made our own micro-targets at the start of the year, the first one was to be in the league final and the second one was to win it,” he said.

“There’s a lot made of the fact that we have lost a lot of finals in Croke Park and the (2024) Tailteann Cup final broke that.

“We just want to win the league title and, at the minute, that’s a ticket to Sam Maguire football.

“We’re hoping that that doesn’t change, but we’re big enough to realise that nothing is set in stone until after the provincial finals.”

With seconds to go last weekend, Westmeath looked like joining Down in the final, a pairing many anticipated before a league ball was kicked.

Wexford had other ideas and their late goal was the most dramatic of Sunday’s sub plots.

“To be perfectly honest, we had an eye on both teams last week,” Donnelly said of Sunday’s showdown, played as Down finished their league campaign against Laois.

“We did toy with the idea of some of us going down to Wexford and watching the match live.

“We thought that would have been disrespectful to the last round of the league as well.”

In Donnelly’s book, it doesn’t change anything and he has been delving deeper into what Wexford will bring.

The Aghaloo man has been around the block in football terms, club, county and school.

He looks at Wexford’s back-to-back promotions, following from Louth in 2021 and ‘22.

Down and Limerick, who also beat Wexford in last season’s Division Four final, are the only teams to have beaten them in two years of league football.

Darragh Brooks was a key figure in Wexford’s promotion campaign

“I suppose Wexford are looking at the likes of Louth and asking themselves if they can be the next Louth in Leinster,” Donnelly added.

He also spoke of Wexford’s 24 two-pointers in the league to date, eight more than the Mourne men, and the threat of goalkeeper Darragh Brooks, Wexford’s version of Rory Beggan.

“They’re a good team with excellent forwards, they’re mobile and have a really, really good midfield,” Donnelly added.

“We’ll be giving Wexford an awful lot of attention and an awful lot of respect because the stakes are so high for both teams.”

Down played five games in Croke Park across 2023 and 2024 but despite grabbing plenty of praise for some of their championship performances last year, they didn’t get a run out at Headquarters.

“It’s brilliant to be back in Croke Park,” Donnelly said. “Ultimately, the vision that Lav (Conor Laverty) sold this group is not about wanting to play curtain-raisers.

“It’s about wanting to play in big games in Croke Park in front of big crowds. Maybe Saturday night isn’t what you’d have in mind, but, ultimately, it’s a step along the way.”

There is a hope it can give the Down squad a reminder of what life is like in the biggest house in the country and it will whet the appetite to keep climbing the footballing ladder.

There is another aspect to Saturday. A chance to stare any defining moments head on.

Dig into Down’s recent crossroads’ moments. How they pushed Armagh all the way in an Ulster semi-final in their All-Ireland year.

They asked Donegal plenty at the same stage last year too. There was a belter of a game against Galway, but like their defeat to Monaghan, it was another case of coming up short.

While Donnelly stresses Down have no interest in dealing in moral victories, these games against Division One teams form a collective barometer of sorts.

Conor Laverty congratulates Monaghan manager Gabriel Bannigan after last’s All-Ireland victory over his Down side

“I don’t think we took any sanctimonious platitudes out of it,” he said. “We were immensely disappointed on both days (Ulster semi-finals defeats to Armagh and Donegal).

“Maybe in the players’ psyche, it lets them know, these brilliant teams and ultimately these poster boys for the association in Ulster, and further beyond, they’re human too.

“If we can get our ducks a row and play on the front foot, play to the best of our ability, we’d like to think we could belong at that table.”

That’s where Down are now, “looking for an edge” to morph from being a gallant loser to making the significant steps forward.

Donnelly revisits their 2-27 to 1-26 defeat to Monaghan last year in the All-Ireland group stage. A killer goal turned the tide, the difference between a quarter-final as group winners.

“Those better teams make fewer mistakes in those clutch moments,” he explained.

“Every experience we have in life, you have to learn something from it. If we want to progress as a group, we’ve got to learn from Donegal in Clones.

“We’ve got to learn from Monaghan in Armagh, we’ve got to learn from Galway in Newry and we’ve got to learn from Armagh two years ago in Clones.”

Donnelly coins the phrase of insanity, hitting the repeat button and expecting different results. He links it into this weekend.

“There’ll come a time on Saturday where both teams will think this game’s there for the winning,” he said. “We’ve got to find a way, ultimately, for us to win it.”

Victory won’t guarantee them a place in the Sam Maguire but it will give them a chance and an extra kick when they head to O’Donnell Park to take on the Ulster champions next month.