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24th January 2020
01:27pm GMT

Let's take Cork for example. They will need to finish in the top two of the Division 3 table to be in the race for Sam Maguire. Roscommon on the other hand, just say they finished in the bottom two in Division two, their only saving grace from dropping down to the Tier two championship would be if they beat either London in the Connacht quarter and then the winners of Mayo/Leitrim in the semi to make the Connacht final. Making a provincial final is the only way of staying up for those relegated Division Two teams.
This, could be a difficult task for some counties, and having looked at the draws for the various provincial championships, we take a look at the counties who have a particular need to be at championship pace, in the league.
This business of targeting the League does come with a caveat though. As Conor Heneghan noted on Thursday's GAA Hour podcast, Roscommon did exactly that in Kevin McStay's first year as joint manager in 2016, when copper-fastening their place in Division One, only for their form to stagnate come the summer.
"The ironic thing about that is that a lot of teams who are in that predicament are probably going to bust their balls because they don't want to be in the tier two, but how long are they going to be able to stay at that level? They could be completely flat by championship," said Heneghan.Colm Parkinson feels it will lend to a more competitive league.
"For Division Two teams, it's squeaky bum time. For Division Three teams, it's squeaky bum-time...I do think this year, with so much riding on Division Two and Three...we'll finally see a bit of championship intensity in the League.From a player's perspective, Mark Collins of Cork nods that there's an added significance to the League this yar. "There's probably an added significance with the top two promoted getting into Sam Maguire. There's only one way we can fix that and that's to go back up, but we have to start well. "We probably haven't won our first game in the League in three or four years so the Offaly game in two weeks' time is probably a good place to start, so that's something to look forward to..." You can listen to this discussion, and much more from the most recent GAA Hour Show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR7tkRauPQ0
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