Promotion is possible if not quite black and white

The Christmas tree was barely up in the Radisson Hotel in Ballincar on December 8, yet Tony McEntee and his Sligo players already had their eyes firmly fixed on a date in Ennis on January 28.

At the medal presentation to mark their Division Four success of last year, the Sligo panel and the management team already had their plans in place for a crack at Clare in the first round of this year’s Division Three campaign.

That date now arrives this coming Sunday and Sligo should travel south with a fair degree of confidence.

There’s little doubt that football in the county is on the rise again, largely down to the exploits of the county’s minor and U20 footballers in winning Connacht titles in each of the last three seasons. In those years, the senior team has been making steady progress and that culminated in last year’s promotion, as well as a Connacht final appearance and participation in the All-Ireland series.

The last time Sligo won Division Four, in 2009, they went on to win Division Three the very next year and a second successive promotion is not beyond the realms of possibility this term. This may be fanciful thinking to some degree, but take a look around at the other teams in Division Three, not least Sunday’s opponents.

I was behind the mic for the meeting of Clare and Mayo in the summer of 2021, in what was essentially a game to earn promotion to Division One. That match was a real hum-dinger, in which Clare pushed Mayo to the pin of their collar before the visitors eventually emerged with a 2-22 to 2-18 victory. Many of the Mayo supporters, however, will remember that day in Cusack Park as the day Cilian O’Connor sustained a nasty achilles injury which ruled him out of the remainder of the season.

More to the point, that was a different Clare team. Managed by Colm Collins, they had top players in virtually every sector. David Tubridy was still plying his trade in the full forward line, Eoin Cleary was on the ’40 and Cathal O’Connor provided a physical presence in the middle third.

Clare, though, have since undergone a major transition. They’ll be without up to 13 players from last year’s panel for this Sunday’s match and also have a new boss in the dugout in the form of Tralee native Mark Fitzgerald. Local media in the county reported earlier this month that up to 16 new players were added to the panel for the coming season.

So it’s all change for the Banner and while there will be a certain freshness to the Sligo panel, they now have a very set way of playing under Tony McEntee and the introduction of several of the U20 stars of recent years will help add even more impetus, even if it may take a season or two for them to acclimatise at the top level.

Canice Mulligan and Dylan Walsh would appear to be the two capable of making the biggest impact — St Molaise Gaels duo Joe Keaney and Luke Casserly may also see game time — but the old reliables will still be key for Sligo in the coming weeks.

Niall Murphy endured a long season at club level last year with Coolera/Strandhill winning the senior championship, and he got married over Christmas, but you’d expect he’ll still play a big role in the early rounds of the league. Sean Carrabine is back in action after sustaining a knee injury playing with Castleconnor last September.

Division Three is a notoriously difficult section to predict but, at the outset, Westmeath and Down would appear to be the two frontrunners for the top two positions. Those counties occupied the two spots behind the top two, Fermanagh and Cavan, last season.

Limerick and Clare came down from Division Two but it would appear they’re both on a downward spiral after a number of good years and not on a trajectory that will result in an immediate return to the second tier. Antrim have threatened to take off under Andy McEntee, and beat Cavan in last year’s league, while Offaly have also shown flashes of promise over the last few years.

Wicklow, who came up with Sligo from Division Four last year, will also prove to be sticky opposition in what is Oisin McConville’s second year at the helm, but they performed poorly in the Tailteann Cup after their league exploits in 2023.

This is an interesting period for football in Sligo, as those involved try to navigate something that has never been the case before in the modern era — how best to integrate successful underage players with medals in their pocket into the senior set-up.

Of course, all of us as supporters want to see this happen as quickly as possible, but it’s fair to say that the step up between U20 and senior level is as big as it ever has been for many players given the levels of conditioning required to play at the top grade.

In that sense, we have to be patient with the current crop and the younger emerging players as they start to gel and come together. But at the time same time, it’s okay, healthy even, to have a level of expectation.

Ten points could well be the magic number in Division Three. Five wins from seven could see you promoted, as it did last year in the case of Cavan.

Sligo have always placed an emphasis on a strong home record in league and championship, and four of their games this spring will be in the Markievicz Park (against Wicklow, Antrim, Offaly and Westmeath). Two of those matches are the final two games of the campaign on March 17 and 24.

Sligo’s aim should be to be in the promotion mix by the time St Patrick’s weekend rolls around.