Down captain Pierce Laverty speaks to our sports reporter Kieran Lynch ahead of the Division 3 final against Westmeath at Croke Park.
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00:00 Pierce, obviously a successful campaign so far, you achieved the goal of getting promotion,
00:04 just how do you reflect on how the league went up to this point?
00:07 Yeah, it went brilliantly from our perspective. I suppose our main focus was this year, which
00:12 is promotion and getting up to an intermission, so it's great to get there and we look forward
00:18 to the league final next week.
00:20 Just probably fair to say, maybe, I don't know what you feel is inside the camp, but
00:23 certainly on the outside, that there was a bit of pressure on down, maybe that bit of
00:25 expectation going in that there was promotion or bust, did you feel that in any way?
00:31 Yeah, I suppose, maybe if people aren't talking about it, you definitely feel it, especially
00:36 not getting up last year and losing out by, I think it was maybe a point on the table
00:40 staff that's been going up. The pressure was definitely building, but the message was this
00:45 week just to go and enjoy it and relax, and it's only a game of football, you don't play
00:49 it with a smile on your face, and I think the boys really done that and they really
00:52 showed their performance.
00:53 How do you feel you've been building, you've certainly been racking up a lot of scores,
00:57 probably earlier in the league, the likes of the Offaly game where you conceded maybe
01:00 more than you would have wanted to, the West Leeds maybe wasn't your best game, so there
01:03 probably was ups and downs, but overall, satisfied?
01:06 Yeah, definitely satisfied, I suppose you would like maybe to be playing a bit more
01:10 consistently, and not conceding so much in them couple of games, but look, you have to
01:15 learn from them, I think we have learned from them, and we're definitely pushing on.
01:18 And do you feel like you saved your best for last, obviously the game against Clare yesterday
01:21 was sort of built as a bit of a promotion to Cider, a massive game at home in Park Esker,
01:25 and you sort of brought your best stuff to the table?
01:27 Yeah, I think everything just sort of fell into motion, and a lot of boys did some great
01:32 performances, and you could name four, five, six boys that really pushed on and did well,
01:37 so it was a great win.
01:38 And you get another crack now at West Meath on Saturday night, how do you reflect on that
01:42 first game, obviously a draw, so probably on the face of it a decent result, but inside
01:46 the camp weren't happy about the performance?
01:48 Yeah, I suppose some aspects of our form play weren't up to scratch, we had a lot of hand
01:53 on ours and things to get there, but I suppose if you had told me at the start of the year
01:57 you were going to get out of Mullingar with a draw, and roll into your last game, and
02:01 it's still in your hands, then I would have took that.
02:04 Is that probably a good thing, that shows that maybe the expectations around there have
02:07 gone up, that we are expecting to win every game?
02:10 Yeah, that's it, you want to win every game you can play, and that's the way we look at
02:14 it, I'm not looking past any other game, or looking at the championship and that, we want
02:19 to win next Saturday, and that's it.
02:22 It's a massive occasion isn't it, you got a taste of Croke Park last year, didn't go
02:26 your way against Meath, but you're expecting big turn out from the down supporters coming
02:29 down, and a chance for silverware, and who knows in terms of All-Ireland permutations
02:33 what it might mean?
02:34 Yeah, I think the support, even building from last year, the support has been brilliant,
02:38 and I encourage as many people as possible to get out to games, and to see half time
02:43 during the tour game, the pitch just covered, and young ones kicking ball, and that, so it's
02:48 great to see.
02:50 Is that the goal, to get into the All-Ireland Series for later on this summer?
02:54 Yeah, I mean absolutely, we want to be down at the top table, and taking the big teams
02:59 in Urey, and seeing how we fare against them, so yeah ultimately it is, so if it comes down
03:06 to it, we want to be playing in the big games.