It's a make-or-break time for seven counties on Sunday as the concluding round of the Allianz National Football League proves once again to be as much about survival as reaching the semi-finals.
Three counties from Division One A and four from Division Two B will be fighting for their survival in top-flight football.
No matter what happens, though, it will all end in disappointment for more than half of them. In Division One A, Offaly and Monaghan are both on three points while Cork are on four. If Cork beat Monaghan, then both Monaghan and Offaly will be relegated, irrespective of how Offaly fare against Fermanagh. If Monaghan and Offaly win then Cork will face the drop, together with either Monaghan or Offaly, and most likely Offaly.
Things are even more confusing in Division One B, with Wexford, Meath, Armagh and Kildare all facing the drop. Wexford have to beat Armagh to have any chance of surviving, while an Armagh win would probably see them survive. Yet that depends on how Meath get on against Derry, as both Armagh and Meath are on four points.
Kildare look safest in fourth from the bottom, but they could still be relegated if they lose to Laois and both Armagh and Meath win.
For Meath, the relegation threat is particularly exasperating, as they appeared to be in good fettle when starting out. Fresh from their O'Byrne Cup final win over Offaly, they competed well away to Down in round one, losing by just four points, before beating Armagh by seven points and then surviving the best and worst Laois had to offer, which included 21 wides.
Then they went off the map, with successive defeats to Wexford, Kildare and Galway. Forward Daithi Regan has found all this particularly frustrating as he's watched most of it from the sideline having sustained a torn hamstring in the O'Byrne Cup.
"I suppose we were flying early on in the season," says Regan. "Then we'd a couple of poor results all right, which makes this last one against Derry such a massive game for us. Even if we do win we're still depending on some other results to stay up. But if we do our job well then, hopefully, it will work out.
"We've been up and down for a few reasons. We were missing some players with injury and I think it does take a while for the new manager to settle in. Eamonn Barry has been trying out different training methods, and getting everyone used to it. That takes a while but he's been pushing things on all the time, and, hopefully, it will all come together for us on Sunday."
Regan managed to play a minute of the Wexford match and all of the Kildare game, and having fully recovered from the hamstring problem is ready to play his part in the battle for survival. And so too is a certain Graham Geraghty.
"Yeah, and to be honest it is a huge addition to have him back," says Regan. "I think we needed him back. Ollie Murphy is also back training with us. And the two McKeigues (Niall and Shane) as well as Stephen MacGabhann, so we've a lot of experienced lads back now and they're all big additions.
"But we'll just have to take whatever comes. I suppose we do have one eye on round one of the championship, because Louth are flying in Division Two at the moment and we'll definitely need to get our boat in order for that meeting in May."
