Down attacker Barry O’Hagan says he has no interest in playing in the Tailteann Cup.
He dismissed the second tier competition as ‘pointless’, insisting the All-Ireland is the only series worth competing in.
The sentiment of one of his most experienced and influential players will cause concern to manager James McCartan, who has insisted his side will embrace the new competition.
Read more: James McCartan urges Down to use Tailteann Cup campaign to their benefit
“It’s pointless. You’d rather be going into the back door situation. The Tailteann Cup is one game, that’s it. One match in a month’s time is no use to a team,” said O’Hagan after a heavy Ulster SFC quarter-final defeat to Monaghan eliminated Down from the race for the Sam Maguire Cup.
Having been relegated to Division Three of the Allianz League, the Mournemen now go into the draw for the Tailteann Cup first round, which will be played at the end of this month.
“I don’t care about it, to be honest. I know it’s a football competition and I know the Joe McDonagh Cup works well for the hurling. But we all want to be in the All-Ireland,” O’Hagan said.
“For me personally, I don’t know about the group, I have very little interest in it, to be honest.
“I want to be in an All-Ireland, and we need to be in that situation, we need to get ourselves back into the stage where we can compete for competitions, and obviously we’re not doing that at this moment in time.”
But the 28-year-old Clonduff man indicated that he will be available for the Tailteann campaign.
“Boys are going to put their shoulder to the wheel. It’s not as if we’re not going to show up and try to play.
“But if you ask me now would I rather win an All-Ireland Senior medal of win a Tailteann Cup, I’ll let you decide that answer.
“Sure you have one game, it’s knock-out. We play on May 27 and if you get knocked out, that’s the season over. It’s the same with the back door.”
Despite a two-goal blast midway through their clash with Monaghan, the Mourne men shipped a heavy 10 points beating at Clones.
“We wanted to get a good start to the second half. We went in at half-time and said, right, let’s press the kick-outs, and we got off to a dream start, and then straight away Monaghan went up the field and scored a point, and that killed the sting in the game,” said O’Hagan.
“But look, Monaghan is a Division One team, we’re a Division Three team.
“For us, we’re re-building, and we have to go away and look at ourselves, dust ourselves down, maybe get back to the clubs this week and probably look forward to whoever we draw in the Tailteann Cup towards the end of May.
“Re-building is massive for us. We had five debutants today (Saturday), and three who are probably seeing their career out at the end of this year.
“I don’t think Monaghan had as many debutants as that, so we are re-building, and hopefully we can push on from here.”
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