Ryan Magill of University of Ulster poses for a portrait with the Sigerson Cup before the draw for the Electric Ireland GAA Higher Education Championships at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Ryan Magill has great expectations for Down football in 2025.
Promotion from Division Three and victory in the Tailteann Cup Final has set the Mourne County up for a New Year of significant promise.
“It was a great buzz to win the Tailteann Cup,” says Magil. “We're now where we think we deserve to be, up in the Sam Maguire testing ourselves against the best teams in the country and seeing what level we really are.
“It was great to win here last year and we're buzzing for the start of the League. Hopefully we can push on from last year.
“All we want is for the county to come out and support us. You saw the support that Armagh had last year and there's definitely that support in Down for us. We just have to give them something to cheer about. Hopefully if they come and follow us we'll give them more days down here in Croke Park.”
Armagh are a good yardstick by which to measure Down’s improvement as a team in the last couple of years.
In 2023 the Orchard County beat them by 12 points in the Ulster SFC semi-final. This year at the same stage of the provincial championship the margin of defeat was just a single point.
Armagh’s subsequent march to the All-Ireland title has opened Down eyes to possibilities that weren’t within view before, just like it has for other counties.
“Obviously Dublin dominated for years but since then it's been quite a switch-up,” says Magill. “Armagh busted out from the pack to win it last year and only beat us in the Ulster semi-final by a point.
“You're not saying you're going to win an All-Ireland, but it makes you think that at least you're not far off the teams that are competing.
“If you win a few games you get momentum and belief and confidence and you just don't know where that can take you.”
Joe McElroy of Armagh in action against Ryan Magill of Down during the Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship semi-final match between Down and Armagh at St Tiernach's Park in Clones, Monaghan. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
Magill isn’t thinking too much about the inter-county season just yet though, because for now he’s fully focused on Ulster University’s Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup campaign which begins with a first-round tie against ATU Sligo on January 7.
The Down defender captained his college to their first Sigerson Cup title in 16 years back in February, and it’s an achievement that meant an awful lot to him.
“Especially being team captain it was such a privilege that they put the trust in me to be the captain of the team,” says Magill.
“I've lifted cups for the club and an Ulster with my county at U20 level, but an All-Ireland as a captain, I've heard Dublin players say they would put winning a Sigerson up there with winning their All-Irelands, it means that much.
“The buzz to lift it at the end was magic. You're meeting lads from all over your own province, you're creating best friends from winning together and you almost call them brothers at the end of it.
“Last year was our 50th anniversary so it meant all the more to the men of Ulster University that we were able to win it on such a big occasion.”
It’s never easy to predict the top contenders in the Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup in any given year, but Magill is hopeful that Ulster University will be there or there abouts again in 2025.
“It's a similar enough panel," he says. "You have five or six gone. Darragh Canavan and Niall Loughlin are both gone from the full-forward line. Peter Óg McCartan who was in the news this week is gone too. Some great players gone but more new players in.
“Eoin McElholm is in from Tyrone. There are lads coming in straight away who will be able to make an impact.
“We were beaten in the semi-final of the League but we'll see what we're like come the first week of January."
