NFL Division 1 2024

[SouthOfThe Bann]

Division 1 is going to be very tight given all 4 semifinalists since last year are in the mix while Galway, Mayo, Roscoomon and Tyrone make up the rest. There is no obvious weak link, unlike last year.
Round 7 should be gas.

The Rossies and Monaghan are your obvious weak links in theory.

Monaghan don't do theory though and deserve great respect.

The Rossies done great to stay up last year but they didn't back it up in the All Ireland series as they tend to do an awful lot.

Id argue Donegal Cork Armagh and Kildare are all teams with a higher ceiling than the Rossies or Monaghan.

Not sure whys it's not happening for Kildare and Cork especially, but maybe this year could change things.

Monaghan are in the McKenna Cup semis. I think tyrone and Mayo may be relegation dark horses if championship is the yardstick.

Your right there is always a surprise team to get relegated. Monaghan and Roscommon can beat anyone on their day in the league especially early doors. Should be interesting anyway.

[Rossfan]

Strange competition.
The main aim of all the teams is avoiding relegation.
Does anyone really want to reach the Final?
A kind of a slow bicycle race...

[imtommygunn]

   That's it in a nutshell really isn't it. Foreplay until about round 4 then teams in the shit start playing 

[weareros]

The thing with the league is if you bust a gut to win it, unless you are Kerry and Dublin who don't have to peak too soon in championship, you could fall very flat in championship. The new format also means that the most important thing is to avoid relegation as there's no guarantee of championship football down in Division 2 if you don't make your provincial final. But peak too soon in league and with the longer championship, you could be in trouble as the Summer goes on. We for example had a good league coming 3rd. Then our 1st three earlier outings in the championship were at the time 3 of the top 4 favourites,  - Mayo, Galway, Dublin. We acquitted ourselves well early in the championship beating the league champions, drawing with the eventual All-Ireland champions and losing in between to Galway in Connacht final. Then we were knocked out losing to two teams Kildare and Cork we would have expected to beat. I wonder will league finalists Mayo and Galway put too much stock in the league. They ended up having disappointing championships. McStay in his 2nd year with Ros (In 1st, he and FOD made Div 1 league semi-final but horrendous championship) put much less emphasis on Div 1 and ended up winning Connacht, but demoted to Div 2. Derry up in the Div 1 for the first time in a long time are a good bet to win it. I could see the final table being something of a complete inverse of the final standings last year. I'd be hopeful we'll just about stay up but losing such important players who are taking a year out (Ciaran Murtagh, Conor Daly, Cian McKeon) and likely without Brigids lads for 1st couple of games will leave us up against it.

Derry
Dublin
Monaghan
Tyrone
Kerry
Roscommon
Galway
Mayo

[Keyser soze]

I would agree putting a lot of effort into the early stages of the league in order to stay up could be a double edged sword, and especially for the counties with a smaller pick due to population ie Mon, Ros and Derry.

[imtommygunn]

This is not to have a go at anyone here but Roscommon always seem to ether peak early in the league and poor championship or struggle in league and have a good championship.

Derry really haven't had to peak too early in a while being in lower leagues so they should be interesting.

Monaghan and Tyrone always seem to time it right and Mayo, Galway, Dublin, Kerry always seem to have enough strength that it doesn't matter as much for them.

[Armagh18]

The thing with the league is if you bust a gut to win it, unless you are Kerry and Dublin who don't have to peak too soon in championship, you could fall very flat in championship. The new format also means that the most important thing is to avoid relegation as there's no guarantee of championship football down in Division 2 if you don't make your provincial final. But peak too soon in league and with the longer championship, you could be in trouble as the Summer goes on. We for example had a good league coming 3rd. Then our 1st three earlier outings in the championship were at the time 3 of the top 4 favourites,  - Mayo, Galway, Dublin. We acquitted ourselves well early in the championship beating the league champions, drawing with the eventual All-Ireland champions and losing in between to Galway in Connacht final. Then we were knocked out losing to two teams Kildare and Cork we would have expected to beat. I wonder will league finalists Mayo and Galway put too much stock in the league. They ended up having disappointing championships. McStay in his 2nd year with Ros (In 1st, he and FOD made Div 1 league semi-final but horrendous championship) put much less emphasis on Div 1 and ended up winning Connacht, but demoted to Div 2. Derry up in the Div 1 for the first time in a long time are a good bet to win it. I could see the final table being something of a complete inverse of the final standings last year. I'd be hopeful we'll just about stay up but losing such important players who are taking a year out (Ciaran Murtagh, Conor Daly, Cian McKeon) and likely without Brigids lads for 1st couple of games will leave us up against it.

Derry
Dublin
Monaghan
Tyrone
Kerry
Roscommon
Galway
Mayo

Monaghan will no doubt finish 6th from a last minute winner in round 7 you have them awful high lol

[Armagh18]

This is not to have a go at anyone here but Roscommon always seem to ether peak early in the league and poor championship or struggle in league and have a good championship.

Derry really haven't had to peak too early in a while being in lower leagues so they should be interesting.

Monaghan and Tyrone always seem to time it right and Mayo, Galway, Dublin, Kerry always seem to have enough strength that it doesn't matter as much for them.

It's not all that long from Tyrone, Mayo, Galway and Dublin all had a year in division 2.

[imtommygunn]

Did Mayo have? I didn't realise that. Tbh I would near have seen the others as blips with new managers etc.

[Armagh18]

Did Mayo have? I didn't realise that. Tbh I would near have seen the others as blips with new managers etc.

They went down with their strong side and think got to an all ireland final out of division 2, not sure of the year. Could have been 2020.

[imtommygunn]

Jaysus forgot all about that.

[weareros]

Derry
Dublin
Monaghan
Tyrone
Kerry
Roscommon
Galway
Mayo

Monaghan will no doubt finish 6th from a last minute winner in round 7 you have them awful high lol

I do. I just sort of flipped last year's standings/rankings to engineer our neighbours getting demoted and have us scrape survival.

[Main Street]

I don't know where the optimism is coming from that Monaghan will finally put 'the not being relegated' jinx to the sword. We are cursed with eternal div 1 status.  Please let us be relegated this year and break this awful curse.

[inroundthesquare]

A lot will depend on the approach Kerry take to the league or what players available.
I think last year the cliffords and Sean O'Shea were missing in the early parts of the league.
Tyrone even beat them! 

For Derry, if we can retain Div1 status that will be a win.
We'll need some early wins as teams will get stronger as the league goes on (but then everyone will be targeting early wins so there's nothing insightful there).

For what it's worth, I'd currently rate the teams in this order but you can never rule Tyrone/Monaghan out and Derry could also really struggle with tough games early in the year, though hopefully not:

1. Kerry
2. Dublin
3. Galway
4. Derry
5. Mayo
6. Roscommon
7. Tyrone
8. Monaghan

O'Shea and Cliffords all played against Tyrone in the league last year

[inroundthesquare]

Last year in Division 2:

Dublin - 2023
Derry - 2023
Roscommon - 2022
Galway - 2022
Mayo - 2021

Tyrone - 2016
Monaghan - 2014

Kerry - 2002