No race is won or lost before the halfway stage, although try telling that to Kerry and Down. Defeat for either team on Sunday would leave them staving off relegation from Division One before the Allianz Football League reaches its middle marker.

No wonder both managers are viewing it as a pivotal game. Kerry manager Eamon Fitzmaurice has declared his intention to consider 2016 captain Bryan Sheehan, last year’s captain Kieran Donaghy, plus the likes of Colm “Gooch” Cooper and Marc Ó Sé – none of whom featured in the opening two defeats to Dublin and Roscommon.

Down manager Eamonn Burns is also hoping to welcome back forwards Mark Poland, Conor McGinn and Shane McArdle to his team: McGinn missed their opening two defeats to Donegal and Monaghan, while Poland and McArdle came off injured against Monaghan.

Now, thanks to the three- week break after the opening rounds, Burns is expecting Poland and McArdle to be ready again as they prepare to host Kerry in Newry.

Improvement

“The two lads have made a good deal of progress over the last two weeks and hopefully they will be available for the Kerry game,” he says. “We definitely showed a good deal of improvement in the Monaghan game and probably should have got a draw instead of losing by two points.

“But we will have to improve even further against Kerry, who will be additionally motivated by the fact that, like ourselves, they have lost their opening two games. Playing at home may be worth a few points to us, but we will need a lot more than that to come out on the right side of the result against one of the top four teams in the country.”

Down freetaker Donal O’Hare is also available for selection again, having been suspended for the Monaghan game. However, Benny McArdle and Benny Coulter remain long-term injury absentees: McArdle is still recovering from a ruptured Achilles tendon, while Coulter is still returning to full match fitness after opting out of the panel last season.

Still, victory for either team certainly won’t stave off the relegation threat. Kerry play next at home to Donegal, away to Mayo and Monaghan, before finishing up at home against old rivals Cork; Down are away next to Roscommon, then at home against All-Ireland champions Dublin, before finished up away to Cork and then Mayo in their last two games.

Early pacesetters

Division Two sees the two teams relegated from the top flight last year – Derry and Tyrone – setting the early pace for promotion. Derry are at home to Galway this Sunday, while Tyrone travel to Laois, where Seán Cavanagh will look to resume a starting berth, having coming off the bench in the second-round win over Galway.

“I’ve had a bit of an Achilles problem,” says Cavanagh, “but I am seeing the back of it there now. When you’re at that stage of your career, I’m managing my body, in that you can’t rush yourself into things too quickly. I have played bit parts in most games to date, but I haven’t really been able to play a full 70 minutes at this stage, but I hope to step it up over the next couple of weeks. This couple of weeks’ break has done me no harm and I am hoping to step it up and take the field again Laois.

“I don’t think I am too far away. Sometimes, those niggling wee injuries do you no harm, in that they give your body a wee bit of a break. But at the same time I had done a fair bit of fitness work beforehand, so I have done 80 to 90 per cent of the trainings we have done since December. I am not too far away; it’s just a matter of refining those couple of niggles.

“Last year I started early and played all the McKenna Cup games, and during the league I had a bit of a niggle in the knee, and had to take a bit of time out when we played Donegal in the championship.

“The idea this year is that you start a wee bit later and hopefully then build the body up gradually so that you don’t have any of those niggles come the important time of the league and the championship obviously.”