Toppling Donegal, in fact, took meticulous preparation. Laverty had deliberate for the holders’ influential ahead Michael Langan’s absence – which the Down camp bought wind of throughout the week – and drilled his gamers on learn how to cease the Donegal assault.
“We checked out Donegal and we labored on it and we studied them in nice element, significantly their ahead play,” defined Laverty.
“However we targeting ourselves an terrible lot. I believe we approached this recreation in a special method than we approached final yr and the way we approached Armagh within the earlier marketing campaign, albeit it is a completely different recreation now.
“We in all probability felt final yr we got here with a extra frustration recreation to Donegal and making an attempt to carry them down the straight. However the plan as we speak was to stand up and to get at it good and early and actually check them and specific ourselves. The phrase we have used all week is perception.”
To metal his gamers for a top-level championship check, Laverty took them so far as Killarney for a problem recreation in opposition to Kerry.
As Laverty defined, the Kingdom “do not play too many problem matches”, however when the chance arose, he was eager to thrust his gamers right into a tussle with a championship juggernaut.
“It labored for the [Down under] 20s in my first yr. We performed Kerry, we performed Dublin, we performed the perfect groups within the nation,” he stated.
“If we will play Donegal as we speak, and I can say to those lads, after 35 or odd minutes in a recreation, that we’re doing and executing issues that we need to do.
“I perceive individuals need to say Donegal and Kerry performed completely different form of types, however for stress on kick-outs and for zonal presses on kick-outs, it was an important exercise.”
Written off in lots of quarters, Down needn’t have regarded far for motivation, however Laverty additionally revealed he saved a graphic of the Ulster Championship draw that had Donegal going through both Tyrone or Armagh within the semi-finals as his cellphone screensaver as a reminder of how his workforce had been neglected.
“Three weeks, and I’ve checked out it daily,” he stated, including that he confirmed it to his gamers on Thursday.
