By Kieran Lynch

THE DOWN leagues are gearing up for the league play-offs, as the creams of the crop are separated from the best of the rest, as the top four teams in both the first and third division will now play each other twice, in order to determine the league champions.

In Division One, Kilcoo have laid down a marker, and picked up right from where they left off, when they lifted the All-Ireland title in February.

They powered their way to 10 wins from their opening 11 games, with only Clonduff, being able to defeat Conleith Gilligan’s men, as they won 1-13 to 2-9 back in April.

However, the All-Ireland champions have responded with nine wins in-a-row, with their most recent outing a comfortable 1-10 to 0-4 win over Downpatrick.

Despite their brilliant run of form, that won’t count for much now, as the Down Division One and Division Three head into the league split, and all sides are back to square one, as they all begin on level pegging, with zero points.

Joining Kilcoo are last year’s beaten Down Championship finalists Burren, Mayobridge and Clonduff. Mayobridge head into the split on a low, having lost 1-1 to 1-10 against Clonduff last week, but they will have a chance to extact immediate revenge, as they battle once again this Friday.

In Division Two, the league hasn’t split, and remains a 10-team group, which Bredagh leads. The South Belfast club have made a flying start to 2022 and having won nine of their opening 11 games, they will feel very confident of attaining promotion from Division Two, having come so close to doing so in recent years, but just falling short.

Closest in the chasing pack are Longstone and Saval, who both trail Bredagh by four points, so with seven games to play, nothing is settled just yet.

Division Three, like Division One is heading towards a split, and it has two clear favourites. Newry Shamrocks and Drumgath have been the outstanding teams in the third division, as both sides won 10 of their opening 11 games.

Joining those two sides in the last four are Ballymartin and Tullylish, who finished in third and fourth place respectively, with both claiming eight wins from 11 games.

In Division Four, the league has been split from the start, and
Drumaness lead the way by six
points over their nearest rivals, having won all nine of their fixtures to this point.