After 10 years defying the odds, Monaghan went down swinging in Omagh last Saturday night.
While they've shipped a few hammerings in this campaign, not helped by being down so many key bodies, it was fitting to see them rallying so strongly in the closing stages and almost pulling off another great escape.
And let's be clear, they had plenty of chances to nab the victory in the final quarter.
For all that this has been a testing league for Vinny Corey's side, a win would more than likely have kept them in the top tier for another year, with Tyrone needing a result against a fairly rampant looking Dublin next weekend.
You could argue the second half was the closest we got to seeing the true Monaghan. Conor McManus hadn't seen any league action until the second half against Galway. I thought he was absolutely sensational at the weekend. Watching the comeback from seven points to one point down, it felt like a cometh-the-hour, cometh-the-man display.
Padraig Hampsey is one of the top defenders in the country but McManus roasted him in the second half. Pretty good for a guy who's supposed to have been on the cusp of retirement for a couple of years now.
Their problems, oddly enough, have related to the other end of the pitch. They've conceded more goals than any team across the four divisions, including Fermanagh who managed to let in six in one game.
You'd feel for Jack McCarron at the death. He was very lively and influential throughout the second half but that moment where he failed to pick up the ball near the Tyrone end-line would make you wince. The fact that he face-planted afterwards really completed the scene. I think that was finally the moment when Monaghan realised they were going down.
Whether it's the great disaster it's sometimes billed as is another question.
What does relegation from Division 1 mean? For some teams, it doesn't mean a lot.
After all, for three years running, we've had All-Ireland finalists who began the year in the second tier. Ourselves in 2021, Galway in 2022 and lastly Dublin - the winners - in 2023.
Clearly, looked at in that light, relegation to Division 2 is barely a speed bump.
Armagh and Donegal don't seem to have been mortally wounded - or wounded at all - by their relegation. Kieran McGeeney's team had a statement win over a dangerous Cavan side at the weekend and are roaring back to the top tier without conceding a goal yet. They seem to have real momentum ahead of what could be a big year for them.
Starting in Division 2 seems to have presented Jim McGuinness with a clean slate for his second coming. Likewise, they're in a winning habit, their top players have recovered their verve and their hunger and they'll be a real wildcard in the summer.
When we fell through the trapdoor in the Covid year - on my birthday as it happened - we were very disappointed on the day itself.
We had been one of the longest surviving teams in Division 1 at that point and had close escapes before, the Kev Mc 11-steps point being the most famous.
Ours was an unusual relegation in that the damage was probably done before the pandemic interruption. Oddly enough, when we did go down, we were actually back on an upward curve.
Not unlike Galway this year, we'd be down a lot of bodies with injuries in the spring and were struggling to get players back. From our narrow perspective, Covid arguably came at a good time. Players recovered from injury. Cillian O'Connor got fit again and had one of his best seasons that winter.
When football returned, we gave Galway an almighty walloping in Tuam (that traditional graveyard of Mayo teams, in sharp contrast to Salthill) before being pipped by Tyrone by a point in Castlebar.
Fortunately, the nature of that season, we didn't have much time to dwell on it. We took it on the chin, we talked about it and moved on. There was a bigger picture for us with the championship arriving so soon. We wound up reaching another All-Ireland final and playing reasonably well in that campaign.
I know James Horan is on the record as saying that relegation may have benefitted us. We were in a semi-transitional period and had a lot of young guys to bed into the squad, the likes of Oisín Mullin, Eoghan McLaughlin, Ryan O'Donoghue.
It was their first full year and it was no harm to be in Division 2. It was a shortened campaign, we won all four games and those lads all got real game-time. They all thrived that year. The momentum carried us through to another All-Ireland final.
So, the reality is relegation to Division 2 is far from the end of the world. Provided you come straight back up.
Perhaps one difference with Monaghan is their identity seemed to be bound up with sticking around in Division 1 for so long, given their lighter resources compared to the other elite counties.
Beyond relegation, their deeper issues revolve around the age profile of their top players - the aforementioned McManus, Karl O'Connell, Darren Hughes.
As regards who's going down alongside Monaghan, it'd be a shock to see Roscommon survive given their form until now.
They can stay up with a win in the final round and relegate Galway in the process, provided the Tribesmen don't sneak a result in Killarney. But you wouldn't bank on it.
Roscommon appear to have regressed on the evidence of this league. Their attacking play has been slow and laborious, with little penetration. I know Davy Burke has alluded to the players they're missing, but everyone else is in the same boat.
They may be without Cathal Henaghan now for a while following the incident with Jason Foley, as they should be. It was a nasty incident. I'm not sure where you're head would need to be at, to stamp on someone immediately after scoring a goal.
Derry aren't absolutely sure of a league final place yet, though it's unlikely they'd be dislodged. Either way, I'm not sure Mickey Harte's side are wired to take a weekend off in that way. The Rossies going up there, needing nothing less than a win in Celtic Park - it seems like a big ask.
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