Oisín McConville believes that Mayo and Armagh are facing real potential peril in the backdoor arena following their provincial championship defeats against Galway and Donegal respectively.
Mayo's late charge wasn’t enough in Castlebar as Galway held on to win by the minimum in their Connacht quarter-final, while earlier in the day Armagh failed to get anywhere close to the expectations surrounding them as they fell to Donegal in Ulster on a 1-16 to 0-12 scoreline.
The Orchard County in particular have been heavily involved in early qualifier round action under manager Kieran McGeeney, and it has allowed them to build up momentum.
Their first-round opponents during his time in charge have been Wicklow, Laois, Fermanagh and Westmeath with three wins arriving from those encounters. Mayo have been involved in round one action once in the same period, hitting 5-19 against a then Division 4 Limerick in 2018.
However, with the new Tailteann Cup format in play, Mayo and Armagh will have to start their rebuild against Division 1 or 2 opposition, or Louth and Limerick who earned promotion from the third tier in 2022.
"I just hope that’s not the draw, Armagh versus Mayo. I don’t think either team will want that," the two-time Orchard All-Star told RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland show.
"There are no easy games now. There’s only a couple of rounds of qualifiers altogether so there is an opportunity to get back in to this championship.
"They obviously have five or six weeks now to get their heads around the defeat and try and work on what has gone wrong.
"There’s a chance to get going again but it’s very unforgiving because you’re going to be coming up against top class opponents.
"I suppose a lot of people would have questioned the quality of Division 2 but I think Galway burst that myth yesterday. They looked as good and better in a lot of departments than Mayo did. I think a lot of teams will be very wary if they’re playing against a Division 2 side now."
McConville believes that the impressive nature of those Galway and Donegal victories ensures that they should be considered contenders to go deep into the 2022 All-Ireland Championship – and maybe even all the way.
"I think they have all [the top sides] come back to the pack a little bit," he said.
"You would suggest that on the evidence of what we’ve seen that Kerry might be slightly ahead of everyone else but I do think that on any given day that scalps can be taken.
"That’s the nature of where we are in terms of football right now and I think that’s a good place to be because the last thing we want is a team dominating because I don’t think it does anything for any of the counties.
"There are a lot teams now with a realistic opportunity not just to take a scalp but to actually go ahead and win the championship."
