Aside from London the two worst teams in Gaelic football, according to National League standings, were Waterford and Leitrim.
Both sides finished with four points and only points difference separated the two at the end - with Waterford finishing ahead of Leitrim purely by dint of the fact that their points difference of -8 was slightly better, or maybe less bad, than Leitrim's at -12.
On top of that - both sides are officially the worst teams in the country when it comes to the qualifiers. Between them, they've played a total of 29 qualifiers (Leitrim with 15, Waterford with 14) and they've won one apiece. Leitrim's sole win came against Wicklow in 2012; Waterford's against London in 2011.
They've grown used to being the whipping boys. But the fact that they are seen as the minnows of the game doesn't mean their passion doesn't burn bright ahead of Sunday's clash between the two. On ratings, it might be the worst game in qualifier history, but that doesn't matter a whit to both managers who spoke exclusively to Balls.ie.
Both managers fancy their chances, and have noticed an unusual atmosphere in training in the last few weeks - confidence.
"I have said a few times that this is a favourable draw for us," says Leitrim manager Shane Ward.
Leitrim have only won one qualifier in their history and this is a great chance for us. We know Waterford, we know we can beat Waterford and the fact that we have them at home is a big plus for us. There is a big buzz at training because the lads know they can win and that's a great feeling.
The Waterford manager Tom McGlinchey won't have the most conventional build-up to a championship team. At this level there are no weekends in Carton House to prepare for a championship game.
It's the middle of the Feile down in Tipperary and Waterford and McGlinchey is pencilled in for linesman duties for an under-14 boys game on Saturday morning. Getting away to Carrick-on-Shannon might give him a bit of respite - he has a houseful of girls at home with a contingent from Ballygalget in Down joining his own daughters in Newport in Tipperary.
There's devil a bit of pampering for players in the likes of Waterford or Leitrim. It's the ultimate GAA cliche to say these lads are doing it for pride in the jersey. In fairness, it probably takes a lot more passion for a lad from Leitrim or Waterford to trudge down to training on a wet Tuesday night than it does for someone30 miles down the road in Mayo or Cork. At least the Mayo player has the promise of Croke Park and Cork did too, until recently.
Playing for the big teams, there might be the odd chance of a sponsored car or a handy job somewhere. And if worst comes to worst in the championship - there's always the option of a few quid in America. Those offers don't come too readily to the Waterford and Leitrim players. The money men in Chicago and Boston don't have much interest in lads who muddle through Division Four football.
It'll be interesting to see how many fans pass through the turnstiles at Park Sean Mac Diarmada in Carrick on Sunday afternoon. It's a safe bet that there will be more hen parties in town than supporters at the game. Telling one of them after the game on Sunday night that you're one of the legendary Leitrim or Waterford football players won't get you many right-swipes on Tinder but these players aren't playing for the baubles or the plaudits.
But they can tell a story about the championship game they won in 2015. It mightn't make the headlines - but it matters to them. More than we know.
McGlinchey (pictured above) tells a story of how much it means to his Waterford side.
It's huge. People underestimate it. It's hard to comprehend to people from the outside looking in what this game means. People look at it and say 'sure it's only Leitrim and Waterford - does it really matter?'
And the truth of it is, to people outside those two counties - it doesn't matter. But to the panel - it would mean the world to us to be able to say 'yeah, we've won a championship game.' That's what Sunday is all about.
We know we are not going to win All-Irelands. These lads are playing for their county. These are still the best 24 or 26 best footballers in their county and that's something to be proud of. That's an achievement for any player; no matter what county you play for.
I was at a presentation this year for the first Waterford football team to represent the county in Croke Park. (The Deise football team got to the league quarter-final against Dublin in 1966; losing 1-16 to 1-2). There you had a group of 21 men coming together - men in their seventies and eighties, every single one of them alive - and nobody talked about the result. Instead it was about was a group of men that went up to play Dublin in Croke Park and 50 years later they are still talking about it. Isn't that fantastic?
That brings it back down to what's great about the game. Maybe in 20 or 30 or even 50 years time, these lads might be getting together and saying 'remember that day we went up to Carrick-on Shannon and beat Leitrim in a championship game?'
Ward (pictured above), 34, is a Donegal man firmly entrenched as the Leitrim manager. He lives in Manorhamilton and has been involved for the best part of a decade with Leitrim's youth development. He admits that he has high hopes for the county. He speaks with intensity and passion - and it might just be the Donegal accent - but there is more than a hint of Jimmy McGuinness about him. He approaches the game scientifically, and he knows the challenge facing him all too well.
I have big plans for Leitrim - sometimes bigger than the players themselves. But my job is to convince my players that when they come up against teams like Mayo, Galway or Roscommon - teams who have ambitions of getting to the last eight if not further in the All-Ireland - that they have done as much work and preparation as those sides.
There was very little between the two sides in the League (Waterford won by a point in a deluge in April) but the lads know it's up to us. It isn't often that we can say we should win a championship game but since the draw was made - the lads have been buzzing. You'd notice it. Obviously there is a new pressure when it comes to the expectations - but we are well able to handle that.
Ward and McGlinchey are friendly and speak on the phone fairly regularly. McGlinchey describes Ward as "an absolute gent". They are men cut from the same cloth. It takes a certain type of man to want to manage a Leitrim or a Waterford. Neither manager is gung-ho in their confidence but they know there's little enough between the sides. One thing they do agree on is the fact the current championship format doesn't do sides like theirs any favours.
The championship is skewed against counties like Leitrim (says Ward). Even at minor and under-21; we have a lot of young lads here who have played maybe one game at minor before they were knocked out and the same at under-21.
So by the time they are seniors they have only played four intercounty games in four years whereas all the big sides will have players with 10 and 20 games which can only stand to them. We played in front of over 9000 people against Roscommon last time out and that's the first time a few of my lads have played in front of more than a few hundred people.
McGlinchey concurs; he's only had two training sessions with his side since their eight-point defeat to Cork in the opening round of the championship three weeks ago because the vast majority of his players have been away on playing club hurling:
I always say that the National League is the best competition in the GAA at the moment. All the four divisions in the league are even and on any given Sunday any team could beat another team. The championship needs to be looked at but now is not the time to be thinking about that. It doesn't matter now.
Indeed it doesn't. All that does is the result. Same as for the big boys.
