As a side that failed to get out of Division Three this year, Down would be one of the counties earmarked for tier two if they did not reach the Ulster final in 2020, but Coulter believes there would be no real appetite among his players to participate.

“I wouldn’t be happy going into it. Definitely not,” said Ulster’s leading Championship goal-scorer. “I just feel it wouldn’t be good for players. I believe that if players have an opportunity to play in a lower tier Championship, they would say to themselves, ‘I will just stick with my club here. What’s the point of it?’

“And that is no disrespect to anybody within that lower tier.

If you want to apply that thinking, why not take the best four teams out and see if they can play in their own tournament and let everyone else play among themselves. I don’t think that would go down well.

After the past year spent assisting Paddy Tally on the Down sideline, Coulter can see the game from both sides now. Down played their part in two hugely entertaining games against Armagh, which went to extra-time and a narrow loss to Mayo. Under the proposals to be discussed in October, it would be unlikely Down would get to play a game of that magnitude against a top-flight side next summer.

“I think this year, even ourselves playing Mayo in Newry, while we didn’t beat

them it was a great occasion and Newry was buzzing for a week prior to the game. The amount of Mayo people up around Newry here, the place was buzzing,” Coulter said.

“It was packed, the goodfeel factor about it was great. Stuff like that, I think we would miss.”

Coulter also pointed out that a Down team he was a player on back in 2008, failed to make it out of Division Three, yet they beat that year’s eventual All-Ireland winners Tyrone in an Ulster quarter-final replay thriller in Newry.

“We didn’t get out of Division Three that year and they went on to win the All-Ireland.”