DOWN County Board chairman Sean Rooney has denied reports that a county official was involved in a row with manager Eamonn Burns during last Sunday’s loss to Clare in Ennis.
Rooney also denied that the county endorsed a Tweet from a private Twitter account calling for Burns to step down and insisted that the Bryansford clubman could turn Down’s fortunes around.
“Nothing happened at the weekend as far as we’re concerned,” said Rooney.
“We’re being misrepresented that @officialDownGAA liked a tweet that Eamonn should go. That tweet was certainly not endorsed by Down GAA.
“We’re committed to working with the players and management to see us out of this rut that we’re in. We’re in a sticky situation because we’ve lost a couple of games but that stuff that’s happening on Twitter is malicious and it doesn’t represent the Down County Board at all.”
On reports of an alleged altercation between a Down official and Burns, Rooney added: “There was absolutely nothing.
“Players and management have discussions within a game, but there was nothing between the county board and the manager. (All these allegations) are totally false.”
While Rooney has backed his manager all the evidence suggests that all is not well in Down.
Kilcoo’s Paul Devlin became the latest player to quit the Mourne panel following the recent withdrawals of Ryan Mallon, Damien Turley, Danny Savage and Gary McMahon. But Rooney said talk of a mass exodus was “absolute nonsense”.
“A couple of players have left the panel – I’m not sure of their circumstances – but players leave panels early in the year for different reasons,” he said.
“There is absolutely no way there’ll be a mass walkout or anything like that. Talk of a mass walkout is just nonsense, absolute nonsense.”
Rooney conceded that “results have made it a difficult time” but said he expected two-time All-Ireland winner Burns, who is in his second season as Mourne manager, to remain at the helm.
“There are five games left and I think he can turn things around,” he said.
“Expectations are always high in Down with regard to fixtures and results.
“Whenever things aren’t going our way there’s always rumblings and people aren’t happy. You have to work through it as best you can.
“We have put structures in place to improve our underage and our development squads – it just won’t happen by waving a magic wand. You have to build these things and we have put things in place to try and see some improvement.”
Last Sunday’s 2-11 to 0-11 defeat in Ennis was Down’s 14th consecutive loss in League and Championship football.
That horror run began during Jim McCorry’s one-year term in charge during which the Mournemen won promotion to Division One but lost the Division Two final and then exited the Championship after defeats against Derry in Ulster and Wexford in the Qualifiers.
After a drawn-out process, Burns was plucked from managing Tullylish to manage his county but he has been unable to stop the slide. Down lost all seven of their Division One games last season, were trounced in Ulster at the hands of Monaghan and then exited the Qualifiers at the first hurdle when Longford won in Newry.
This year things looked up briefly with a McKenna Cup win against Derry that ended a 21-month wait on a win against county opposition but one-sided losses to Fermanagh and then Clare have placed Burns in the eye of a storm.
The Down manager has ignored experienced players and relied on rookies to turn the tide and they have struggled. The county desperately needs a win in their next game against Meath at Pairc Esler on Saturday, February 25.
