Football

Family and career should come first for players says Down boss Eamonn Burns

Down have lost five players from last season's Championship squad
Down have lost five players from last season's Championship squad Down have lost five players from last season's Championship squad

DOWN manager Eamonn Burns stressed that “family and career comes first” as he reflected on the withdrawal of three players from his panel for this season.

Experienced Burren defender Conaill McGovern, Ballyholland prospect Joe Murphy and Mayobridge clubman Cathal Magee will sit out this year because of work commitments and the three exits mean that Burns has lost five members of his 2017 squad forcing him to draft in several youngsters from last year’s Down U21 side to replace them.

“We’ve lost a few,” explained the Down manager.

“We had two retirees (Aidan Carr and Mark Poland) and we’ve lost a couple of boys that couldn’t commit this year through work commitments – Conaill McGovern, Joe Murphy and Cathal Magee.

“They are all boys we’d like to have but, as I’ve said to people, they’re not tied to a contract and their family and their career comes first.

“Two of the lads retired which was their call, it was understandable and I left it up to them. We have brought in some of the U21s to bolster the panel a bit and we’ll give those lads a run through the McKenna Cup and see where they go.”

Two of those new faces, Clonduff’s Shay Murnin and Carryduff’s Jack Guinness, were due to make their debuts on Sunday but Down’s clash with Ulster University was postponed because of a frozen pitch at St Mary’s Burren.

Bredagh clubman Conor Francis was due to make his first start in the game alongside fellow rookies Colm Flanagan, Johnny Bell, Ronan Millar and Aaron Morgan. Millar, younger brother of Shay and one of three players from the Glenn club in the panel, had top scored with five points in the opener against Armagh and has been earmarked as an emerging talent.

“We brought them in at the end of the League last year,” explained Burns when asked about the youngsters in his panel.

“They came out of the U21 set-up and they impressed in in-house games and in training so they’re getting a chance now. The likes of Ronan Millar and James Guinness are both in full-time this year so we’ll see how they go.”

The postponement of Sunday’s game means that Burns and his players face a busy couple of weeks as they prepare to face Pete McGrath’s Louth in their Division Two opener in Drogheda on January 28.

The trip to the newly-promoted ‘Wee County is followed by the visit of Cork to Pairc Esler before a trip to face 2017 Connacht champions Roscommon at Dr Hyde Park.

Wins over Meath and Derry kept Down’s hopes of survival alive last year and a gutsy draw in Cork in the final round of fixtures meant they avoided the drop. Burns expects the Division Two battle to be intense once again.

“It’ll be equally as tough as last year,” he said.

“It’s important we get a good start and if we get a good start we can build on it and see where we go with it. Division Two is tough, it’s full of good teams and it’ll be very competitive.

“We’re in a better position in terms of we had a better year last year. We stabilised ourselves in the division and we had a good run in the Championship but in the other respect we won’t be coming in under any radar.

“Everybody knows who we are and who we have and where our strengths are. There’ll be plenty of video footage of us and what we did over the summer, so we’ve got to be prepared for that and we’ve got to be ready to step up.”