Lidl Ladies Football National Football League Two
MONAGHAN might be facing life out of Division One for the first time in over two and a half decades but manager Ciaran Murtagh says they are looking forward to the challenge.
His aim is “to make Monaghan competitive again” after a difficult 2019 season that saw them relegated to Division Two but they finished on a high, saving their senior championship status.
“We were going through a transitional period last year so it was a difficult year. Things have been going well so far, we have a few players back who hadn’t played last year and we have minors, who won the Ulster title and reached the All-Ireland final, coming through. Last year we struggled for numbers but we are working with a panel of 30 now – that makes a big difference,” said Murtagh.
Murtagh was part of Niall Treanor’s backroom team last year and after the Truagh man stepped down at the end of the year, Murtagh was appointed manager and is assisted by Adam Treanor who was also on board last year and Noel Rice on his sideline team.
With fellow Ulster teams in Armagh, Cavan and Tyrone among their opponents over the next couple of months, there is plenty of competition in the second tier and Murtagh hopes Monaghan will be in the midst of it. They start off with a trip to Wexford followed by a home game at Clare with some vital league points at stake early on.
“We want to make Monaghan competitive again. We want to get off on the right foot against Wexford but we have to go to them and they showed last year they are a good team coming up from Division Three the year before and they have good knowledge of the teams in the league.
“We have three games in the first three weeks, so that will be a good test for the panel. We want to use the panel of 30 that we have to build throughout the league and towards championship. We are looking forward to getting started competitively and really seeing where we are against the other teams in the division and building for the year ahead.”
Fixtures
Round 1: (January 26) Wexford v Monaghan
Round 2: (February 2) Monaghan v Clare
Round 3: (February 9) Meath v Monaghan
Round 4: (February 23) Monaghan v Cavan
Round 5: (March 8) Kerry v Monaghan
Round 6: (March 22) Monaghan v Tyrone
Round 7: (March 29) Armagh v Monaghan
Lidl Ladies Football National Football League Four
NEW Antrim manager Dee McConville may have been thrust unexpectedly into the hot seat just before Christmas but he was always destined to be Saffrons boss eventually.
McConville, who has filled the senior position vacated by Sean O’Kane last month, has a wealth of experience at inter-county underage management level and has spent the last two years at the helm of the minors while he also lent a hand with the seniors in 2018 coming in half-way through the season to help out Benny Marron.
“I have been with Antrim managing at underage level for the last five years so the natural progression was to step up to senior management at some stage, but I was kind of thrust into it quicker than I thought,” said McConville.
His first game in charge will be at home to Offaly, who were relegated from division three last season, and they will follow that up with another home game when they welcome All-Ireland junior champions, Louth.
They are two tricky ties despite being at home and preparations have not been helped by the late start and they must plan for the league without a number of key players including last year’s captain Saoirse Tennyson and Meabh McCurdy, both of whom have had ACL surgery in recent months, while Ciara Brown is also out injured.
Last year Antrim reached the Division Four final only to be denied by Fermanagh and while McConville says you have to be ambitious, he is looking forward to what he sees is a long-term plan.
“There is a lot of talent coming through in Antrim and I have been able to see that over the last few years,” he said. “You want to be ambitious but at the same time it is important now to have a long term plan and vision in place and that is what I want to do.
Antrim have had a bit of a turnover in managers in recent years and I want to try and bring some continuity to the team. My plan is not just this year although it is important to put something down that will entice girls to want to play for Antrim.”
Fixtures
Round 1: (January 26) Antrim v Offaly
Round 2: (February 2) Antrim v Louth
Round 3: (February 9) Leitrim v Antrim
Round 4: (February 23) Antrim – Bye
Round 5: (March 8) Carlow v Antrim
Round 6: (March 22) Antrim v Derry
Round 7: (March 29) Limerick v Antrim
Lidl Ladies Football National Football League Four
DERRY manager Paul Hasson is determined to rebuild from the ground up in what he sees as a “two to three year plan” to have the Oak Leafers hitting the heights again.
Coming back into the job after a two year break – he was joint manager along with Paul Crozier in 2017 when Derry reach the All-Ireland junior final - he has had to contend with a sizeable turnover in personnel and as he prepares to begin the new season by welcoming Leitrim next weekend he knows there will be a good few debutants in action.
“Really this year is trying to develop for next year and the year after. We have brought through a lot of minors and with only about four players still remaining from 2017 we have a young age bracket. When we took on this role this year we knew we were looking at a two to three year plan and what we had to do,” said Hasson.
He also paid tribute to the players who have given so much of their time and commitment to Derry over the past few years.
“A lot of the older girls who have stepped away this year have been carrying the senior team for the past four or five years. They took a lot on their shoulders and put in a lot of hard work. Thankfully there is still a few players remaining, and it is great credit to them, that will give it another year and hopefully help develop the younger players.
“Realistically what we want to do is use the league to give these girls who have not played senior county football before a chance to get used to the level of football.
“We will set goals and targets in each game and they might be more important than the result at the end of the day because this is just part of a bigger picture and we have tried to get that across to the players, that we are looking down the line but the work starts here.”
Round 1: (January 26) Derry v Leitrim
Round 2: (February 2) Limerick v Derry
Round 3: (February 9) Derry v Offaly
Round 4: (February 23) Carlow v Derry
Round 5: (March 8) Derry v Louth
Round 6: (March 22) Antrim v Derry
Round 7: (March 29) Derry – Bye
