DEFENDER Ryan McAleenan has praised Paddy Tally after telling the Down manager he was stepping away from the Mourne panel for the remainder of the year.
The highly-rated Warrenpoint player will be a big loss to the county as they bid to secure promotion out of Division Three in October.
McAleenan has used the pandemic period as good thinking time and feels he needs to give more energy to his job but also acknowledged that he enjoyed trying other sports during lockdown.
The 29-year-old also cited time pressures for stepping away from county duty.
“I had been thinking about it over the past while,” McAleenan explained.
“I turned 29 and I just feel there are other things in my life that need to be priority. I’m the sort of person if I’m doing something I need to give it everything.
“I just feel to play at that level and the commitment you need to give I don’t think I can give that effort at the minute. Now, that’s not to say my mentality won’t change next year.
“When I made the decision Paddy was an absolute gentleman about it. That’s probably what made the decision so difficult because I felt like I was letting this man down, because he has done so much for me, beyond football, and has become a close friend.
“Paddy said to me: ‘If you change your mind, the door is open’. I just told him I need to do this and he was great about it.”
McAleenan works as a full-time schoolteacher in Portadown where his workload is expected to increase considerably when school starts back next month.
“I was made permanent last year in my job and up to now we were only a key stage three junior school but we’re moving to GCSE level, so there’s a right bit of work in it. And I’m doing a Masters part-time at St Mary’s.”
McAleenan added: “I leave the house at seven o’clock in the morning, I get into school around eight o’clock, I leave school at half-four. By the time I get into Newry there is no point in me going home so I would get a coffee and go on to the Abbey for training.
“By the time I get home it’s 10 o’clock. It’s not the actual training; Paddy was more than flexible, if I had an event coming up, he’d say go and enjoy yourself, whereas maybe managers in other counties mightn’t be as flexible.
“But over the last month I wasn’t as motivated as I had been. I love my training; during lockdown I haven’t trained as much. It’s just the time commitments it requires to play county football.”
McAleenan admitted had it not been for the pandemic he probably would be still involved with Down.
“I would have continued on in that mode because I was still in the bubble," he said.
“During lockdown I’ve done things I’d never get the chance to do. I did a bit of hiking up the Mourne Mountains, did the Mourne Wall challenge, I was out cycling with friends and I was able to do some 5k and 10k runs which wouldn’t really be suitable training during the Gaelic football season.”
McAleenan was among several Down footballers who raised over £30,000 for the southern area hospice during lockdown after it emerged fundraising had slowed because of the pandemic.
A regular in Tally’s team, it was the late Eamonn Burns who gave McAleenan his chance in 2016. He suffered a cruciate injury just two weeks before their incredible Ulster SFC win over Monaghan in 2017, but battled back to full fitness and featured in Down’s 2018 Championship campaign before coming a key play in Tally's set-up.
