Football

Kilcoo rising star Ryan McEvoy open to Down call after county championship success

Teenager Ryan McEvoy has been superb for Kilcoo throughout their latest Down championship success. Picture by Philip Walsh
Teenager Ryan McEvoy has been superb for Kilcoo throughout their latest Down championship success. Picture by Philip Walsh Teenager Ryan McEvoy has been superb for Kilcoo throughout their latest Down championship success. Picture by Philip Walsh

IN the past 12 months Ryan McEvoy has won an Ulster title, played in an All-Ireland Club final and collected two Down championship medals – and the Kilcoo teenager could yet add senior county player to that list before the year is out.

At 19, McEvoy is widely regarded as one of the standout talents in Down, having starred in a variety of positions during his debut season as the Magpies swept to provincial glory in 2019.

In their latest county championship success – Kilcoo’s eighth in nine years – he has excelled at full-back, and it would be a surprise if McEvoy was not asked to join Paddy Tally’s panel for next month’s return to inter-county action.

The Mournemen have League games against Leitrim (home) and Louth (away) still to play as they bid to secure promotion from Division Three, before their Ulster Championship opener against Fermanagh on November 8.

And, as he enjoyed Sunday’s night’s victory over Carryduff, McEvoy admitted he has always harboured ambitions to represent Down.

“Everybody aspires to play for their county. First I have to be asked, but I’ll give it a couple of days thinking and make up my mind then.

“I’ve played with the minors and the U20s the whole way up, so I probably would. But it’s just all about what you want to do in your future. We’ll see what happens.”

Kilcoo assistant boss Conleith Gilligan was fulsome in his praise of McEvoy in the aftermath of their title success, and expects a county call could come sooner rather than later.

“Yeah, look, I think he will. The thing about Ryan is he doesn’t complain.

“If you want him at full-back, you want him at midfield, you want him at full-forward, he’s so versatile. He has good feet, great hands, good pace, he can do everything really well and that ability to do whatever needs done on the night is just incredible.

“He is a super lad and there will be big things to come for him in the future.”

The likes of the Johnston brothers, Jerome and Ryan, as well as Paul Devlin and Ceilum Doherty have been involved with the county set-up in recent times, and Gilligan predicted there could be a bigger Kilcoo representation in future.

“I would say there could be a few more – I don’t know what the situation is, that’s up to Paddy Tally,” added the Ballinderry man.

“It would be great to see those playing for Down just how good they are.”

For now, though, all that matters in Kilcoo is that the Frank O’Hare Cup is back for another year – and rising star McEvoy believes the Magpies are only getting better.

“Maybe you don’t see it at training but when you watch games back, you see some of the moves, the experience there with the likes of Conor [Laverty] and Aidan [Branagan], then a lot of young boys coming on there… there’s a good mix through the team.

“It was a bit different this year but Carryduff came in under the radar, they put in a lot of good performances on the way up.

“It was probably harder for us to prepare because they’ve only come up [to Division One], we didn’t know as much about them, we haven’t got to play them in the league. They put up a quare performance, they never quit fighting right to the death. Fair play to them for getting here, no doubt they’ll be back some day.

“We’re just happy to have our championship back; we would love to be going on into an Ulster campaign but it’s just the circumstances. Unfortunately that’s not going to happen.”