Football

Fermanagh boss Ryan McMenamin happy with preparation despite absence of key men

Injury will keep Erne Gaels star Ultan Kelm out of Sunday's Ulster Championship clash with Down according to boss Ryan McMenamin. Picture by Donnie Phair
Injury will keep Erne Gaels star Ultan Kelm out of Sunday's Ulster Championship clash with Down according to boss Ryan McMenamin. Picture by Donnie Phair Injury will keep Erne Gaels star Ultan Kelm out of Sunday's Ulster Championship clash with Down according to boss Ryan McMenamin. Picture by Donnie Phair

FERMANAGH boss Ryan McMenamin won’t be able to call upon Ultan Kelm this weekend after injury ruled the versatile Erne Gaels ace out of Sunday’s Ulster Championship duel with Down at Brewster Park.

The 20-year-old has emerged as a star man for the Erne County in recent seasons, with his power, pace and athleticism catching the eye of Aussie scouts during an AFL combine last December.

However, having failed to feature in either of Fermanagh’s remaining National League games last month, McMenamin confirmed that Kelm will also play no part against the Mournemen.

“No, Ultan’s injured, he’s out of the game,” he said.

“We’re probably missing about five or six players. We’ve lost the two Cullens – Lee’s in Australia and Che normally comes home from Budapest but with the two week quarantine, he can’t commit – Shane McGullion, so probably three or four of your starting defence.”

Despite that, though, McMenamin is happy with where the Ernemen are after coming through a tumultuous October.

On the eve of the Division Two resumption and a make-or-break meeting with Clare in Ennis, a Covid-19 outbreak within the Fermanagh football panel saw 10 players test positive for the virus, with a further seven forced to self-isolate having been identified as close contacts.

Despite missing key personnel, the Ernemen could and possibly should have beat the Banner to keep alive their hopes of avoiding the drop to the third tier, while the following week Fermanagh were in control against Laois until a late onslaught saw them slip to another defeat.

“Things have settled down a bit,” he says with a laugh.

“You’re always just waiting for that call. In the bounds of realism, it could happen any time but at the minute we’re alright. We’ve just one close contact, he might only be back on Friday but the game will probably come a bit too early for him.

“It’s like anything else – if you get a flu it can take you a while and probably it took our boys a couple of training sessions to get over it. What we’ve found is that it affects different people in different ways. There was a wide range of symptoms but the doc has been on top of it.

Some players could come straight back in and others took a wee bit longer.

“There was times where I asked myself ‘what the hell am I doing here?’ I’m sure every manager had the same questions going on in their head, and I feel sorry for the Sligo manager [Paul Taylor] now, it’s very unfortunate but that’s the world we live in.

“For us, it could’ve been a blessing in disguise because we were able to get all the boys tested and then give more reassurance for their families, so for as disruptive as it was, you have to take the good with the bad.

“We’ve had two weeks good prep. The results didn’t go the way we wanted to, but we’re happy enough where we are.”

Last Saturday, neighbours Cavan bounced back from the disappointment of their last-gasp relegation to Division Three by stunning favourites Monaghan in the first game of this year’s Ulster Championship.

Breffni boss Mickey Graham admitted afterwards that their build-up had focused heavily on Championship, and McMenamin says the busy schedule has made it easy to “park” their League disappointment.

“The players knew probably after the Clare game, but we picked ourselves up.

“It’s the nature of the Leagues, you look at the likes of Antrim who were in a strong position but ended up missing out on promotion.

“You just have to park it and move on very quickly because there’s teams already out of the Championship, so when it comes around you don’t really have too much time to think about it.”

And where Fermanagh come into Sunday’s game off the back of two competitive outings, a strange ending to Down’s League campaign saw Leitrim concede their penultimate game in Newry before Longford’s concession to Cork secured the Mourne County’s promotion without any football being played.

As a result Paddy Tally took the opportunity to try out some new faces in the final game against already-relegated Louth, though McMenamin dismissed any notion that Sunday’s opponents could be lacking a competitive edge.

“I think Down probably know where they’re at.

“They’ve probably had a lot more preparation than we’ve had, they’ve had a lot of the players back from the club championship, they played challenge matches against Meath and Kildare.

“Paddy the choice to put out his first 15 against Louth and he didn’t. Whether they had injuries, or whether they didn’t want to show their hand, I don’t know, but we can’t control that.

“This is winter football, and form goes out the window. You saw with Tyrone and Donegal, once you have those kind of conditions and the heavy pitches, one mistake can turn a game on its head.”