BY MATTHEW WILSON
DOWNINGS joint-manager Kevin Gallagher feels that they’ve the most daunting task in senior football as they face Naomh Conaill in the opening round of the championship this weekend.
Downings are coming into the championship following a ninth place finish in Division 2 this term.
Their squad has been depleted this season, with eight players from last year’s group unavailable for selection for the side.
However, this has allowed Gallagher and Anthony Boyle to integrate some young players into the group in the form of Kyran Gallagher, Owen Bamworth, James Travers and Oisin Sweeney.
This early exposure to senior football will serve the youngsters well and the Downings joint-boss stated that it’s ‘good grounding’ for them.
“It was always going to be difficult for us this year, we lost a serious amount of players from last year.
“There’s about eight players that haven’t been available to us that would’ve been involved in the preliminary quarter-final against MacCumhaills.
“There’s six of them away travelling and we’ve had two cruciate injuries. They’re a massive loss to us but I suppose you’ve to walk before you can run.
“It gave us the chance to blood some players, we’ve four seventeen or eight year-olds that have played a fair bit in the league. It’s been a learning curve but it’s been a good grounding for those lads as well.
“We’re at a level in Division 2 at the minute and until we get a few bodies back in the next year or two, it’ll be the level we’ll be playing at.”
In the weeks since the Division 2 campaign concluded, the Pairc Na nDúnaibh residents will have been going through the gears in preparation for the championship.
They’re without the influential pair of Johnny McGroddy and Patrick McElwee at present, with the duo playing their football in Boston.
But Meath star Cian McBride is back with the group this term and Gallagher stated that the preparations are going well.
“It’s been good, we’ve got a fair bit of work done since we wrapped up against Realt na Mara. We’ve had a couple of in-house games and training’s been going really well.
“Cian McBride is integrated back in with us and it’s going well.
“We’ve a few niggles but hopefully we’ll be as strong as we can come Saturday evening.”
Downings have been drawn to face Naomh Conaill and Glenswilly in the opening two rounds of the Senior Championship.
But Gallagher expressed that their sole focus is on this weekend’s encounter against the reigning senior champions away from home.
He understands the difficulty of the task ahead of his side this Saturday but said that these are the occasions you want to be involved in as a footballer.
“We’re not even looking at Glenswilly yet but to me Naomh Conaill are the benchmark of Donegal football over the last five or six years.
“They’re formidable and we probably have the most daunting task in the round of fixtures. But we’ve to embrace it and enjoy it.
“It’s a learning curve for them. We’ve been down in intermediate and we might find ourselves down there in time to come but everyone wants to be playing Senior Championship football.”
Bainisteoir: Kevin Gallagher and Anthony Boyle
Captain: Ronan Gallagher
Last Year: SFC preliminary quarter-finalists
Star Man: Johnny McGroddy
One to Watch: Owen Bamworth