ÉAMONN BURNS says Down people are naturally optimistic when it comes to their football, but hard work and time is required to bring back the glory days.
The two-time All-Ireland winner says they also relish a challenge in the Mournes and he knows he’ll face several as his first year as an inter-county manager unfolds. Burns may need the fans to show him and his team some patience too and he’s due a little luck here and there because the fixture-makers haven’t been kind to his county.
The Bryansford clubman was finally ratified as the Mourne county’s bainisteoir on Thursday night and he’ll begin training his team on November 15. Between now and then, he’ll set his mind to deciding who he wants to play for him.
“It’s a big challenge, it’s a big task, but I’m looking forward to it,” said the Newcastle schoolteacher.
“We’re allowed to train from the 15th onwards, so we’ll put our heads together and see how to get things moving forward quickly - it’s a short run-in to the McKenna Cup and then the start of the League. We don’t have an awful lot of time to play with, but that can work two ways - you can have a wee bit more time to prepare or, if you have too long, you can deliberate and deliberate.
“But we are where we are and the reality is that we can start in just over a week and we need to get our heads around that and see where we go.”
Burns spent the 2013 season as a selector with James McCartan’s Down set-up, so he’ll have an idea of what is involved. To compliment that, he’s had 13 years in club football management, starting with his native Bryansford in 2003 and including spells with Darragh Cross, Ballymartin and, last season, Tullylish.
“I have been involved in Division Two and I’ve seen a lot of football and I’ve watched a lot of the championship, so I’ve been busy watching games,” he said.
“We’ll want to add to the panel from last year - we’ll definitely look at everybody, we’ll weigh all the cases up and see where we go from there.”
Names like Niall Moyna and long-term collaborator Aidan Brannigan have been mentioned as backroom team members, but Burns won’t clarify that until next week. When all that is settled, he’ll have the Dr McKenna Cup to start with and then the big boys start rolling into town. Donegal, Dublin and Kerry come to Newry and Down travel to Mayo, Monaghan, Roscommon and Cork. The challenges are obvious, but so are the rewards.
““People outside the county would look at it from a different perspective, but Down people would be optimistic in their outlook,” said Burns.
“Down are in Division One, which is good. If you are looking to develop players and develop a team, you are going to get a true assessment of where you are against the top seven teams in Ireland, so I think that’s a positive.
“Our home games are top drawer - we’ve got the All-Ireland champions and the runners-up, so you couldn’t have got it much tougher. But I think we’ll face it positively and it’ll be good to pit our wits against the best teams in Ireland. When I was playing football, I always thought you were going to improve against the better teams because you had to push harder to win games.
“In the panels that I played on in the late 1980s and '90s, we always relished the challenge of playing the top teams – you wanted to get to Division One and stay there. I think it’ll be the same for the present crop of players, they’ll want to test themselves.”
As a player, Burns’ early days on the Down panel were tough enough. He first emerged in the mid-1980s and was a battle-hardened midfielder by the time the Mourne men ended a 10-year Ulster gap in 1991. They went on to win the All-Ireland that year and again in 1994 and he warns that it will take lots of time and lots of effort to make those glory days return.
“You just don’t go to those heights instantaneously,” he said.
“When we were playing, we weren’t catapulted right to the top, we had to take our small steps and learn our lessons, progress, keep adding to the panel and keep working hard. It’ll be the same for these boys. It would be great to sit here and tick off the things that you want to win on your wish list, but that’s not reality.
“We’ll definitely want to make progress this year and keep the team running for as long as we possibly can into the summer, whether it’s the direct route or the scenic route, we’ll have to wait and see.
“Monaghan will be a massive challenge, they are defending their Ulster title and we’re going into the lion’s den, but Down people look forward to those challenges and relish them. We have to get a panel together that will go there [Clones] and give it a really good run.”
