Ballinagh struggling to avoid the drop

Ballinagh’s Padraic O’Reilly. Photo Sheila Rooney

BALLINAGH manager Ciaran Reilly feels that his team must win four games from their remaining seven league fixtures if they are to avoid intermediate football in 2013.

Reilly reiterated his stance from earlier in the year that the Cavan league restructuring is “a complete disaster” and he feels that a lot of club players will be hampered by playing at a lower level.

“We’re on nine points at the moment and we estimate that you need at least 14 or 15 to avoid relegation, so we’ll need to win about four games to have any hope of staying up,” he said.
You have teams amalgamating now to play senior football and then. By my calculation, you’ll have 100 or so boys from senior teams who will now be playing intermediate.”

Last week, speculation was rife that the number of teams relegated was going to be less than originally suggested, but a statement on the official county board website confirmed that division one would be made up of the top seven teams as well as the intermediate champions from this year.

“There’s no changing of it by the looks of it,” continued Reilly.
“But that’s just the way it is. We’re working very hard as a team. We’ve taken up a few young players this year and they’ve made a real impact.

“There’s about three or four there pushing for places, Cathal Bogue has started all our league games and looks set for a championship start.

“We’ve the county boys back now as well after the Kildare match, we haven’t really had them much all year, so that will help wit the preparations, obviously, as well.”

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday July 19. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here