Ramor boss laments absentees

Ramor United's Jack Brady

RAMOR United boss Mick O’Dowd has admitted that he has been forced to lower his sights for the season having lost a spate of players to injury or emigration.

He’s not ruling out the chance of maintaining their division one status completely though as Ramor are in ninth place in the league, anything above that will keep them safe. However, achieving that feat will not be easy at all.

“We have a few guys who have emigrated, and two guys who have bad injuries, we have nine points in the league. They are a grand bunch of lads and they are working very hard,” O’Dowd said.

The problem is that his team are very young. The vast majority are in their late teens or early 20s, and they are struggling to compete against teams with more experienced and physically stronger players.

Jack Brady and Damian Barkey are two of Ramor’s best players, but both have been on duty for Cavan’s county team. James McElroy and Paul Quelly are living and working in England. Both of those are available to play league matches, but they cannot play in the club Championship. Aidan Cole is injured, he broke his arm but has since had to have it rebroken, while Shane Cole is also injured.

“If we could get everyone back it would help.”
Instead young players have had to step into the breach.

“They will kill themselves for you for the first half, but after that it is hard for them to keep up. But then they will get overpowered which, unfortunately, is the way the game is going.”

The full story is in the current issue of Gaelic Life, published on Thursday July 5. Buy your copy now in your local newsagent, or you can purchase the online version – for only 90p – by clicking here