FORMER Meath footballer Jody Devine was with Laragh for three years and enjoyed some considerable success including leading them to the Intermediate Championship title in 2019.

He has also won championships with Gael Colmcille (IFC) and Bective (JFC) and now he hopes to bring glory to Killygarry.

There are challenges ahead, as the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that he has yet to meet up properly with his new charges.  He thinks that the team have potential.

“We took on the role before Christmas and we have been in lockdown since then.

“They  have good numbers and they are young. They have a good squad there as well.

“It is fresh challenge and a challenge that I thought was interesting. It came about at the right time and fell into place.

“They have a squad that I think can qualify for the knockout stages of the championship. I think that they can be competitive.”

In normal circumstances, Devine  would have met with his team and given out strength and conditioning programmes and would have tasked his team with some running. There would have been ball work done, and they would be looking at challenge games.

But none of that can currently happen because of the restrictions put in place because of the pandemic.

“All we can do is give them runs and get the runs back. There is nothing we can do except to keep them ticking over.”

Devine also has a job of work to get to know his team.

Before taking on the role, he only knew of the lads who were on the county team, such as Martin Reilly.

“They have a good bunch there, and they have a good squad to pick from. It will be good to get in there and work with them, and get training, and get games with them.

“Until we do that we won’t know what we can achieve.

“But we would be hoping that we could be competitive and that we can make a mark on the championship this year.”

He has spoken to his team on the phone and through Zoom. From that contact he has felt that the squad is  positive.

He expects that the club competitions will start in August, and that teams will return to training in April.

“So we would expect to get a good number of weeks to prepare. Every team is the same. We are depending on teams to do what we ask of them. If they do that then we will be able to get into the main work of ball work and playing games.

“We can’t set any plans or goals until we know the fixtures.”