By Shaun Casey

FINNIAN Moriarty is looking forward to the start of “competitive football” in his new role as Carryduff manager.

Moriarty, a former Ulster Championship winner with Armagh, enjoyed three successful years with Maghery, bagging a league (2019) and a championship title (2020) with the Lough Shore men.

The Wolfe Tones native took over in Carryduff last November and hopes he can build on the good work started by the previous management team.

“We’ve been doing some gym work from December but like most clubs we’ve been on the field maybe from the end of January. We’ve been working away, and preparations have been good so far, we’re looking forward to the start of competitive football,” he said.

“It can be a long time from mid-September to the end of January for players if they haven’t reached a championship final.

“DJ Morgan and Paddy Docherty was the management team obviously with different coaches as part of that team. They had the boys for nearly five seasons I think in total, DJ and Paddy did a great job so it’s just about picking it up and driving on.”

Carryduff are one of the up-and-coming challengers to Kilcoo’s throne and their obvious talent means Moriarty won’t have the full playing panel at his disposal as there are county hurlers and footballers in the squad. But that’s not an issue for the former Armagh defender.

“You’re not going to get your full panel out training every night, but I think if you asked any club manager, they would rather have a lot of county players in their squad than have none.

“In fairness to the boys, any time they can be there, they’re there. Whether that’s a team meeting or maybe sometimes they do their gym sessions at the same time or just before the rest of the boys.

“Or if there’s a match on the Sunday morning…last week Down were playing on Saturday night and all the boys were there first thing on Sunday morning for our challenge game.

“They’re always about, they’re mad keen. You don’t have them for training, but you have to deal with that, sure everybody has to deal with that.”

The league kicks off at the start of April and while Moriarty is still getting used to Down club football, his main focus is on improving Carryduff throughout the year.

“From we agreed to take Carryduff in November, I’ve been doing my homework. I’m constantly trying to learn about all the other clubs in Down and who their main players are and what style of play they use.

“Down GAA TV are very good for championship fixtures and stuff so you’re able to take a look at everybody, but my main focus is on Carryduff and trying to get us to improve week on week.”

“The thing is, they’re only up in the first division over the last season and two and it wasn’t a competitive league last year because of Covid so it’s important to just hit the ground running.”