Fermanagh minor manager Keith Reilly.
County minor manager, Keith Reilly, is philosophical about drawing Antrim for the third year in a row in the Ulster championship, acknowledging that both sides probably see each other as the best opposition to start their provincial challenge against.
“We’re on familiar ground again,” said Reilly. “It’s the third year in a row that Fermanagh have met Antrim. But with minor football each year the team changes so much, the panels that Antrim and ourselves will assemble will be totally different from what was there last year.”
Reilly was a late appointment last year, Niall Jackman, stepping aside ahead of the 2014 county convention. It didn’t give him much time to get to grips with the role, but he’s much happier with state of preparations as he heads into his second term in charge.
“The good thing about it is our management team is in place now and we have ideal preparation ahead of us. We can get the squad settled, get the trials ran off and the squad assembled. Then we’ll get down to work with them come the new year. We’re about two months ahead of where we were last years as regards our preparation.
“There is a lot of football played between now and when the panel is assembled. A lot of it will depend on how St Michael’s do in the MacRory Cup, that will dictate what sort of availability we have of players. Obviously you still have the schools that are playing vocational football too. We’d like to work closely with the schools and get as much contact with the players that overlap both teams as possible over the next number of months.”
The coming week will see minor trials commence and Reilly says he still hopes to add to his squad.
“Hopefully we can pick up a few players we have watched over the course of the summer playing in their under 16 league and championship games. We have an idea of the players that are out there, but we’d still like to pick up a few players over the trials to add to that,” said Reilly.
The fixtures for the 2016 Ulster Minor League have also been released and there was some disappointment that they are unchanged from last year. Reilly isn’t thrilled with the situation, but says it doesn’t change how he and his back room team intend to tackle the season.
“I think it would be far better all round if the teams were mixed every year,” said the Erne boss. “We have ended up in the hard side of the draw where one team doesn’t make it through to the knock-out stages. When you have Donegal and Derry which are two of the top teams in minor football over the last number of years and Tyrone there too it’s a difficult draw to contend with.
“We’re still going to set about our preparations the way we normally would, we still have to get the panel together and get down to hard work, but the players themselves will realise that the draw is what it is and we just have to make the best use of the resources available. It will be something similar to last year in that we will probably use the league to identify players and try and get our best squad in place for championship in early May.”