By Michael McMullan

DOWN camogs may have suffered a chastening defeat against Tipperary in their first game, but new manager Paul Donnelly opts to look at the positives of life at the top level.

They host All-Ireland champions Galway on Saturday, with their junior team travelling to Clare to start their Division Three campaign.

Donnelly is joined by former St Paul’s clubmate Micky Glover and former Down skipper Sara-Louise Griffin in the management team, with Declan Burns on board as junior manager.

“The attitude and application from all the players has been first class,” said Donnelly of their ‘extremely hard’ training regime since early January.

Several players have been unavailable due to expecting babies, with some tied up with club activity with Mayobridge and Portaferry, but Donnelly says it is just par for the course.

“In my view, that’s just sport,” he said. “It gives other talented young players in Down the opportunity to step up and play against the best.

“You have the likes of Ciara Fitzsimons who is still a minor and scored a lovely point with her first touch of the ball against Tipperary.

WYoung Blanaid Savage, a fantastic player and talent who has really stepped up to the plate. They are just two examples.”

Donnelly takes heart from holding one of the top teams, Tipperary, to just two points in a 30-minute second-half spell.

“At that point in time I thought ‘there’s something about this team’. Yes, they are young and are developing and we have some experienced players to come back, but I liked what I saw in that 30 minutes,” Donnelly explained.

Now, with Galway, Offaly and Dublin to come for the remainder of the league, he insists the plan must be about moving forward and developing everyone on the panel – both senior and junior players.

“We have 45 or 50 players that want to play for Down,” he said. “Yes, they want to represent their clubs and families, but they want to play for Down which has to be a positive thing.

“We have some talented young players in the junior panel who I think will go on to represent Down with distinction in years to come.”

You don’t need to be chatting to Donnelly long to be taken in by his positivity. He outlines attitude, application and team spirit as the key cogs in the Down squad that want to improve themselves.

It’s a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire in terms of opponents this weekend, but the Down management are after one thing – a performance.

“They (Down players) have to do all the things we are asking them to do. Work hard, use the ball effectively and you’ve to support every single player on the pitch.

“They have to show this overall aspiration of competing on every single blade of grass on the pitch. At the other end, we’ll hopefully have a performance.”