By Niall Gartland

DOMHNALL Nugent is ready for his second year at the helm of the Down camogs – and he says his primary concern is that they play to their potential against some of the very top teams in the country in their Division 1B campaign.

The talented goalkeeper played a leading role in St John’s run to last year’s Antrim Senior Championship title and is also part of the county’s senior intercounty set-up, but he’s already accrued significant experience in recent years on the coaching and managerial front.

The Down camogs get their campaign underway away to Limerick this Saturday, and perhaps the first thing of note is the new faces in Nugent’s backroom team.

“Conor McGourty’s on board – myself and Conor go way back, which is a good thing, I think. We have our De La Salle roots in West Belfast, so it’s nice to have that.

“Ciaran Johnson is in, he was captain of St John’s last season. Aaron Branagan from Kilcoo is in doing the strength and conditioning. You look around and see people who have been there and done that, and have a bit of experience in terms of playing and coaching at a high level, and that can only help the girls.”

On the playing personnel front, Nugent cites the likes of Ciara McKeown, who missed last year with an ACL, Niamh O’Toole, who is new to the senior intercounty scene, as is Erin McGrattan, daughter of Gerard, as reinforcements. Aimee Mallon is back after having a baby and dual players Niamh McConville and Niamh McGrath are also on board.

Down’s last competitive match was an All-Ireland Intermediate Championship semi-final defeat to Kerry – a game Nugent believes they would have won only for their own mistakes. He considers that he’s learnt a lot from his first season overseeing an intercounty set-up.

“It was my first proper job in intercounty management. I’d been involved in joint-manager ventures but this is the first time doing it myself and building a backroom team. I was probably naive going into it.

“We got the girls together and tried to build an environment that I felt was best in terms of making it safe and ensuring that everyone felt valued.

“I thought I could do that in just a few months. I only realised when the season was over, that we were only getting started with those things.”

There’s some tough games ahead of them, though, and Nugent will be content if his players give it their all in the weeks and months ahead.

“We’re away to Limerick, away to Clare, and have Wexford and Dublin at home. On paper it looks like the strongest Division One campaign in years. We train as hard as any team in the country – there’s a good buzz with CJ and Ciaran leading training. If we can go out and give our all for each other we’ll probably not be far away and that’s the message we’ll be giving every game. Success for us is doing ourselves proud and seeing where it takes us, and that’s where we’re at.”