DOWN boss Conor Laverty has explained his own motivation for taking the job ahead of Friday evening’s Ulster U-20 Championship quarter-final against Cavan at Kingspan Breffni.

Laverty is one of the best known figures in Ulster GAA.

He was a star performer for the Down senior team, and he continues to excel in a playmaker role for Kilcoo, the last team to win the Ulster Club Championship in light of the hiatus of last year.

But he’s also a well-regarded coach, and when the Down u-20 position became available, he saw no reason not to take the plunge.

“Everybody has their own ambitions in their playing career and then their coaching career.

“I just felt the next step for me was to see if I was good enough to manage at this level.

“I know the players in Down over this past number of years, particularly the ones coming through. They’re a very dedicated bunch of players and I was interested in working with them.”

Laverty’s backroom team includes Marty Clarke, Declan Morgan and Meath legend Sean Boylan. While the buck stops with Laverty, he’s very much a hands-on manager.

“I firmly you can do both (managing and coaching) and I’ve been lucky to work with good men in my own career who were capable of coaching and managing, I’m enjoying both sides of it and I’m loving being out in the training field.”

Cavan senior boss Mickey Graham handed debuts to a number of u-20 players during the league, but Laverty wouldn’t be one bit surprised if a few of them line out on Friday night. The Breffni county are strong at present, so he knows they won’t get anything handed to them.

“Cavan have been very, very strong this past number of years, and at u-21 level in particular they’ve won as many Ulsters as anyone recently.

“They’re the current senior Ulster champions as well, so there’s been a real surge in Cavan football. They’re really on an upwards curve.

“They have three or four players in the senior squad but we’re fully expecting and planning that three or four of them will play against us in Breffni.”

Laverty also believes that it may be next year before we see the best from the Down u-20s.

“At the minute, with the short turnaround, we’ve just tried to gather a squad who we all feel are capable of representing Down at this level.

“This is a building process, and we have a lot of lads who will still be there next year. We still it as a long-term thing of having lads next year who will really be able to compete at the highest level.”