Magill: Down want Newry to be a fortress

By Shaun Casey

GETTING to play in front of an excited crowd in Newry helps to bring the best out of the Down players, says the versatile Ryan Magill. The Mourne men are aiming for their second win of the campaign when they invite Meath to Páirc Esler on Saturday evening.

Conor Laverty’s side bounced back from an opening round defeat to Roscommon by coming from ten points behind to beat Cork with two to spare the last day out, battling back in the comforts of their home venue.

Turning Newry into a fortress where travelling teams dread to visit is the aim for last season’s Tailteann Cup winners.

“We have Meath at home and Newry means everything to us. We just want the crowds to come out and support us,” said Magill.

“As long as we’ve been under the new management of Conor Laverty and Marty (Clarke) and (Ciaran) Meenagh, we’re still yet to lose here so it means everything to us. We want to make it a fortress.

“We want to bring the big boys here, we want to bring the Kerrys, the Dublins, the Tyrones to Newry and give them a good rattle. It’s great when Newry’s behind you, all we want is the county to come out and support us.

“We might have had to come back twice in the second half (against Cork), but we showed character. It’s a proud feeling to play for your county so we need to go out and show that it means something to us, and it means something to everyone here.”

Magill is one of the players that has been involved in Sigerson football, which is being played via the old rules, but at the weekend, when the Burren clubman is stripped out in red and black, he’s adopting the new game of Gaelic football.

“We’re still getting used to them. Some people enjoy them all and some people enjoy none of them,” added the Ulster University Sigerson Cup winning captain from last year.

“The game could have been in a bad place, it just depends on what two teams come out, but you can see it’s far more open and it’s a lot quicker, so we’ll just have to get used to it this year and see what happens.”

One of the rules that Down seem to have embraced is the new two-point scoring system.

In their opening two games, the Mourne men have raised ten orange flags, with Saval’s Pat Havern responsible for seven of those, but Magill insists it’s not something they’ve focused on.

“Pat took a few there at the end (against Cork) and James Guinness early in the second half, but no, there’s no real emphasis, it’s just to get the right shooters on the ball in the right areas,” he continued.

“If it happens to be that you’re comfortable outside the two-point arc and you can kick it, all well and good, but we’re all about moving to the right position and getting the right men on the ball.”