Down U21 football manager Conor Deegan points out that the Mourne County do not have "a divine right" to challenge for major silverware.

Traditionally, Down is one of the GAA's great footballing territories and Deegan experienced that himself as an All-Ireland winner in 1991 and '94. However, he says the glory days won't return by chance:

"We have to be realistic - we're not producing enough," the Downpatrick clubman told The Irish News. "We haven't produced a competitive, winning minor or U21 side in quite a few years. They had a decent year in 2008, then in 2009 reached the U21 final, then 2010 the senior final - it doesn't happen by accident.

"Really and truly, by U21 all the good work should be done. They're in development squads, then up to minor - all the good stuff should be in them.

"The hope will be that we can find a few players and get them up to senior level as quickly as possible. That's the aspiration. No matter what happens this year we will be continuing to try to develop and find a few more players.

"We want to start building a feel-good factor again in the county, and get young fellas wanting to play for the county, because boys are opting out at senior level. You just need a bit of positivity to come back and boys will want to be involved again. It doesn't take much. We're simple people - you just want the hope that there's something tangible there.

"It's a quandary for everybody involved. What is success? We have no divine right as a county. There's always this historical thing, but we have no divine right to think that all of a sudden we'll just produce a load of players and they'll just turn up and play great football and the world's a wonderful place. It doesn't happen like that any more."

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