No decision on Sligo future yet - Breheny
SLIGO captain Mark Breheny says he has not yet decided on his future with the county senior team following their exit from the All- Ireland qualifier series last week.
The St Mary’s clubman has now made over 50 championship appearances for the county – the Clare game was his 51st – but he says he has not yet made a final call on his inter- county future.
“I haven’t made any decision yet,” Mark told the Sligo Champion.
“Every year, it becomes more difficult and especially now with the extra pressures with work and family.
“I haven’t discussed it yet with my wife or family so we will sit down I am sure and have a chat about it, but I haven’t fully decided.”
Reflecting on the Clare game and 2016 in general, Breheny says it was a disappointing year but stresses that manager Niall Carew has been very positive for Sligo and should stay on.
“Niall has been great for Sligo. In many ways his hands were held because of retirements and other guys who couldn’t fully commit, but overall Niall has been brilliant.
“The coaching has been great and the backroom team as well, everyone works really well together and it is a really professional set- up.
“In the last two years we reached a Connacht final, played in Croke Park and won a big championship game in Markievicz Park.
“There has been a huge change in personnel in those years, a transition period really and a lot of inexperience in the squad with the younger players coming in, but there is great talent coming through.”
As for aims for the coming years, Breheny argues that Sligo should be aim to progress as far as Division One in the league.
“Remaining in Division Three was a good achievement in the sense that we had a lot of new young players involved. But I think to try and progress in Division One in the years ahead would be a realistic target.
“From my own personal experience, and I know the league has been restructured a bit since, but we played Division One when I started playing and got to a semi- final in 2001, and narrowly missed out in 2004 so we were very strong in the league in those years.
“There’s not a huge amount between Division Two and Division Three, so it is all about having a strong panel for the league and if you can get the four home games out of seven, it is a huge bonus.”
Breheny now turns his attention to the club championship, with St Mary’s aiming to become the first club to retain the title since St Patrick’s in 1988 and 1989.
“I’m looking forward to the club championship. We [ St Mary’s] will be trying to retain the title and there will be a number of teams gunning for us, so it will be tough.
“I think it is good that it will be run off in consecutive weekends, so we will get games every week in the group stages, and that will help players.”