Burns heads down, down deeper and Down

FORMER Down star Danny Hughes did not hold back this week when laying into his county board over the fall and fall of his once proud county.

In doing so, Hughes (below) shone the light where it needed to be shone rather than on the isolated figure of Eamonn Burns, who has been in charge for 11 of the 14 straight games which Down have lost in League and Championship.

He accused the board leadership of being more interested in ‘googling motivational quotes’ than in protecting the county’s legacy. It is hard to argue with that.

Since James McCartan’s departure – and what he achieved in keeping the county in the game’s top 10 for most of his five-year reign now looks all the more remarkable – the board’s leadership have failed the county team at every opportunity. They erred when they baulked at bringing in a high-class management team under Tony McEntee’s guidance as McCartan’s replacement in 2014. They then failed to unify behind Jim McCorry – he won a confidence vote by a single vote despite defying logic and form in taking them back to Division 1 – and as a result lost him after one season. And then they took an age – in the process overlooking more experienced candidates – before in November 2015 appointing Burns, a two-time All Ireland winner as a player, but rookie manager who had never managed at senior level. In the process, they threw him straight in at the deep end of Division 1’s treacherous, sharkinfested waters.

The board chairman Seán Rooney came out this week to insist that they would remain supportive of Burns but, in truth, it is their performance and not their manager’s that demands scrutiny.

It could be argued their support of Burns is the last thing he or Down needs now, as his team’s slide to back-to-back relegations continues at pace.

Burns needs rescuing from a job that has simply overwhelmed him, while the Down County Board needs to be frog-marched into a hall of mirrors and asked how they got themselves into this mess in the first instance.