Eugene Branagan says he has “absolutely no ambition to play for Down.”
The Kilcoo All-Ireland winner, named AIB Club Footballer of the Year on Tuesday, pulled no punches when laying bare his view on the Down scene, claiming manager James McCartan was thrown under a bus in the lead up to last weekend’s Ulster quarter-final defeat by Monaghan.
The 25-year-old wing back was asked into the Down squad back in February, but after taking five weeks off work during the All-Ireland series and in the middle of lambing season, he declined the invitation.
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Last weekend Down started with two Kilcoo players –goalkeeper Niall Kane and defender Ryan McEvoy – in the 0-23 to 2-7 defeat by Monaghan.
A well-publicised disciplinary breach had hampered Down’s preparations for the Championship.
Straight-talking Branagan said: “It (playing for Down) might happen in a few years but just with sheep and all it’s not one of those things in my head.
“I just have never visualised it so I can’t see it happening.”
Branagan reckons players from other clubs don’t like the Kilcoo men.
“I think that really fuels our fire,” he said.
“Everyone seems to be on our backs and that’s really what keeps us going. That’s what we love.
“We feel everyone is against us, county boards, the whole lot but that’s what we want.”
Speaking about McCartan, who was a late appointment after Jim McGuinness and Conor Laverty were linked to the job, Branagan said: “I think he was sort of thrown under the bus as well. They had got nobody to take the job and he took it.
“And I think the players threw him under the bus more than anything.
“I see some of the stuff that happened this past few weeks, breaking drink bans and it only two weeks before a game.
“That’s not going to win anything. I actually felt sorry for him the way the whole thing has panned out.
“I think James McCartan is a good manager. It just shows in the past, they were just a point I think off Cork in the 2010 All-Ireland final so it was there.
“It’s just trying to get players to buy in.”
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