Hi °C | Lo °C New Fermanagh manager Malachy O'Rourke has been given an early fillip by a man who next year will be doing his utmost to heap disappointment on him.
Monaghan boss Seamus McEnaney, whose team set the Championship scene alight during the summer, will go head to head with O'Rourke when their teams meet in the first round of the Ulster Championship in 2008.
Last night McEnaney offered O'Rourke encouragement as he settles into his new role.
"In our last five competitive meetings, Fermanagh have won four of them and our only victory came in the Dr McKenna Cup," said McEnaney.
"They have been something of a bogey side to us and while I wish Malachy all the best, we certainly don't intend to do him any favours when the Championship comes round."
McEnaney, whose ebullience and sincerity won him many admirers over the summer, is also very much a leading figure in terms of gauging the reaction of managers to the new proposals aimed at minimising player burn out.
There has been some concern that managers might take exception to some of the proposals, but McEnaney stresses that there have been no rumblings of discontent.
"I read through the proposals in detail and I don't see a lot wrong with them," said McEnaney.
"There was a lot of consultation during this whole process. We all have to make sacrifices to make sure that players aren't put upon and that clubs are better accommodated.
"I think that a reasonable package has emerged and I for one have heard no complaints from any quarters."
Among the proposals which will go before a Special Congress in January are plans to prevent under 19s from playing senior inter county football, to reduce county panels to 24 players and introduce a collective ban on county games in November and December.
The proposals are seen in some quarters as perhaps restricting county managers to some extent but the Special Congress is expected to formally abduct them in total.
