Burke expects Smith to feature in FBD against Sligo
Enda Smith in action against Sligo’s Luke Nicholson when the sides met in All-Ireland Series at Dr. Hyde Park earlier this year. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie
Roscommon senior football manager, Davy Burke, has indicated that All-Star Enda Smith will feature in the upcoming Connacht FBD competition, but that Tadhg O’Rourke and Ultan Harney will, more than likely, have to wait until the National Football League to see some game time.
The Rossies open their FBD campaign against Sligo at the University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome on Friday, January 5th. Burke revealed that, with St. Brigid’s and Castlerea St. Kevin’s preparing for All-Ireland club football semi-finals on the same weekend, his panel isn’t as big as last year, but that a mixture of youth and experience will be ultilised for the upcoming provincial pre-season competition.
“Enda (Smith) will be playing, 100 per cent. Like a lot of lads, he has picked up a few knocks and niggles, so the extra break probably did him no harm. But he’s training well and, more than likely, we’ll be seeing Enda against Sligo.
“There are knocks and niggles at this time of year with heavy pre-season. In general, we’re not too bad. We’ve gone for a smaller squad, which means we have fewer players available.
"But there are pros and cons to that. We think that the pros outweigh the cons in that the quality of our training is brilliant. We might only have 20 on the field some nights, but the quality of the sessions is really high,” he explained.
