Down hurling manager Marty Mallon has expressed frustration at the lack of commitment being shown by some players to the county team's cause.

The Ardsmen open their Christy Ring Cup campaign tomorrow against Roscommon after having just 19 players at their disposal for their Ulster SHC semi-final loss to Armagh a fortnight ago.

"The frustration is not getting everybody to focus on what we're trying to do," Mallon said in the Irish News.

"Against Armagh, we had four forwards out of six missing and, ot be honest with you, if one or two of them had played we'd have beaten Armagh handy. That's taking nothing away from Armagh, but we should've beaten them the way it was, even with 14 men (Caolan Bailie was sent off in the first half).

"We can't understand why boys aren't throwing themselves into it full on. The 22, 23 fellas we have have been absolutely fabulous - brilliant trainers, committed, dedicated - but it's that five or six top players who really need to buy in to give us that push to go and challenge.

"We come from a small county, we've three senior clubs here and if we lose two or three players, we're gone, we're in trouble."

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