Owen Lennon feels there is still plenty of experience within Monaghan's squad after the recent retirement of veterans Paul Finlay and Dick Clerkin.

The former Farney captain, who will act as a selector under Malachy O'Rourke in 2017, has seen the aforementioned duo follow in his footsteps from 2015 and says the process of blooding new players is already well underway.

"The transition has already started," Lennon is quoted saying in today's Irish News. "All good things must come to an end, but there's still a nice blend. The thing Malachy and the players didn't want was a mass exodus, so the fact I went the previous year, the two boys went this year, it's not affecting the team too much.

"The two boys were great players surely, but they didn't get an awful lot of game time last year, there was a lot of other new boys blooded last year, so the transition will hopefully work nicely.

"It's hard to beat that wee bit of experience around the dressing room surely, but the likes of Conor McManus, Colin Walshe, Darren Hughes, Kieran Hughes, they're all a year older and they know what way a team should play and what way a team should run.

"They have a lot of experience under their belt at this stage - those boys are now the backbone of the team. And then we're very lucky that Vinny Corey and Dessie Mone are still there, there's still loads of football left in them yet."

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