Down are happy to maintain close relations with university sides up north.

Despite a relaxion of rules in favour of county teams, the Mourne County have opted not to prevent their players from lining out for third-level combinations in this month's McKenna Cup, which means they will be without Timmy Hanna, Owen Costello, Donal O'Hare, Paul Devlin, Gerard McCartan and Anton McArdle.

Down coach Aiden O'Rourke, who is GAA Development Officer at Queen's University, tells the Irish News:

"We have six players involved in their university sides - three with Queen's and three with Jordanstown.

"We'll be happy that's another six players we'll get to see playing competitive football and it opens up another six places on our panel.

"We don't get to see every game but we'll get the videos of them.

"In the last week of January going into the league, we'll be delighted that they'll have that exposure. Getting more boys playing in January is a blessing.

"Everybody needs football and in January it's very difficult to get 26 lads football. Nearly every county is playing challenge matches in and around the McKenna Cup simply because they are limited in how many players they can give game-time to." Tweet

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