Former Fermanagh and Down footballer Shane King says he can empathise with Seanie Johnston, whose proposed inter-county transfer from Cavan to Kildare has filled many a column inch since the start of the year.

The long-running transfer saga surrounding Cavan star Seanie Johnston's proposed switch to Kildare has greatly divided opinions in the GAA. Dropped from the Cavan squad last October, the gifted Cavan Gaels forward is eager to resurrect his inter-county career with the Lilywhites, but issues over his place of residence have so far prevented the move from going through.

A decade ago, Shane King moved from Fermanagh to Down, and while his transfer didn't cause anything like the racket Johnston's has, he didn't exactly receive a warm reception from the Fermanagh faithful when he was sprung from the Down bench against his native county in the 2003 Ulster SFC semi-final, and played a crucial part in the Mourne County's second goal which helped them to a 2-10 to 0-11 victory and crushed Fermanagh's hopes of reaching their first final in 21 years.

"It was a lot easier for me," he says when comparing his move to Johnston's.

"I'd been playing club football in Down for three years (he transferred from Lisnaskea to Bryansford in 1999) before I decided to throw in my lot with the Down team. I already knew all the Down players, so that was a big help to me. The deciding factor for me was the travel. I was married and living in Down and I was finding it harder and harder to return to Fermanagh for training. It was over 200 miles of a round trip. I had done it for two or three years, and I had enough of it. I transferred to Down because it made sense."

Shane continues: "When Pete McGrath, who the Down manager at the time, called me up to his preliminary panel, it was an easy choice for me. I would probably have retired from inter-county football if he hadn't called me up, even though I was only 27 at the time. I was very proud to wear the Down jersey in the same way as I was very proud to wear the Fermanagh jersey

"The toughest thing for me was playing against my own county, and against my brother Barry. It was a bitter-sweet moment when Down beat Fermanagh in the 2003 Ulster championship and I was playing for Down."

Shane feels the predicament which Seanie Johnston currently finds himself in is most unfortunate.

"I can definitely empathise with him. It must be devastating for Seanie because all he wants to do is play inter-county football and he's not getting that with Cavan for whatever reason," he says.

"Anytime I've ever met Seanie I've found him to be a very level-headed lad. Any county manager would love to have him in their team because he's a super talent. Good scoring forwards are a rare commodity in the GAA nowadays. If I was the Cavan manager, I'd be doing everything in my power to get him back on board. In fact, I'd go a step further and make him captain because he's been the best footballer Cavan has produced since Dermot McCabe. My only regret is that he's not transferring to Fermanagh!

"But seriously, it's a horrible situation for Seanie to be in and the sooner it's sorted the better. He's going to Kildare to try and play inter-county football and most genuine GAA supporters would wish him the best with that."
King accepts, however, that Johnston's case is highly unusual.

"If he's supposed to be still working and living in Cavan, you'd wonder how he could play for another county. Ninety per cent of inter-county transfers take place for work reasons, but this seems to be an exceptional case. Whatever was going on behind-the-scenes between himself and the Cavan management, I think the county board should have stepped in and tried to sort it out at an early stage. They should never have let it come to this.

"Regardless of what happens, I'd be very surprised if Seanie doesn't play for Cavan again. When a player moves to another county, the don't tend to play for them for too long. I myself only had two years with Down. Seanie is only 27 or 28, and there is no reason why he can't come back and play for Cavan at some stage in the future."

Now aged 37 and working with Sean Graham Bookmakers, Shane is living in Castlewellan with his wife Elizabeth and their five children, Patrick, Ruairi, Rianna, Conleth and Daniel, who are aged between 10 and two. Patrick and Ruairi both play underage football and hurling with the local St. Malachy's club, which is only 600 yards away from the King home. Elizabeth is a member of the McCrickard family, which is synonymous with the Liatroim Fontenoys club.

One of the leading forwards in Ulster during the 1990s, Shane was only 15 when he played his first senior match for Lisnaskea Emmets in 1987. He played for the Fermanagh seniors for eight years and was a key figure for them in 1997 when, under the management of his father Pat, they won All-Ireland 'B' championship, McKenna Cup and National Football League Division 4 honours. He won an Ulster U21 championship medal in 1994 and also collected two Railway Cups with Ulster, winning his first as a 19-year-old.

"There was a good buzz around Fermanagh football in 1997 when we won the three trophies," Shane fondly recalls.

"Winning the All-Ireland 'B' was fantastic as it was our first national title. We had a very good team, but sadly couldn't make the breakthrough in Ulster. When I joined Down, they were going through a period of transition. A lot of the 1991 and '94 All-Ireland winners had retired and new players were starting to come through. I played under Pete McGrath the first year and Paddy O'Rourke the second when we reached the Ulster final, only to lose to Tyrone after a replay. We threw away a big lead the first day and Tyrone went on to win the All-Ireland."

A Sigerson Cup winner with UUJ, King returned to manage the Jordanstown Freshers team a few years ago. Despite being plagued by an ankle problem in recent years, he helped Bryansford to a reserve league and championship double last year, and is contemplating lining out for them again this year.

"I've been doing triathlons for the last two or three years because of the ankle injury which has made it difficult for me to play football and was caused by years of kicking frees off the ground. Even after they changed the rule to allow frees to be taken from the hand, I continued taking them off the ground.

"Around this time every year, you start to think about going back playing football, so we'll see what happens over the next few weeks," he concludes. Tweet

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