Published: Thursday, 4th February, 2010 2:58pm

O'Rourke looking to make a good start to league

Malachy O'Rourke will be looking for his side to make a winning start to their league campaign on Sunday.<<

The season will start for real for Malachy O'Rourke and his side on Sunday when they go to Tullamore to take on Offaly in their opening encounter in Division Three of the National Football League.

The McKenna Cup served its purpose for Fermanagh with three wins coming with experimental line ups as a number of players were handed a chance to impress the management. Last Wednesday night Fermanagh found it tough going as another inexperienced side lost heavily to Tyrone but this is not something that overly concerns O'Rourke, indeed he feels it may have been beneficial in the long run.

"The McKenna Cup was pleasing in that we got three good performances behind us before the defeat to Tyrone. Maybe if we had put up a better show against Tyrone it might have left us going into the league thinking we had this thing cracked and it is better to learn that in the McKenna Cup rather than the league," said O'Rourke.

He added: "I thought we looked tired against Tyrone after three games in seven or eight days although how much of that was down to Tyrone and how much was down to us is hard to say. The way Tyrone played made life very difficult for us and we have to try and learn from this."

The aim for Fermanagh since the start of the year is to be ready to hit the ground running when the National League start and O'Rourke will be reverting to a stronger line up on Sunday.

"There is no doubt that we had some good performances and results in the McKenna Cup but the main objective was for us to be ready for the Offaly game. Nothing has changed in that sense and we'll be looking to make sure that the boys are prepared for Sunday. The league will not be about giving fellas games, it will be about getting our best available players out on to the pitch. There will probably be a few debutants but there will be a much stronger back bone than in the McKenna Cup," he added.

O'Rourke has a concern over Tommy McElroy who picked up a knock to the knee while Marty McGrath is not expected back until March but other than that O'Rourke should have nearly a full deck to select from with the manager hoping to have Rory and Ronan Gallagher available.

"The original arrangement with St. Gall's was that they would be available so hopefully that is still the case," he said.

And the manager feels that it is going to take a good performance if Fermanagh are to collect the win.

"For any team going to Tullamore it is going to be tough. They seem to be a hard working side and they have some very good inside forwards as well. It is their home ground and they are a physically imposing side so it is going to be a big challenge for us but hopefully we will have a good week prior to the game and we are looking forward to getting the league started," he stated.

O'Rourke, who confirmed James Sherry and Tommy McElroy as captain and vice captain respectively for the year, believes that it is going to be a very tight division, and feels that the first round of games could produce some interesting results.

"The thing about the first day is that everybody has high hopes for the year and it can lead to it being an unpredictable day. I expect it to be a very competitive division and it is hard to know exactly what teams are going to be challenging," he commented.