Fermanagh manager James Daly will see his side get their season underway on Sunday with an away game against Antrim but he will be without sharpshooter Eimear Smyth who the manager has confirmed has opted out of the squad for this season.

Smyth’s absence is no doubt a blow to Daly and his management team but he is keen to move on from the matter with his focus on the players that he does have available, including a number who had opted out of last year’s squad.

“We spoke to Eimear earlier this week and she has decided not to come in which is disappointing but we just have to get on with it. We just have to draw a line under it and move on but the door remains open to Eimear to come back later on if she wants, as it does for any other quality player who is currently not in the squad,” said Daly, who is happy with the squad that he does have to call on for the season.

“We don’t have Eimear but we have the Murphys, Erin and Courtney, I have Rosin O’Reilly, Ashling Maguire, Danielle Maguire and Lisa Maguire so we have a lot of players that we didn’t have last year in this year and I’m happy with that. I’m pleased with the quality that we have and I’m happy with where we are at,” he stated.

Daly’s hand though for the opener against the Saffrons has been weakened due to a number of shoulder injuries with Blaithin Bogue, captain Shannon McQuade and Ashling Maguire all ruled out of the game.

“We are without Blaithin, Shannon and Ashling who all have shoulder injuries and they will be a big loss but I’m not going to get overly concerned about it. It is the the first game in the league and the season doesn’t hinge on what happens on Sunday.”

The absence of Bogue along with Smyth leaves Fermanagh short in attack on Sunday but Daly feels it is a chance for others to step up and he is expecting a low scoring contest.

“It is going to be dogged because they will know our strengths and they will be quite happy to see that Eimear and Blaithin are not at one end of the field but we will be stronger with the players who have come back.

“I would expect it to be fairly low scoring and we will have our plans in place to deal with the likes of McLoughlin, Duhansi, Tubridy and Prenter; we’ll have our jobs set out that we want to contain within them and then we have to find scores, we need girls to step up and these girls are all capable of doing it,” he said.

Games against Carlow and London follow for Fermanagh and Daly with the top two progressing to the semi-finals and Daly states that is the first target for his side.

“We want to build throughout the league. We have three games and if we win two of them we will make the league semi-final and that’s the target. Hopefully then we can push on from there and get to a final. We have a lot of good girls there who are raring to go and I’m happy with where we are at. We want to go out and get a good performance on Sunday and take it from there,” he said.