Mick O'Dwyer has criticised the burden placed on footballers at this time of the year. His Kildare side are in action in Longford tomorrow in the first round of the O'Byrne Cup - only three weeks after their previous competitive match against Mayo in the National League.

"The whole thing is a joke. Players are not professionals. We played less than a week before Christmas and now we're out again on the January 9th. Players must get a break and they're just not getting any at the moment.

"What was the real need to play it? There were five or six available weekends between Christmas and the resumption of the league. In my opinion December and January should be totally closed months for intercounty. It's fine to play a club game, you can ramble down to the field or ramble 30 miles to another club. But we had to overnight in Mayo the week before Christmas."

O'Dwyer has never hidden his lack of interest in the league - with the exception of his first year in Kildare nine years ago - and he fully supports the Football Development Committee's scheme to fuse league and championship. "I think the new proposals are really good. Anything that leads to a tightening up of the season would be a good idea. You would be building straight into the championship and every team would have to be ready from the word go."

Kildare are not regular participants in the O'Byrne Cup but O'Dwyer sees the secondary Leinster competition as having certain uses. "I suppose you can have a look at a lot of players. Most of the teams play experimental line-ups and that can make it interesting for people, a chance to look at up-and-coming players."

Whoever wins in Longford tomorrow will face Dublin in the next round.

Other fixtures see Westmeath travelling to Ardee to play an experimental Louth line-up, Wicklow crossing the border to face Carlow in Dr Cullen Park and Kilkenny's footballers competing in their only senior competition on a trip to Horeswood in Wexford, a fixture switched from Cushinstown. The winners of these matches will play, respectively, Meath, Offaly and Laois.

Meanwhile, Down hurlers have a new manager. Jimmy O'Reilly (59) played for Rossa, Antrim and Ulster in the 1960s but now lives in Down where he has served as chairman of the Drumaness club. He is the latest Antrim hurling personality to take the reins in Down.

Sean McGuinness led the county to Ulster titles in 1992 and '95 as well as first-division status in the National League. Frank Dawson, who stepped down last month, had three years in charge which yielded a further Ulster title in 1997. In recent years, however, the county's stock has slipped.