Mayo move ruled out as Browne stays in Tipp

FRESH reports that Declan Browne is considering switching his county allegiances have been dismissed by the man himself and his supposed suitors.

Reports in Mayo in recent days have linked the Tipperary footballer with Mickey Moran’s side.

However, the former Allstar, who scored 1-6 on Sunday against Waterford, has quashed such talk, as have Moran and county secretary Sean Feeney.

“There’s nothing in the rumours,” said Browne, who has previously been linked with moves to Kildare and Laois.

“I’m very happy with Tipperary. These are just the same old stories.”

Meanwhile, Ger Brady, one of the stars of Mayo’s unbeaten run in Division 1A of the Allianz NFL, is keeping his fingers crossed he will be fit to play in next Saturday’s glamour clash with Dublin at Parnell Park.

Brady went off injured with “a hamstring tweak” during the second half of Sunday’s victory over Cork.

But afterwards he said he came off “rather than making it any worse” and manager Mickey Moran added that he believes Brady will be passed fit to take on the Dubs under floodlights.

“It’s a twinge on the same hamstring he had earlier on the year. We have a good medical back-up team and hopefully he will be okay for Dublin,” said Moran.

Another injured Mayo forward, Trevor Mortimer, is making a recovery and Moran believes he will be back in full training in the next few weeks.

Mortimer has not played since last October, when he lined out with his club Shrule-Glencorrib in the Mayo senior final, but Moran said the calf injury is responding to treatment.

“Trevor will be back on the training field shortly.

“It was an awkward calf injury, and there was more detail to it than we thought,” explained Moran.

“He’s working in the pool and doing weights to get him ready to take the pressure on the football side of things.”

Meanwhile Eamon Barry is bullish about Meath’s chances of escaping the drop to Division Two, despite Sunday’s agonising home defeat to Kildare in Navan.

Meath came within inches of securing their top flight status when Nigel Crawford cannoned a shot off the Kildare crossbar deep into injury time but they now require at least a draw and possibly a win from their last two games.

Unfortunately, their last two fixtures in Division 1B are away from home, with a trip to Tuam next week where Galway await followed by another journey westwards a week later to take on Roscommon.

“I’ve seen plenty from these lads in the last three months,” said Barry who has rigorously defended his bizarre decision to make a raft of substitutions in the opening half two days ago. “They’re good enough to get at least a point or two in the last two games to survive.”

Forwards Joe Sheridan and Brian Farrell were two of the men called ashore early on against Kildare despite the fact that both had looked particularly dangerous in the opening exchanges.

Farrell scored 1-1 while Sheridan had linked play well from at centre forward but both were taken off soon after making individual errors.

“I’m very disappointed (with the defeat). We had withstood the Kildare storm in the first half, we had taken their best.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t sustain it for the full 70 minutes.

“We put a few balls into their goalkeeper’s’ hands. That’s a part of the game where we appear to be weak at the moment. We need to keep it simple, go for the early release and put the ball over the bar.”