Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A WONDERFUL SIGHT TO SHEE
Ronan relishing return to the training pitch & it’s full steam ahead
PRIOR to Monday night, Ronan Sheehan hadn’t stood on a training field since November.
But after taking the Newry Shamrocks senior hurlers on the first night that clubs were allowed to train again in the north, the Down senior hurling manager was out with the under-17s hurlers last night.
Tonight, the under-9 footballers will get their turn, followed by the seniors again tomorrow night, and Sheehan will wrap up the week with the club’s academy hurlers on Friday evening.
On top of all that, he’ll be back with the Down seniors from next week.
He said: “It was just fantastic to get out. You could see that unbridled enthusiasm from everybody.
“We were out training in our own pitch (on Monday night) and the young camogs were out, the under-17 footballers were training before us so we had three of our teams in three of our codes out alone in different areas of the pitch at different times.
“Everyone is just delighted, you could see that in terms of the training session itself.
“It was like almost coaching seven and eight-year-olds in terms of the enthusiasm and people are just really looking forward to getting some kind of season in the coming weeks and getting back at it as much as we possibly can.
“The last time I was training was the Thursday night before the Christy Ring final so it’s been a long time waiting, six months almost.”
Although he feels that the GAA could have fought harder to retain the elite status exemption for inter-county activity south of the border, Sheehan is happy with the programme of games that were unveiled last week by Croke Park.
“Guys have been training themselves on their own for the last three, four, five months. You’ve got to give them games, that’s what they want to play so, yeah, I’m happy with what happened.”
Last week, Offaly legend Brian Whelahan (inset) questioned the length of the inter-county season with club players in mind though Sheehan, who doubles up as manager of his club, sees both sides and says he will be releasing players before the Joe Mcdonagh Cup ends in July.
“Once we get to the end of the National Hurling League, I’ll certainly let my players back to their clubs from time to time. I won’t be hogging them.
“I know that not every manager will do that and not every manager will want to do that but we’ve got to be fair to the clubs as well and we’ve got to strike that balance so I think once we get past the League we’ll be sharing our players a bit more with the club and trying to get some kind of meaningful games played.”