Sheehan hopes his Downsidecanhurl out an early warning
DOWN hurling boss Ronan Sheehan is keeping his fingers crossed that his side can point the way to progress this year by overcoming Ulster University in tonight’s Conor McGurk Cup final at The Dub, Belfast (7.00pm).
Sheehan believes that his team has spent rather too long in Division 2B of the Allianz League and is particularly anxious to see them enjoy enhanced status.
“It’s time we were moving up and (tonight’s match) could help to put us on the right track,” maintains Sheehan.
“The majority of the players are under the age of 24 and would surely benefit from stepping up in the league.”
He will look to Caolan Taggart, Matt Conlon, Eoghan Sands, Paul Sheehan and Conor Woods to fire his team’s challenge while his UU counterpart Simon Doherty will lean on Conal Cunning, Kevin Rice, Donal McKernan, Shea Shannon and Peter McCallin for inspiration.
Doherty is also the Armagh goalkeeper and his infectious enthusiasm for hurling has had much to do with the university team’s progress to date.
They have already recorded wins over Armagh and Tyrone and are unlikely to be fazed by the test that Down will pose.
“This does not mean that we don’t have the height of respect for Down — we do,” insists Doherty. “But I think the boys have grown in self-belief following our earlier wins in the competition.”
Down boss Sheehan will be off to Abbotstown tomorrow to run the rule over Kildare who meet Antrim in the Keogh Cup semi-final there (2.00pm).
Kildare are also in Division 2B and Sheehan will avail of the opportunity to assess the side which is now under the baton of David Herrity.
Antrim manager Neal Peden is still missing several experienced players but will look to James McNaughton in particular to fire up his attack following the 14 points he landed in the 0-21 to 0-13 win over Wicklow in his team’s earlier outing.
Conor McCann, Sean Duffin and Simon McCrory are other key players in the Saffrons lineup although Joe Maskey may be missing in view of St Enda’s forthcoming All-Ireland club football championship semi-final against Galway and Connacht champions Spiddal.
Peden is keen to see Antrim make an impact in the competition and should his side come out on top they will then meet Westmeath or Meath in the final next weekend.
Afew weeks before Christmas, it seemed Santa Claus was coming early to the Ballinderry Shamrocks club. Their Shamrock Park was to host a senior inter-county game, perhaps its first one ever, with Tyrone having to merely hop over Ballinderry bridge for the engagement in the Dr McKenna Cup prior to leaving for their team holiday in Thailand.
Tyrone refused to play the game in Ballinderry. Instead, it went to Celtic Park.
Last Wednesday night, with Tyrone’s win over Fermanagh helping them top the group and Derry’s margin of victory over Ulster University securing them the best runners-up spot, they were drawn to face each other again in tomorrow’s semi-final.
An agreement was reached that they would toss for home advantage. Then Tyrone stated that if Derry should win the toss, they would have to play the game in Celtic Park, and not Owenbeg.
Derry refused those terms, pointing out that Tyrone had no right to dictate the opposition’s nominated ground. And so the game had to be fixed for the Athletic Grounds in Armagh.
That’s the way it’s always been between Tyrone and Derry. There’s always a little bit of spikiness, needless needling going on.
At the start of the 2016 season, they played a heated McKenna Cup group game in Owenbeg that was full of skirmish. They met a few weeks later in the final and it was mental.
Eighteen yellow cards. Three red cards. And over 7,000 present to watch over 100 minutes of pure spite, crowned by a row on the field that had then Derry manager Damian Barton running 50 metres to get involved and ending up on the turf after clashing with Tyrone defender Cathal McCarron.
After the game, reporters approached Barton. He was furious and said some things that he immediately clarified were off the record.
You want to get the Tyrone thoughts on it?
We refer to McCarron’s autobiography, ‘Out of Control’.
“I put my left hand out as a loose cordon to prevent other players, including our own, igniting a potential melee. That peace-making approach lasted about a second. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the Derry manager Damian Barton coming across, plumes of smoke billowing from his ears,” he wrote.
“I made a go for him. I don’t know how I connected with Barton but I did… I nailed him. As soon as Barton hit the deck, a full-scale brawl kicked off.
“I did some clipping in the scrap, but it was more wrestling than anything else. I don’t know if it was for boxing Derry fellas or for nailing Barton but the referee showed me a straight red card.
“I found out afterwards that the suspension only kicked in for the following year’s McKenna Cup. If I’d known that at the time, I’d have hit Barton a lot harder.”
So there you are. Barton was also furious with a collision a couple of seconds into the game. Referee Noel Mooney threw the ball up, Derry’s Brendan Rogers hung around waiting for a tap-down and Tyrone defender Tiernan McCann