Down Hurling teams pre-season preparation

The Down Senior team begin their 2008 hurling campaign this Sunday (20th January) Playing in Tullamore against Offaly in the Walsh cup is no easy task. This time last year they were comprehensively beaten by Laois in the same competition.

It will be interesting to see how Down approach the match. Recent friendly matches against Dunloy, last week, and the South Down team , a fortnight ago, saw the team play with a passion they failed to display last year. However they have yet to play a serious competitive match and may treat this as a warm up to the league starting in February.

Against Offaly in the league last year Down failed to perform and it is unlikely Offaly are going to be as good this time round. Like Down they have a very small pool of clubs to pick from and they will be missing the Birr contingent who are Leinster club Champions.

The South Down team are also preparing for their league campaign. Previous matches against Queen’s University Belfast and Dublin County champions and Leinster club finalists Ballyboden StEnda’s have given this team their best ever preparation to a season. Their preparation continues next Sunday with a match against Armagh (probably in Silverbridge).