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Down MHC Preview - County Manager considers Clubs’ Championship Chances

Tuesday 26th July 2016

Down MHC Preview - County Manager considers Clubs’ Championship Chances

With the Club Minor Hurling Championship about to commence, we took the opportunity to ask Down County Minor Hurling Manager, Ronan Sheehan for his views on the forthcoming MHC campaign:

 

Q: From your knowledge of the minor hurling scene, who seem to be the strongest side going into this years MHC?

R.S: Certainly on league form you would have to say that Portaferry seem to be the team with the best form, structure and greatest spread of players. They have won all their games thus far and have been racking up some big scores while their work rate alongside their team play has been excellent – I know Marty and Mick (Portaferry mentors) won’t thank me for that answer but genuinely feel they have been the most impressive team thus far.

 

Q: Of course, championships can bring upsets along the way and the team that appears the strongest at the outset doesn’t always win. Are there any ‘dark horses’ who could take the title? 

R.S.: While I rate Portaferry as favourites, you couldn’t rule out Ballycran, Carryduff or indeed Liatroim. While Ballycran may not have the same “star” names as the other two clubs they certainly have a good work ethic alongside good players such as Cathal Ritchie, Phelim Savage, Huw Flynn, and Philip Miskimmon among others so they will fancy their chances. Carryduff have a lot of talented players also but like Shamrocks last year may find challenging for both the hurling and football title in the one year a real challenge. Finally while mainly an u17 side, I think Liatroim on their day can be a match for anyone particularly if the two McCrickards are on form.

 

Q:  What players should anyone attending the MHC games look out for? 

R.S: We are lucky in Down that every team has some very good hurlers - from Portaferry, I would be looking to Daithi Sands, Callum Smyth and Ronan Blair all of whom have excelled for club and county this year…..the return of Ronan Beattie and Peter Loughran will clearly boost Carryduff while in Donal Og Rooney, they have one of the best defenders at minor level in Ulster. Across the city in Bredagh while again a very young team, they will look to Declan McCartney, Micheal Napier and particularly Jake Carlin - who has been outstanding for the county this year - to inspire their younger team mates. Among the other Ards teams I think I have already mentioned the key players for Ballycran but would also add Liam McCarthy who although only u16, has been the most improved player in the county this year while Ballygalget will look to county captain Eoin Coulter for inspiration alongside Eoin Kelly and some excellent u16s in Cathal Coulter and Tim Prenter. Elsewhere Liatroim in the two McCrickards Ruairi and Conor have two of the most talented young hurlers in the province and supported by the likes of Caolen Moorehead and Cormac Lynch they will look to put a challenge to anyone. Shamrocks will be looking to the likes of Adrian Mee, Stephen McKey, Paddy Brannigan and Conor McPolin to help go one better than last year while their neighbours in Warrenpoint will be relying heavily on Feargal Murphy and Niall McParland.

 

Q: The MHC title used to be the preserve of the Ards clubs until in recent years some teams have made a breakthrough and won the Championship, do you think the traditional gap between Ards and ‘mainland’ minors has narrowed?

Its great in some ways to see O Rahillys win the minor title two years ago and indeed my own club Shamrocks reach the final last year so certainly the gap would appear to be closing at minor level…..my own personal opinion is that this is a result of both an improvement in the “mainland” but also some slippage in the Ards (primarily due to lack of numbers), our challenge collectively now is how do we maintain that improvement at minor and beyond as the likes of Paul Coulter and myself see this every year with the county minors/development squads that the Ards lads really start to improve as they start playing Antrim league  but the non Ards lads development starts to stagnate and they slip backwards…..so while great progress has been made there are massive challenges ahead and we shouldn’t be complacent.

 

Q: Anything else you want to add?

R.S.: Just to wish all the players the best of luck in the Championship…..

And no doubt we would all agree with that. Thanks to Ronan for his comments and on behalf of everyone in the County, best wishes to everyone associated with the Down Minor Hurling team as they embark on their All Ireland B Championship campaign this weekend.