DOWN may get their Conor McGurk Cup campaign up and running against Armagh next Wednesday night, but manager Ronan Sheehan is content not to be seeing his players in the flesh until this weekend.
The Ards men have been working on their own individual training regimens ahead of the clash at the Athletic Grounds, which will begin a busy 10 days of hurling when they will also take on Queen’s University and Louth in Section B of the pre-season tournament.
“It’ll be very different this year,” said Sheehan of the rapid fire start to 2022.
“Last year was great in some ways that we weren’t back training until March or April and the league and Joe McDonagh Cup games were all played in great conditions. This year, it’s back to winter hurling.
“The guys haven’t come back together collectively yet – they’ve been doing their own individual strength and conditioning programs that were put together by Stew, our trainer. We’ll not meet up together for training until January 2 [this Sunday].
“That was a very conscious decision that was taken not to begin collective training again until that date. The fellas played a lot of hurling last year and they deserve a break. The club championship, for example, ran very late and that takes its toll on players.”
Talking of club championships, Down champions Ballycran only ended their campaign on December 19 with a provincial final defeat to Slaughtneil, and Sheehan is happy for his contingent from McKenna Park to be given more recovery time.
“We’ll be playing the McGurk Cup without the Ballycran lads,” he added.
“One or two might want to play to keep themselves ticking over but I’ve said to them that I don’t expect to see them back until the end of the tournament.”
With the emergence of the Omicron strain of Covid leading to another spike in cases and leaving sporting and cultural events around Ireland again in precarious positions, Sheehan isn’t about to start taking hurling for granted.
“We’ve very privileged to be playing when you look at the struggles of others, the hospitality sector for example,” the Newry Shamrocks man said.
“We’ve missed out on a lot the last while not doing the things that we’d like to be doing. But when you think about the real life impacts on people in the performative and arts sectors, we’re very lucky and we’d like to give people a bit of joy as a show of appreciation.”
The last year has been one of solid progress in Down hurling, with the Ards men comfortably retaining both their Division 2A and Joe McDonagh Cup status over the course of 2021. While hopes might be high that further forward steps can be taken in 2022, Sheehan is remaining cautious.
“We’re targeting the exact same this year as we achieved last year,” he said.
“If you win one or two in Division 2A of the league, you’re probably safe; if you win another one, you’re maybe in play-off territory. There’s very little between teams. The margin for error in Division 2A is wafer thin.
“I make no apologies for saying our priority is to keep our status in the league and in the Joe McDonagh Cup. If you start getting ahead of yourself in either of those competitions, you could find yourself on a very slippery slope.”
