Hurlers seeking big upset at Croke Park

Hurlers seeking big upset at Croke Park

19 June 2019

DOWN senior hurlers go into Saturday’s Christy Ring Cup final at Croke Park against Meath as rank outsiders.

Few pundits outside the Down camp expect anything other than a comfortable win for Meath, but say that quietly in and around Ronan Sheehan’s new kids on the block.

The Newry man, who has close connections to several Cork hurling legends, has engendered a new-found enthusiasm and confidence in his charges.

His young hurlers are a real surprise packet this season and getting to the Christy Ring Cup final is a major achievement for his fledgeling side.

Sheehan has invested heavily in youth and has two schoolboys in his starting 15.

Downpatrick’s Tim Prenter, who plays his club hurling for Ballygalget and Ballycran’s Phelilm Savage are both in their final year at St Patrick’s Grammar School and De La Salle, Downpatrick, respectively.

Both lads were in the Down Schools’ side that lifted the Mageean Cup earlier in the season and both hail from famous sporting families.

Prenter, who also won a MacLarnon Cup medal with the Red High a few months back, is the son of former Antrim senior football defender Kieran Prenter and his grandfather Seamus Burns was a well known member of the all-conquering Belfast Celtics basketball team that swept all before them in the 1960s and 70s.

Savage, whose brother Liam is also in the team, is the son of former Ballycran and Ulster midfielder Gary ‘Gaza’ Savage, who was also a noted centre half with Ballycam Celtic in the Newcastle League.

There are also several other young players in the panel with Portaferry’s Matthew Conlon, Ronan Blair, Darragh Mallon, Tom Murray, Caolan Taggart and Eoghan and Daithi Sands all in their early 20s. 

Throw in Liatroim’s Oisin McManus, P J Davidson and Ruairi McCrickard and Ballycran’s Stephen Keith, Gerard Hughes, Huw Flynn and Liam and Phelim Savage and you have the nucleus of  squad that could dominate Ulster hurling for years.

In addition to Prenter, Ballygalget provide the squad with, John McManus, Danny Toner, Marc Fisher and Cathal Coulter with Newry Shamrocks providing Paul Sheehan and Jordan Murphy.

Helping Ronan Sheehan from the sidelines is Cork legend Diarmuid O’Sullivan and the Down manager believes his support has been critical in moving the side forward.

“Diarmuid has been doing a bit of defensive coaching for us and he has been there for all of the Christy Ring Cup games,” he said.

“He would know a lot of the boys from the development squads because he would’ve come and done coaching sessions down through the years. The first set of minors he was involved with were probably the likes of Conor Woods, so, it’s going back a bit.

“Having him there with what people would probably say is a relatively inexperienced management team as well as a relatively inexperienced team on the field of play has become very important,” he added.

“We see this as a bit of a journey over the next two to three years and Diarmuid being there to help build along the way will make a massive difference.”   

Sheehan also believes that O’Sullivan has made a big impact on the players and he can’t praise him highly enough.

“In terms of his knowledge of the game and the wee bits of coaching he does around how to tackle, there have been huge strides,” Sheehan said.

“Tackling was definitely something we felt we needed to work on, we were giving away too many frees in the past. You can see the difference even in the way the likes of Tom Murray, only 20 and Darragh Mallon at 22, are playing like demons, he beamed. 

“The other thing be brings is a great calmness on match days.

The lads respond well to that, when he has a quiet word with them beforehand.”

This will be Down’s fourth appearance in the Christy Ring final, but they have only lifted the cup once and that was back in 2013.