Newry Schools Intiative another vital piece in Down hurling's jigsaw

By John Harrington

There’s no such thing as an off-season when it comes to Ronan Sheehan’s laser-focused mission to raise the level of Down hurling.

He’s been the county senior team manager for eight very progressive years now and during that time he’s also played a key role in series of coaching and games development initiatives that have really bolstered the game in the Mourne County.

His latest venture is to establish the Newry Schools Initiative which will see a combined Newry team featuring players from St. Colman’s, St. Joseph’s, Abbey CBS, St. Mark’s, and St. Patrick’s compete in the ‘A’ Grade of the Ulster Schools U15.5 competition, the Lennon Cup, this year.

It’s phase one of a project that he hopes in the coming years will expose a much bigger number of young Down hurlers to a higher level of hurling that will stand them in good stead going forward.

“None of our Down schools at the moment are playing in the A grade competitions, and that is a big disadvantage to them when you go on to minor and U20,” Sheehan told GAA.ie

“The Newry schools initiative is not about winning and taking recognition off individual schools, it’s about creating a team and creating an opportunity for young lads to develop by playing at A grade and by being competitive at A grade.

“To be honest, I don't care if they never win a competition, what I want them to do is compete, I want them to learn, I want them to improve, I then want them to go back into their clubs and raise the standards there, and I obviously want them then to go into the development squads and bring a better level of competition to our development squads.

“In Down we see this as being very embryonic. This is the first iteration and I would hope in the coming years we will see more initiatives like Newry Schools across Down.

“So, we might have a Newry schools team, a North Downs schools team, and a Mid Downs schools team or whatever the case may be.

“It's about growing the game, but it's more than just growing the game, it's about growing the game in a meaningful way by expanding young players' exposure to the highest level of hurling we possibly can.”

The Newry Schools initiative is a timely one for a couple of reasons. Next week Down GAA will interview for the position of a new secondary school hurling coaching officer which will be another big boost for the development of the game in the county.

In recent years clubs outside the hurling heartland of the Ards peninsula have done great work to develop the game, and for those in Newry’s hinterland this combined schools team will provide another great outlet for their young players.

“This Sunday, Patrick Rankins, which is an amalgamation of Newry Shamrocks and Warrenpoint, are actually in the 'A' U14 county final,” says Sheehan.

“All of this works together and it's all about pushing standards and driving standards and maximising the number of players who can play at the highest possible level.

“Because if you think about what are the biggest issues in ever trying to climb up the ladder, they’re twofold.

“One is your actual playing numbers and the second thing is exposing as many players as you can to as high a quality of game as you can. When you play at a high level and expose more players to a high level your standard definitely improves.”

There’s a strong history of combined schools team having a positive impact on the development of young hurlers.

The Dublin Colleges initiative honed the talent of a generation of players who would win the 2013 Leinster Senior inter-county championship. Players like Conal Keaney, Dotsie O’Callaghan, Liam Rushe, and David Treacy were among those who won Leinster Senior ‘A’ titles during their school-days.

The Dungarvan Colleges team that won back to back Harty Cups in in 2012 and 2013 produced Waterford hurlers like Patrick Curran, Michael Kiely, and Colin Dunford.

The Offaly Colleges team that won the Leinster Senior A Final in 2023 backboned the Offaly All-Ireland U20 winning team the following year and included current senior stars like Adam Screeney, Dan Rvenill, Shane Rigney, Conor Doyle, and Patrick Taaffe.

Down themselves have benefited from a combined schools team in the past with current senior county players like Tim Prenter, Phelim Savage, Niall McFarland, and Ronan Blair all graduates of the An Dún team that won the 2018 Mageean Cup (Ulster Schools Senior ‘A’).

The Newry Schools Initiative is essentially a pilot project that will be rolled out on a much bigger scale in the coming years .

“I think what our plan will be, certainly in the shorter term, would bring together combined teams at minimum of three of the age-groups going forward, including the Mageean Cup, and that it won't just be Newry Schools going forward, we will also look at running those other combined teams as well.

“We're hoping that this will morph into something that is very consistent for us at a number of age groups and as a consequence feed into our player pathway.

“Ultimately this is about preparing as many players as possible and broadening that base as wide as possible to give as many players an opportunity to transfer on the pathway eventually into the elite space.

So far there has been a hugely enthusiastic response to the Newry Schools Initiative by all the schools involved.

“We're training a couple of days a week and have 35/40 lads at training,” says Sheehan. “I would have to give St. Colman's a lot of credit for providing their facilities to us and allowing us to use their school as a base. They're obviously under pressure for pitchs with the football teams they have, never mind all their own hurling teams.

“On Monday, St. Colman's was the only school that was on, all the others were closed, but the lads were all still at training, they all came down.

“To be fair to the county board, they're providing the equipment and they are also providing the bus to bring lads to training which makes a massive difference. If you're a parent you're a lot more likely to support something when you know your child's going to be picked up at the school and they're going to be dropped back home again and you don't have to worry about coming 20 miles to pick them up from training or whatever the case may be.

“Sean Óg McAteer and County Board deserve a lot of credit for the huge support that they’re giving us.”

Down have made great progress as a hurling force in recent years. Despite having a pick of little more than 300 senior club hurlers in the whole county they’re getting closer all the time to breaking out of the middle tier of hurling counties and had their best campaign yet this year in the Joe McDonagh Cup.

They’re working hard at club level to get more and more young boys playing the game, and Sheehan believes that exposing that emerging generation of hurlers to a high standard at schools level will be the key to Down hurling taking the next step forward.

“It's a vital piece of the jigsaw,” he says. “I think if we don't get it right, we haven't the chance to continue to build the way we've been building in recent years.

“We need to expose more of our young players to as high a level as possible, and to give them that belief that they can compete. I was chatting to (GAA Head of Hurling) Willie Maher last night, and we're going to try and organise a few challenge matches for them down the country and things like that. Willie's been very supportive as well as always.

“I think it's all just part of that bigger piece of work that we need to do to improve hurling and drive it forward and to continue the progress that's been made over the last number of years right across the island.

“The game is on the up, and it doesn't necessarily mean that there's more teams going to win the All-Ireland, but I don't think that should be the judge of whether hurling's improving or not.”