By Michael Devlin

Tyrone hurling captain Dermot Begley says his side must add consistency to their game if they have any designs on climbing up through the inter-county hurling ranks.

The Red Hands kick off their Nicky Rackard Cup campaign tomorrow (Sunday) in Omagh against Mayo. They’ve consolidated themselves in hurling’s fourth tier competition, winning the Rackard title back in 2014, but Begley believes the time is now to expand their aspirations and move on up.

“Near enough every player has been playing at the level we’re at throughout underage, and have won the All-Ireland at that level,” said Begley.

“You’d think that we have the players and the capabilities to push on, but we need to get that consistency in our squad, bring the young players through, and keep pushing ourselves as hard as we can and try and get up to Christy Ring Cup. Who knows what can happen over the next few years if we keep working at it.”

Begley wasn’t part of that success in Croke Park five years ago, he made his Tyrone senior hurling debut the following season. The Carrickmore Eire Og’s man flitted in and out of the setup in his first couple of years while still attending university, but has been a steady presence at midfield for the last three seasons.

A Nicky Rackard Cup Champion 15 award winner in 2015 and last year, Begley is still yet to grace the Croke Park turf, something he is keen to amend this season.

“Every year I’ve played we’ve been beat in a semi-final, so hopefully I can put something right this year. It’s the same for a lot of us. Apart from 2014, we’ve let ourselves down coming into semi-finals, last year against Warwickshire, and Armagh and Roscommon in the years before that. Hopefully we can put something right and get over that semi-final hurdle and get to play here in Croke Park.”

Tyrone’s Division 3A league campaign this year got off to a great start with convincing wins over Lancashire and Louth, but ultimately losses to Monaghan and Roscommon cost them promotion and a place in the final, and victory over Armagh on the last weekend nothing more than a consolation win.

“The league went okay,” assesses Begley. “A couple of disappointing results, but overall we’ve a lot of new players. We lost a lot of experience in over the winter so we’re bringing in a lot of guys aged 19 or 20, and getting them some league experience. We used a lot of players, everyone got game time, so we’re going well and hopefully it goes well into championship.”

Tomorrow’s challengers come from two divisions up. Mayo preserved their Division 2A status after defeating London in a relegation play-off, and are the highest ranked team in the Nicky Rackard Cup in terms of league standing, a full grade up from the next nearest, Warwickshire.

Begley is hoping though that home advantage in Omagh, and a sizeable support from Red Hand fans coming in to support the county footballers making their Championship bow against Derry later in the afternoon, can swell the hurlers’ belief.

“Looking into the game we’re probably big underdogs, so having it before the football, we’ll get a big crowd in to cheer us on. We saw a few months ago against Louth, we put up a big score against them in the league in Healy Park before a National League football match, so hopefully we get the crowd in and get them behind us, because we are going to need it. It’s not going to be an easy game, so hopefully we can upset the odds with the crowd behind us.

“They’re probably favourites for the competition. They are two divisions ahead of us, and a good bit head of everyone. Warwickshire are probably the next closest to them playing up in 2B. It’s going to be a step up for a lot of teams to play Mayo, but we’re quietly confident and we’ll give it our best shot anyway.”