Down boss Ronan Sheehan says 'an awful lot more can be done' to help Ulster hurling

Antrim are the only Ulster county who compete in Division One and the Leinster championship against the likes of Kilkenny, who twice travelled to Belfast to play the Saffrons this year

Down hurling manager Ronan Sheehan says an "awful lot more can be done" to boost the health of the game in Ulster and elevate it to a point at which it is not being "squeezed" by football.

While Sheehan believes that hurling is "stabilising" in Ulster and has been helped by Antrim's status as a Division One team, the Down boss feels that decision-makers must look at a better way of incorporating the game into the calendar across the province.

The Ulster Senior Hurling Championship has not been played since 2017.

With no flagship inter-county competition in the province, Antrim - the only Ulster county currently competing in Division One of the National Hurling League - compete in the Leinster championship.

At club level, only teams from Antrim, Derry and Down compete in the Ulster series with Slaughtneil having gone 77 days without a competitive match between winning the Derry final and losing the Ulster decider to Cushendall this year.

In what would have been a blow for Ulster hurling, Cavan and Fermanagh were two of five counties who recently faced risk of expulsion from the leagues from 2025 until the controversial proposal was withdrawn before a Central Council meeting earlier this month.

The GAA then announced the creation of a workgroup to formulate a 'national hurling action plan' aimed at developing the code across the island, with Kieran Farmer (Fermanagh), Kevin Kelly (Derry) and Ryan Gaffney (Armagh) the Ulster representatives on the committee.

'Space in the calendar is absolutely critical'

But in order to develop hurling in Ulster counties such as Monaghan, Cavan and Fermanagh, Sheehan feels there must be more "designated" hurling days on the calendar.

"I'm a big believer that the number one thing that can be done is space in the calendar," said Sheehan, speaking at the launch of the 2024 Conor McGurk Cup, a pre-season competition which will be played in January ahead of the league's return.

"You talk about hurling, people think you need to throw more money at hurling, but what's the most powerful thing you could do for hurling in Cavan or Monaghan or even Down? You have designated days or a designated week.

"So if you have four calendar weeks in a month, two of those are dual so you play both, one's for hurling only and one's for football only.

"Number one it gives dual players space to breath and number two it gives hurling space in the calendar, which is absolutely critical because in many counties there is no space for hurling and hurling is being squeezed by football, and that's the biggest problem."

Sheehan also insists that "prioritisation" is key with regards to addressing the belief that hurling is failing to thrive in the more populous areas of Ulster like Belfast, Newry and Derry city.

"We can't do everything, that's the reality," added the Newry Shamrocks club-man, who is preparing for sixth season in charge of Down.

"I think sometimes for hurling we try to do a bit of everything instead of actually saying 'what's our number one priority?'

Sheehan says Ulster must prioritise when it comes to hurling development because there is no "magic money tree"

"So, if you look at Antrim, that should be Belfast, getting the numbers back playing in Belfast, strengthening the clubs and maybe the thing that needs to happen in Belfast is strengthen three or four clubs and forget about strengthening all 20.

"If we looked at strengthening three or four clubs, would that have a powerful effect on Antrim? Absolutely."

Sheehan, who would like to see a full-time coaching officer in his own county, added: "Take Newry for example - I'm out coaching in primary and secondary schools. All three secondary schools in Newry are playing hurling. It may be at B or C level, but at least they're playing.

"You have the guys doing great work in Craobh Rua as well, our neighbours (in Armagh). If we were able to do something jointly with Jarlath [Burns] being the new [GAA] president. Between Down and Armagh, growing it in Newry, would it have a transformational impact on Down hurling? It probably would.

"There are a lot of well-meaning things out there but there is no magic money tree so we have to prioritise and be clear about what's going to give us the biggest bang for our buck."

While Sheehan feels that a lot more can be done for hurling in the province, Ulster GAA hurling development committee chair Michael Geoghegan believes there has been positive strides with regards to growing the game in the province while stressing the need to boost participation numbers.

But when asked if he can understand the frustration from people who feel Ulster hurling is in poor health, Geoghegan said: "Of course we can. This is about building, building from the bottom and putting foundations in place to make sure that we can build and achieve the possibility of clubs participating in meaningful competitions.

"What I mean is we need to have more clubs involved in hurling and that's our aim from an Ulster level.

"By getting more clubs involved, you also need more games for those clubs, but by having more games you open up the roots of so many to participate but you need them playing at their own level and that's the task we have in hand."