Glass half-full for Olcan as Leitrim hurlers seal home venue for Allianz NHL Division 3B semi-final

Maybe it is just the life of managers that even after a win, they can’t help but see the errors and lapses their teams make but there was no doubting that Olcan Conway was delighted that Leitrim hurlers sealed a home venue for next Saturday’s Allianz NHL Division 3B semi-final.

Both Leitrim and Longford knew starting Saturday’s encounter that they would face each other in the semi-final, all that was to be decided was who would be at home in that game as Joe Murray’s injury time winner gave the Green & Gold a 0-10 to 0-9 victory over their neighbours.

“Happy enough, we did ok, we got the win, I thought today was a fantastic ding-dong game,” was Olcan’s low-key reaction to the hard fought victory in Shane McGettigan Park, “I wouldn’t say I’m overly happy either, I’m still seeing re-occurrences of things that happened against Cavan last week that we’re trying to eradicate.

Late Murray point seals home semi-final for Leitrim hurlers in phoney war with Longford

LEITRIM 0-10 LONGFORD 0-9

“But the lads dug very deep there, conditions were very tough, strong breeze and it wasn’t easy to score even with the breeze, it was so strong. You’ve got to accept these occasions when they come along, a win is a win and we’ve secured home advantage.”

The Leitrim manager admitted that he couldn’t really complain about his team’s performance: “The full-back line was brilliant, the half-back line was brilliant, everybody was very good, I can’t complain really, I shouldn’t be complaining - I shouldn’t be so grumpy!”

What was most notable about the performance was the sheer scale of changes Olcan made to the starting line-up and the Leitrim manager admitted that a lot of players will be pushing for starting places as a result: “We made 14 changes from the team that started against Cavan, I suppose you could put that two ways - did we drop 14 players because of their performance against Cavan or did we give 14 players an opportunity to state a claim for the panel?

“I can certainly say a lot of players put their hands up for selection for the semi-final next week on their performances today. That team I laid out, I still saw as a very strong team. You had Liam Moreton, James McNabola coming back from injuries, Enda Moreton coming back from a layoff, Lorcan is still a top keeper.

“The young lads, Mark McHugh, Brian Goldrick, Dylan McDermott, Aaron McLoughlin, they were all very steady and that is what you need, good competitive games to learn and improve and get better and that is what we got thankfully.

“It wasn’t that hard to get them motivated and up for it because it is quite simple - we want lads to be competing for places, we want lads to be pushing the players who have been starting a few games and letting them know that they’re coming behind them and they’re looking over their shoulder so it wasn’t that difficult to motivate them.”

Unusually, Saturday’s game was a low scoring affair but the strong wind made the game a lottery at times: “Conditions were tricky as well today and you’ve got to take that into consideration as well but the lads who did come on were very impressive. A few lads picked up a few early yellow cards so we took some of the lads off who had come on as subs last week and we rotated it a bit.”

Olcan was also delighted that so many fringe players got a chance to get a run-out and show what they could do: “That was the reason the game was played, there was no point in waiting until next week to play a semi-final. Longford made five changes to their starting 15, we made 14 changes.

The calm before the storm

THE LAST POINT

“Thankfully we played well enough to win the game but, and I don’t want to sound negative, but there are still a lot of aspects of our poor play that we did against Cavan creeping in during the second half in particular.

“Next week, Longford will be at full-strength, they’ll just take today as they lost a venue for a semi-final but they are still in a semi-final so they will be a different animal next week and they’ll be looking for retribution for today.”

Olcan also sung the praises of Allen Gaels GAA club who hosted the game in Shane McGettigan Park: “I thought Drumshanbo’s facilities were outstanding for the amount of rain that fell and the pitch held up fantastically well so there has got to be great credit given to Allen Gaels GAA club and Fergal McPartland for getting everything looking so good and so well, it is fantastic facility and a great place to play a hurling match and I look forward to playing many more games here hopefully.”