Conway thrilled with U20 progress as Leitrim hurlers look to build for the future

Nobody wants to talk about a rebuild but Leitrim reaching the All-Ireland U20 C Hurling Final couldn’t have come at a better time for hurling in the county, according to  Olcan Conway.

Leitrim’s demolition of Fermanagh was the fruition of a lot of hard work behind the scenes says the Leitrim manager: “Believe it or not, we had an U20 team 13 or 14 years ago - Conor Beirne was involved in it, Niall McLoughlin, Liam Moreton, lads like that and I was managing the team at the time, myself, Steve Feeney and Kevin McGrath. 

“That was the last time but we have been fighting for years to have a team,  it has just taken a number of years for us to get permission for an actual U20 team. Just disappointed that Paddy O’Connor, God rest him, isn’t here to see it because himself and myself were trying to get it up and running for a few years. We finally got it going and unfortunately Paddy wasn’t here to see it.”

The fact that Leitrim are able to enter an U20 team is crucial for the development of  young hurlers: “There has been a tremendous amount of work in the Celtic Challenge U17 squads and the Tain Og teams over the last number of years, James Keane and the boys have kept that bunch coming through together, nearly from U13. 

“It is a very talented bunch, no point in saying otherwise, we’re lucky that we have a really good crop of lads coming through at the same time and that is why it was absolutely crucial to have a team this year. These lads have been training a lot with the Senior team this year, some of them have made their breakthrough but they really need matches at their own age to develop which is crucially important.

BALLINAMORE CELEBRATE LEGENDARY TEAMS OF THE 60S & 70S - GALLERY

“It is great to see the work that was done this year come to fruition on Saturday but let’s not get carried away, it was only a semi-final, Monaghan are in the final but it was just a great culmination of time and effort by a lot of people on Saturday.”

As for Monaghan, Olcan’s only experience is in what the Green & Gold faced in the Lory Meagher Cup: “I know very little about Monaghan, I know they have one or two players who are playing with the Senior team as well, they’re excellent. By all accounts, it was an excellent game between themselves and Cavan.

“They have a number of games played in the Ulster League which is a huge advantage to them. They probably have a bit more work done than us match wise but I’m not sure they’d have much more done training wise because we have had the lads in training with the Senior lads.”

Leitrim Senior hurlers face Warwickshire next Saturday in Shane McGettigan Park Drumshanbo (3.30 pm throw-in)  in a crucial Lory Meagher Cup clash with Olcan reluctant to talk of a transitional phase: “We took a conscious decision at the start of the year that we wanted to keep a core of the squad that could compete at Lory Meagher level but also try and develop the young lads coming through.

“I’m trying to avoid the words ‘rebuilding phase’ because we have lost two or three crucial lads from last year like Brendan Delaney and the Moretons, serious lads to lose. But we still have a lot of the core of the team that was there last year and it is trying to integrate the two rather than a complete rebuild would be more where my head was at but it is going towards a rebuild as well, it is somewhere in between.”