Conway sees bright future for Leitrim as Senior Hurling manager steps down

The scoreline mightn’t suggest so but even as he confirmed that he is stepping down from his role as manager with the County Senior side, Olcan Conway stresses that there is a bright future for Leitrim hurling.

Leitrim suffered a 7-19 to 0-18 defeat at the hands of Cavan team chasing a place in the Lory Meagher Cup Final on Saturday in Drumshanbo’s Shane McGettigan Park with Conway confirming after the game that the game was his last in charge of the County Senior side: “Absolutely, that decision was made at the start of the year, never mind today’s match.

“I was contemplating not coming back this year but we just said we wanted to make sure we left it in a really good spot and I feel that I have with the U20s now. A new voice, new blood, a new man coming in who will hopefully take over these lads and the lads who are already there and drive it up another level.”

It is those U20s along with a core group in the Senior side that leaves Olcan optimistic for the small ball game in the county as Conway leads them in next Saturday's All-Ireland C Championship Final against Monaghan: “Last year and the year before, one the biggest problems I’ve had the last couple of years is that we are constantly rebuilding the team. 

"We’d get a team together and we’d lose lads, we’d lose the McDermotts, we’d lose the Moretons, we’d lose Brendan Delaney - every year for the last couple of years, you are rebuilding and rebuilding.

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“So I looked at it this year and said we can’t keep rebuilding, it has got to be sustainable, we’ve got to have young lads coming through for the future. Having an U20 team and having them training along with the Seniors this year, it has left Leitrim hurling and the Leitrim Senior team in a very good position for the next number of years. Whoever is going to have these young lads, they’re going to have a serious foundation to work off. 

“A lot of that team we have out there are still very young, there are only four or five over the age of 30, it is still a relatively young squad so hopefully if they do all stick together, the future should be very bright for them and it would be good to see them progressing through the ranks.”

One of those over 30s was the redoubtable Clement Cunniffe with the Leitrim keeper turning in an outstanding performance despite the 7-19 to 0-18 scoreline: “Clement in a top class keeper, he is, I think, one of the best in this division, I’ve seen nearly all the keepers, he is an excellent shot-stopper, very accurate with puck outs. 

“One of the best decisions I made in the last couple of years was to talk to Clement and ask him to come out of retirement, would he fancy going between the sticks and he said absolutely no problem, delighted to have him back and hopefully, there are many more years left in him yet!”

Analysing the game, Olcan felt that Cavan’s need for a positive result while Leitrim had nothing to play for was a big factor: “The lads fought extremely hard for every ball, they were never going to lie down but at the end of the day, we didn’t have anything to play for today and we rested all our U20s who are in the All-Ireland Final next weekend, we rested them but we still went out with a very strong team. 

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“We did hurl, there was a good breeze in the first half and Cavan got a lot of scores in it and when we came in at halftime, the breeze disappeared, so typical run of our luck this year. We did leave it quite open, we went for scores, maybe we should have tried to shut it down a bit more.

“But Cavan were chasing something, they were going for goal after goal after goal and we never stopped trying, that was the main thing - we showed great pride in ourselves and the Leitrim badge and you can never ask for any more than that.”