Another Tipperary coach is getting ready to go into intercounty scene for 2024

Roscrea clubman Trevor Fletcher is set to join Down Hurlers as coach under manager Ronan Sheehan, having been involved with Shinrone when they won a first Offaly senior hurling title last year.

It will be Fletcher’s first foray into senior inter-county management.

Shinrone hurlers were dethroned when losing this year’s Offaly final to Kilcormac-Killoughey, a club Fletcher also has strong ties to and where he moved to set up home from his native Roscrea, transferring to the Offaly club in 2010.

He won county titles with Kilcormac Killoughey as a player and hurled in the 2013 All-Ireland club final, scoring 1-1.

Fletcher was a highly regarded underage hurler in Tipperary, a contemporary of Eoin Kelly with whom he won a Munster title as a minor in 1997.

With Kilcormac-Killoughey Fletcher was part of their first Offaly senior title win in 2012, leading on to a Leinster title and an appearance in the All-Ireland club final where they lost to St Thomas’. They recovered from that setback to complete an Offaly hurling championship three-in-a-row.

Down hurlers competed in Division 2A of the national league in 2023 where they finished just above the relegation zone, avoiding the drop by virtue of a better scoring difference than Derry. They drew one match and lost the other four. Two of those defeats were by one-point margins and their loss to promoted Offaly was by a goal.

In the championship, they had a poor campaign in the Joe McDonagh Cup, suffering some heavy losses and finishing second from the bottom of their group, just above relegated Kildare.