A new season of development ahead for Derry hurling

Mid-December saw the last puck of a Derry sliotar in 2024 as the Slaughtneil senior hurlers came up just short against Cork champions Sarsfields to bow out of the All-Ireland club championship at the semi-final stage.

The final result was a one-point loss despite what looked to be a certain goal just seconds before the end, as Mark McGuigan agonizingly blasted his effort over the bar. For anyone present in St. Conleth's Park that day, the utter devastation and dejection at the final whistle were equal if not more jarring than Sarsfield's jubilation with the smallest of winning margins.

Here we had a team from a tier three county inconsolable with the narrowest of losses to the champions hailing littered with inter-county stars of the all-Ireland runners-up.

It was a similar feeling in the Derry dressing room beneath the Cusack stand in Croke Park in June of this year. For the second year in a row, the Derrymen had come up just short of walking up the Hogan stand steps to collect their first-ever Christy Ring Cup, losing out narrowly to Meath in 2023 and Kildare last summer.

Following his side's loss to Kildare, manager Johnny McGarvey spoke pessimistically about his charges' innings for the year but through his disappointment, it was clear to see the Lavey man’s ambitions.

"Overall I think it's been a reasonable season for us but we wanted to win here today and get promoted. We won the league but we also expected to. Next year it’s very simple, we need to get back here and get Derry over the line, we need to be playing at that higher level."

"We need to be playing the likes of Down, Kildare, and the Meath to progress and push on. There is no other way about it. For us, that is absolutely vital.

Derry manager Johnny McGarvey celebrates with Corey O'Reilly of Derry after their victory over tyrobne last year. ast season was one of progress on many fronts for the hurlers. (Photo: Ben McShane/Sportsfile)

This year, Derry will play in the newly restructured Division 2 of the National Hurling League, taking on the likes of  Down, Kildare, and Kerry, all of whom play in the Joe McDonagh Cup.

The expectation to play at the highest level, to win all-Ireland competitions and to compete with confidence instead of hope is something that we’ve seen in recent years when it comes to Gaelic football in the Oakleaf county, but rarely if ever when it comes to hurling.

Yet despite coming up short against Sarsfield’s, Slaughtneil expected to make it through to next weekend’s decider, a new crop of young stars coming into the fold points to a very bright future for the Derry Kingpins and to the broader development of hurling within the county.

Youth played a central role in this year's Ulster club success with the likes of tenacious cornerback Fionn McEldowney, towering of Jack Cassidy in midfield as well as now well-established intercounty star Ruairí Ó Mianáin.

Rapid progress

Ó Mianáin came into McGarvey's set-up this year on the back of a stellar under-20 B All-Ireland success in 2023 scoring 1-5 from play in the final against Roscommon. He has seen the rapid progress in a few short years within the county.

"You have to accept to a degree hurling is going to play second fiddle in Derry, so instead of going against that, you have to work with what you have,” he said. “The team that won the under-20 was probably the first time in a long time in Derry that the best hurlers in that year were hurlers. They're not footballers who play hurling.”

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Lavey man McGarvey took over a team in disarray in 2023 and has instilled much-needed stability and organisation in the set-up. That structure is something that Ó Mianáin believes can provide a platform for the county's emerging talent.

“From what I hear it's the first time in a long time that Derry has had those structures in place. As a young lad coming in it's very enjoyable. Hopefully, in the next 10 or 15 years we can push on and take another step."

“The older lads say it's the first time that there's a level of professionalism coming into Derry hurling. There's a management team in place, there's a strength and conditioning coach, there are proper training sessions, and the boys are committing to it.”

Derry players and staff celebrate with the cup after the Allianz Hurling League Division 2B final match between Derry and Tyrone at Owenbeg last March. (Photo: Ben McShane / SPORTSFILE)

2024 has been a year marked by development for Derry hurling with the county building momentum on all fronts heading into the new season. Adding to the foundations already in place is a first Ulster minor championship in twenty-three years, an all-Derry Leonard schools cup final as well as an Ulster junior title for Ballinascreen.

It will be a case of one step at a time for the Oakleafers but they appear to be on a steady upward curve with every chance of becoming the next emerging county in the games development nationwide.

"We want to win the Christy Ring Cup, that's not being cocky or arrogant, it's just what our long-term goal is and we think we're good enough to win it," said Ó Mianáin. "We want to be playing at the highest level possible which is right now probably to be competing against the likes of Carlow and Laois and those counties.

"You saw how Carlow managed to develop and become a county that now has a very, very good hurling team that plays against the very best, at the minute we're of a level below where they are but to get there that would be massive."