Christy Ring redemption is the target for McGarry

THE Tyrone hurlers begin their Championship campaign in the Christy Ring Cup this Saturday anxious to make drastic improvements on the poor form so far this season which has seen them relegated from Division Two of the National League.

It is just three weeks since the Red Hands ended their league campaign on a relatively positive note. They displayed plenty of good form against Kerry in their final game and are now aiming to build on that key performance.

Wicklow away provide their first opposition in the Christy Ring, and this is a game that Stephen McGarry and the players will be hoping to do well. They will hope, too, that this will result in a win and a good start will be viewed as crucial.

Hopes are also high that the team management will be able to call upon some of the injured players who missed all or some of the league campaign. Suffice to say, then, that the clash against Wicklow in Aughrim (throwin 1pm) represents a golden opportunity to make their mark.

There will also be renewed vigour within the squad considering the progress of the county’s U-20s. A win over Wicklow in the All-Ireland semi-final put them into the All-Ireland B Championship decider for the first time and they will play Down in the McElligott Cup Final later this month.

Several of the players involved in that success last weekend are also travelling to meet Wicklow and will be confident of recording a repeat success against the Garden county.

Stephen McGarry doesn’t set any specific targets for this Christy Ring campaign – which includes matches against Meath away, and Donegal and Derry at home – but there’s no doubt about his ambitions of doing well this spring and early summer.

“ We have two really tough fixtures to begin the Christy Ring campaign against Wicklow and Meath. We have seen Meath and seen how extremely competitive they have been in Division Two. We played Wicklow last year and know exactly how strong they are going to be,” said the Ballycastle man.

“ Wicklow seem to be in a good way of going at the moment as well. I have no doubt that those teams will be targeting us as much as we will also be looking for something in the games between them.

“ It has the makings of being a really good game and hopefully we can do well.”

McGarry also points to the importance of the games subsequently against Donegal, Derry and finally London over the coming six to eight weeks, and the prospect of progressing to the later stages of the competition is definitely a tantalising one for them.

“There has been a great rivalry built up over the past few years with Meath, Donegal and Derry and both ourselves and them know each other inside out. Donegal have done well in the league and rightly got good results.

“But the Championship is different and I just don’t know how much of an impact those results will have when it comes to the Championship.

“It’s good to be coming into the better weather and the ball definitely moves a little bit faster on the harder sod. There are no guarantees that the sun will be shining, but we’re really looking forward to the next few weeks of matches.

“We haven’t been putting set targets on competitions or games this year and that’s the same going into the Christy Ring. I know this is boring, but we’ll just be taking one game at a time.

“At the moment, we are just fixated with Wicklow in the first game. We have done our due diligence and learnings on them and whatever we can learn from ourselves from the Kerry game and the rest of the league will be carried into the Christy Ring. But we’ll not be looking beyond this Wicklow game first.”

For all the Tyrone hurlers, and especially those players on the U-20s and seniors, this summer represents an exciting period of action.

The evidence present in Aughrim this weekend will, of course, give a much better indication of where the Red Hands stand following a disappointing National League and the prospect of a Championship campaign which promises plenty more progress.