McGarry has taken plenty on board from hurlers tough campaign

THE top priority for the Tyrone hurlers during the coming weeks is to ensure that the injured players who missed all or some of their National League matches are back to full fitness ahead of the Christy Ring Cup.

Championship action begins for the Red Hands on the weekend of April 13 with an away tie against Wicklow. Then it’s another tough away tie against Meath in round two before the final two matches sees them have home advantage against Derry and Donegal.

It has been a tough start to 2025 for the Stephen McGarry-managed squad. They lost all of their Division Two ties, going down by a large margin against Down and Kildare especially. Despite this, though, there remains a sense of optimism that things will improve as they prepare for the group stages of the ChrIsty Ring Cup during the coming weeks.

Manager McGarry is taking many positives from the league, and especially from the game against Kerry on Saturday in Garvaghey.

A six point defeat was disappointing in that one, but the Red Hands showed enough ability to suggest that they will be competitive in the Championship. The Christy Ring Cup is one that they’ve been focusing on, and now the task is to make the most of this opportunity.

“To be fair to the young boys, they have met the league challenge head on. Even the older boys have embraced the challenge this year. It has been tough in terms of the results and in terms of losing players, but they’ve done everything that they’ve been asked to,” he said.

“The Kerry performance was probably our best of the campaign and it was one that we were probably looking for earlier in the campaign. I never questioned our desire anyway, the desire was there today and against Kildare.

” But unfortunately when we play teams like we’ve met this year, they are playing at a higher level and are extremely strong. There were just five points between ourselves and Kerry at one stage.

“We lost a number of players due to injury in the second half and were slightly threadbare. But to be fair all the players came on showed a good attitude and I felt that we could have pushed on and won the game but for a couple of soft decisions.”

McGarry is now hoping that the players will rest this week ahead of the Christy Ring. He is expecting a report on the injuries and niggles which have hampered their league exploits.

Suffice to say, that he’ll be urging a massive effort as the championship looms with that opening tie against Wicklow next month.