Down hurling manager Ronan Sheehan believes this year’s Joe McDonagh Cup is as strong as it has ever been.
Last month, Antrim defeated Offaly in the Division One relegation play-off and both counties are in the McDonagh Cup this season.
The Ardsmen missed out on the chance to gain promotion to the top flight when they suffered a 5-19 to 1-17 defeat to Westmeath in the Division 2A final in Thurles earlier this month.
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There’s little time for Down to lick their wounds as they travel to Tralee for Saturday’s Championship opener against Kerry - a game few teams would relish according to Sheehan.
“The Joe McDonagh Cup is a fantastic competition to be in, but it is incredibly competitive,” said Sheehan.
“You can see that from last year when a team of the quality of Kildare got relegated out of the McDonagh Cup - nothing is guaranteed off the back of the League campaign. It is a new competition and you have to start again.
“You have two teams who have played in Division One (Antrim and Offaly) in the competition this year. Carlow have experience of playing in Division One recently.
"It is incredibly difficult and I don’t think any team, even Antrim, would fancy the trip to Austin Stack Park that we have on Saturday.”
Sheehan also has urged his side to learn the lessons from their defeat to Westmeath earlier this month.
Down had previously defeated both Westmeath (away) and Kerry to top the Division 2A standings prior to the play-offs.
“We were more disappointed with our execution of opportunities. We had 19 wides and that was a critical factor," reflected Sheehan.
“Probably nine of those wides were really poor wides and were scores we should have had.
“While the game got away from us, it got away from us from a combination of them scoring goals and us not taking our chances. At one stage in the first half, we’d 16 chances to their seven and yet they were a point up at that stage.
“At the start of the second half, they’d six chances and scored 1-5. We’d nine chances and scored one point.”
He added: “Ultimately, we topped the table and we played very well in all of the games, just not in the final.
“We did a lot of things well in the final too. We’re not too despondent. There’s nothing we can do about it now. We just have to focus on the next set of games.”
Sheehan also added that Bredagh’s Donal Hughes will be sidelined for the remainder of the inter-county season after undergoing surgery to correct an ongoing knee problem while Conor Woods is also unavailable for the trip to Tralee.
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