Donegal manager McCann pays tribute to retiring Boyle and Henderson

Donegal senior hurlers get the new season up and running this Saturday away to Antrim at the University of Ulster Grounds, Jordanstown, without two of their mainstays.

Manager Mickey McCann paid tribute to Joe Boyle and Lee Henderson, who called time on their careers. In the case of Boyle, a club mate of McCann’s at Burt.

“Joe came back last season when we had a number of injuries,” McCann added. “But that is all it was. He is now working in Galway and living in Mayo and he just found the travelling too demanding.

“Lee’s situation is different. He has been really very unlucky with injury over the last couple of seasons and as a consequence he has struggled with fitness and has not been able to hold down a place on the team.

“We had a good chat about it and given his situation he was not guaranteed a starting place so he decided it was time to call time on what has been a good career. And no more or less than Joe Boyle he was a good servant to Donegal hurling. He will be missed because he was a good character around the dressing room.”

Saturday's game is a first round tie in the Conor McGurk Cup, a competition run by the Ulster Council and is a warm-up competition for the Allianz Hurling League, which gets underway early next month.

Antrim and UUJ are the other two teams in Donegal’s group. Derry withdrew from the competition due to the unavailability of the Slaughtneil and Banagher players. Queen University Belfast, Down, Armagh and Louth are the four teams that make up the other group.

Donegal were initially due to open the campaign against Derry tomorrow night in Convoy. But following the withdrawal of the Oak Leaf men, Donegal’s only other game - after Saturday - in the group stages is on Saturday week, back in Belfast where they will go toe to toe with UUJ.

“It is disappointing that Derry withdrew because it was our only home game,” said Donegal boss Mickey McCann.
“But it is also understandable because both Slaughtneil and Banagher have a good number of players in the Derry panel and they would be down in numbers.

“It means now that we have two away games and it would have been nice to get a game at home to get the season up and running.

“But the important thing at this time of the year is to get games and we are looking forward to playing Antrim on Saturday against good quality opposition.

“I see Antrim have a Walsh Cup game on Sunday so it will probably be a second string side made up of squad players and U20s. We are not going to be at full strength either and it still will be a good test against quality hurlers.

“We have a number of senior players missing and Lee Henderson and Joe Boyle have retired, which will give us an opportunity to have a look at a number of young lads like Ruairi Campbell, Conor Gartland and Brian MacIntyre that were in the squad last year but got little or no game time.

“These lads are very good young hurlers and it is good to give them a chance to play at the higher level. They will get their chance over the next couple of games.

“We also need the games to get lads up to match fitness ahead of the start of the league which is only a couple of weeks away.”

Donegal are in Division 2B of the Allianz League once again this year along with Derry, Mayo, Sligo, Wicklow and London.
They have two home games and three away.

They open their league campaign with a home tie against London on Sunday February 6, in O’Donnell Park. And that fixture is followed by away ties with Sligo in Markievicz Park on Sunday February 13 and Wicklow, in Aughrim, two weeks later on Sunday February 27.

They welcome Derry to Celtic Park, on Sunday March 6 before wrapping up the group stages away to Mayo, in Ballina, on Sunday, March 20.

The semi-final and the relegation playoffs in Division 2B are pencilled in for the weekend of March 26/27, with the league final on the first weekend in April.