Fáilte chuig gaa.ie - suíomh oifigiúil CLG

Hurling

hurling

McCann hails fitness as key to Donegal's Rackard Cup success

Donegal hurling team manager, Mickey McCann, celebrates after his team defeated Warwickshire in the Nicky Rackard Cup Final. 

Donegal hurling team manager, Mickey McCann, celebrates after his team defeated Warwickshire in the Nicky Rackard Cup Final. 

By Michael Devlin

Fitness was the telling factor for Donegal in their Nicky Rackard Cup final success over Warwickshire on Saturday, according to team manager Mickey McCann.

Donegal trailed by four points at halftime, but within eight minutes of the restart they had turned the deficit around with forwards Declan Coulter and Gerry Gilmore in inspired form, and wing back Gavin Browne smashed in a wonderful goal in the 54th minute to put the Tir Connaill in the driving seat as they saw out a 2-19 to 0-18 win.

“We done a lot of hard work, and a lot of it was with the ball, in one-on-one situations, and that’s what winds you down in a match,” McCann told GAA.ie.

“We’d one or two boys that we knew wouldn’t last the 70 minutes, and the changes were made. The majority of this team though are very fit.

“Gavin’s goal was definitely the turning point. You could see Warwickshire heads were dropping and our fitness was beginning to tell. They were working that hard, it’s hard to do it for 70 minutes. Maybe they hadn’t the bench to make the changes, where we had the fresh legs to come in.”

For much of the early running Warwickshire played with more hunger and were fully deserving of their halftime lead, and but Donegal upped their energy levels in the second-half.

“We knew Warwickshire would be very physical, very accurate, and they had a few very talented players," said McCann. "They punished us every time and were working harder.

“I couldn’t wait to get them in at halftime to be honest, because they’re seemed to be three white shirts around one yellow, they were really outworking us. It’s something that hasn’t happened all year.

“They were hunting in packs, they were well drilled. I felt the longer the game went on that our boys were fitter, and it proved so. We weren’t happy with the forward line, there was far too much ball being cleared easily, 80 yard clearances.

“We weren’t getting the same chance in our defence, when our boys were coming out, they were getting smothered up. I felt the forwards just weren’t working hard enough in the first half.

“We put Barney (Lafferty) in, and Declan Coulter was floating around there, and when the chips were down, Declan did a lot of damage, he got important scores.

"It’s the occasion, that first 35 minutes flew in for boys, but Declan kept the scoreboard ticking for us. He stepped onto the frees and scored three or four. He was definitely a big player for us.”