By Alan Rodgers

CHAMPIONSHIP hurling in the Nickey Rackard Cup is the focus for Tyrone as they bid to build on what was a reasonably satisfactory spring league campaign when the season begins this Saturday against Sligo at Garvaghey.

It’s a competition which holds much promise for the Red Hands after two seasons in the higher level Christy Ring. The clash against Sligo on Saturday at 2pm is then followed by an away meeting against Mayo on Saturday April 18 and then Louth on April 25 before a clash against Fermanagh and then Armagh to finish.

By then, of course, Stephen McGarry and his players will have hoped to have booked their place in the knock-out stages. But there will be nothing easy in any of those matches, beginning with this weekend’s against their Connacht opposition.

Tyrone have won the Nicky Rackard Cup – named after a famous Wexford hurler – twice in its history. The most recent of those successes was in 2022 led by the late Damien Casey of Dungannon, and there are understandable hopes and a determination to do everything possible to repeat that achievement.

However, there is a lot of hurling to be played in the coming week. Last year, Tyrone found the going tough in the Christy Ring Cup last year, losing all their matches in what was a winless season in both the league and championship. However, they will be hoping to bounce back in 2026 and the team manager believes that the side is well placed to do well in the championship after an encouraging league campaign.

Although they suffered defeats to Wicklow and Donegal to end their promotion hopes, wins over Fermanagh and Armagh and a draw against Roscommon in which they were denied victory right at the end show an improvement in form.

“The league was completed on a positive note, but we’ve known that there’s a world of work to have been done. There has been five weeks to really ramp up our preparation for the championship and see where that takes us,” said McGarry.

“All the players and management are massively looking forward to the championship. At the start of the year, our aim was to go up and be ultra-competitive in the Nicky Rackard as opposed to the league. We knew that there were players who needed to be bleeded in to get better and we’ve been working on that.”

Recent weeks have seen Tyrone focus their training solely on the championship and the prospect of a Croke Park appearance for the teams which eventually reach the final is certainly a tantalising one. While the Red Hands do have experience of playing and winning at headquarters, there are now a host of young players anxious to enjoy a day out in a significant final at the venue as well.

But the list of fixtures over the past month or so indicates that there will be nothing easy. One positive, though, according to McGarry is the fact that competition for places has been good.

“We are definitely going in the right direction and there is a competitiveness now in the panel and to get onto the starting 15 and the 26. The players coming off the bench in the league was healthy and we have continued to work on that over the past few weeks since the league,” he added.

“There are a few players still to come back from injury as well. Fergal Donaghy and Shea Munroe while Sheehan Fay is out for the season.”

On the plus side, too, is the number of U-20s in contention for places. They lost the All-Ireland semi-final against Roscommon last weekend, leaving them to concentrate on the seniors now.

“The Nicky Rackard is going to be a seriously tough competition. But we’ve used the past five weeks well and the players have done a lot of work within that period to ensure they’re in the best possible shape for what’s ahead.”