Tír na n Óg’s duel dream

RANDALSTOWN began what will be an emotional season last night.

The hurlers and the footballers had a joint session, their first of the year and many there will have spared a thought for James McVeigh.

He was a club man whose ambition it had been for the club to compete at hurling and football at senior level. He dearly wanted to the team to be a dual club, like Sleacht Néill for example.

However, he will not see that happen as he died on Boxing day.

The 42-year-old was a dedicated member of the club and worked on committees and as a coach in all codes. At one point he had hoped to work as a dual coach for the coming season. He coached the u-21 footballers who won the B final and reached the A final, and he coached the hurlers last year.

However, that will not happen now but the club are keen to carry on his legacy.

Michael O’Kane is the Randalstown football manager this season.

He said he met James McVeigh on a few occasions, and said that his loss will be keenly felt this season.

“He really wanted them to push on on both fronts. He was going to be the dual coach. He had been doing that last year. He had set in motion plans for this year. He was going to be in with me with the footballers and he was going to coach the hurlers as well.

“He is going to be a massive loss.

“I had only met him a couple of times. But he passed away on Boxing Day. There will be a big void for those young fellas.”

O’Kane started his coaching career with Randalstown. The club is in a much different place now than when he was there over a decade ago. There are only four players still playing.

“I have always looked out for their results and I kept in touch with the members. I knew that they had done well with their u-21s. They won an U-21 B, and they were beat in an U-21 A final. Then last year, the hurlers won the Intermediate title.

“So they have have been there or thereabouts in intermediate football and hurling over the past three years. My job is to get them back to senior football. They are in senior hurling this year. They want to be a senior club all round.”

He says that the success of the hurlers has had a positive effect upon the whole club.

I think the success that they had in the hurling last year has given them a real taste, and they want more.

“I am not from a hurling background, but I saw the reaction from the club at that time, and I have been in touch with members and players, and the buzz for them to win an intermediate was massive. Most of their players are dual players so the next step for them is to go and try to win an intermediate title and get up to senior level in the football.”

However, there is a good deal of work to be done before that.

“We have not been able to meet as a team so we can’t set goals. I know in my own head what I want. When you go into a club you want to win everything. You want promotion, you want the championship. But so does every other club. At the moment we just have to manage the Covid situation as best we can.”

The work starts this week with the first training session.

Randalstown, Tir na nÓg have been working on their strength and conditioning during lockdown.

O’Kane said: “We are working with a fella who was my captain in Claudy (O’Kane managed Claudy in Derry in 2015) Conor Johnston. I spoke to a few physios and they really liked the work that he was doing.

“He was online-based anyway with his coaching, so I saw this an opportunity to use him. The footballers and hurlers have been using him online. It has been fantastic.

“Going by the testing that they have been doing we have been really impressed by the progress that they have made. They are fairly dedicated and they are willing to put in the work.”

So how much of chance do they have of achieving their goal of being a strong dual club over the next few years?

“It is hard being a dual club in Antrim. Only St John’s have been competitive in both hurling and football. But Randalstown have been close in the hurling. They were a puc of a ball away from winning an Intermediate Championship.”

They have set in place a coaching plan that has alternate nights for coaching between the two teams. Hurling gets priority one night, and football the next. Both codes train together, but the dual players focus on hurling one night and then football the next, and the single code players will train as normal. It means that players don’t have back-to-back nights training for different teams

“It is all about taking care of the welfare of their players, and getting as much out of them as we can. It is hard for a dual club you could be going Wednesday, Sunday. James felt that this was the best way to manage it and I agreed with him.”