The Donegal Under 20 hurling team will open their Ulster Championship campaign this Saturday.
Wicklow have been permitted to enter the competition and they will take on Donegal at the Louth Centre of Excellence in Darver on Saturday at 2pm.
Adie Gaffey is back at the helm for Donegal and he’s hoping his team can rise to the challenge over the next five weeks.
“It’s an early start. They have changed it around this year a bit,” said Gaffey, who is joined in his backroom team by Stephen Gallagher, Ronan Mulligan, Tommy Granell, Shane Sweeney, Eamon Gilligan, Peter Tooher, Joe McColgan, and Mickey McGlynn are all part of his backroom team.
“There’s six teams up in the ‘A’ this year whereas other years you’d have only had three or four, and there’s six teams in a ‘B’ competition.
“They’re starting a bit earlier because there are extra games.
“We have five games on the bounce against Wicklow, Derry, Down, Antrim and Tyrone and the top two teams go through to the Ulster Final.
“After the Ulster Championship, then there’s an All-Ireland series starting at the end of March.
“We’re getting really good top quality games. It’s going to be a higher standard than what we have been playing at for the last few years.
“But I think our lads will be up for it and you only have to look at how our club teams did in Ulster.
“Burt were strong, St Eunan’s and Setanta were going reasonably well and MacCumhaills won the Minor Hurling Shield and were beaten in the Ulster Final.
“It is going to be a step up but the lads have had a taste of that high standard already. That’s where we want to be and that’s where we will improve.
“We know the quality we’re going to be up against and we will have to be at our best to compete well but there’s a good bunch of lads there and I’m very optimistic.”
Dan Donnelly and Jacob Malone (both Sean MacCumhaills), John Kealy (St Eunan’s) and Aidan McKinney (Burt) are all part of Mickey McCann’s senior set-up and while they will be involved at some stage with the Under 20s, Gaffey doesn’t know yet if he will be able to call upon any of them on Saturday.
The likes of Shane Ellison and Brendan Gaffey (St Eunan’s), Kyron McColgan (Burt) and Sean Brady Devenney (Sean MacCumhaills) will all be key players.
“I’ve had this group since Under 15s and we have a lot of lads that have come through each stage and then we have a few new lads that are hurling really well for us.
“We’ve played Sligo and Fermanagh in challenge games.
“The weather and pitch availability has been challenging. It is what it is and we have to make the best of what we got.”
Gaffey admits he doesn’t know much about Wicklow but appreciates that his team will have to bring their A game to come away with a result.
“To be honest, I have no experience of coming up against Wicklow before.
“We know that they are going to be a formidable side.
“At the same time, I know what our lads are capable of and I know if we get our heads right that we can really put in a good performance and hopefully we will come out the right side of it.
“We’re going into the dark a bit so we’re just making sure we focus on ourselves and get the right performance.”
