Football

Kevin Hinphey set to return to the Derry hurling fold

Kevin Hinphey will return for the Derry hurlers in the new season  
Kevin Hinphey will return for the Derry hurlers in the new season   Kevin Hinphey will return for the Derry hurlers in the new season  

IT WAS just three months after retiring from inter-county duty Kevin Hinphey knew that Derry hurling hadn’t seen the last of him.

After deciding against joining up with the panel last January, watching from the sidelines as his former comrades toiled through a troubled National League campaign was tough.

Five games, five defeats, there was no escaping the drop to Division 2B. It didn’t get much better in the Christy Ring Cup where they opened up with an 11-point defeat to Roscommon. Their next game, against Ulster rivals Down on April 30, was the final straw.

Neck and neck as the game hurtled towards full-time, the Oak Leafs were left to rue missed opportunities as three unanswered points in injury-time sent the Ardsmen into the quarter-final.

“I remember being at Owenbeg for the Down game and I sort of made up my mind then that I’d give it another go if I got a chance,” said the 34-year-old.

“Seeing things go so badly last year was hard. I was at a good few of the games and you maybe thought, I’m still young enough and fit enough to be playing. You’ve plenty of years to be sitting watching and it didn’t really feel right, especially near the end of the year and the Christy Ring Cup games.”

When new boss Collie McGurk approached Kevin and his brother Liam about rejoining their panel, both felt they still had something to offer, though Hinphey insists it wasn’t something the siblings had talked too much about through the year.

“Not at all. Liam was very last minute there, I don’t think he had any intentions up until a few weeks ago and then when Collie asked him he had the same sort of idea, when you’re young enough you may as well - you’re a long time retired,” he said.

A heavy cold forced him to miss the Oak Leafers’ Conor McGurk Cup opener against Donegal on Tuesday, but the Dungiven ace could make his return to county colours against Queen’s University at the Dub Arena on Tuesday night.

Despite suffering relegation to the Nicky Rackard Cup last year, there are positive noises coming from the Derry hurling camp, with swashbuckling Swatragh forward Ruairi Convery also committing to another year.

It remains to be seen how many of the Slaughtneil contingent will be involved with Collie McGurk’s collective this year as several of their players are battling on both the All-Ireland club football and hurling fronts.

McGurk has already signalled his intent to speak to the Emmet’s players later in the year, and Hinphey insists they would be of huge benefit to the squad: “We’ve probably as strong a panel this year as we’ve had in a few years," he said.

“They’re [Slaughtneil] doing their thing at the minute but hopefully when their season comes to a close, whenever that is, obviously there are some serious hurlers so if we could get four or five of those lads on top of what we already have, it would probably be as strong a squad as Derry have had in a long time.

“We’re down in Division 2B but there’s not a pile of difference between 2A and 2B, Meath won the Christy Ring last year from 2B, so we’ll see what happens. We’re down in the Nicky Rackard as well and you’d be wanting to be making a push for that later in the year too.”