Maguire 'surprised' by Shinty call up

Tyrone Damian Maguire

WHEN the panel for the upcoming Shinty/hurling test series was announced there was one surprising inclusion on the panel, Damian Maguire.
To call it surprising is not a slight on the Carrickmore hurler either, as he himself admitted to shock at being called up.
“There was no one more surprised than me,” he said this week. We played a trial match, the seniors against u-21s and then a team was called out. I didn’t think I was going to get on the team at all because it was such a different game.”
The 29-year-old won his seventh Tyrone Senior Hurling Championship this season, to add to Lory Meagher and National League hurling titles. Despite that success, he felt that he wasn’t suited to the compromise rules game.
“It is a totally different game. You use different skills, skills that wouldn’t be my strength. Your stick work needs to be very good and you need speed as well. I would be more into marking and catching the ball.”
To read the full story, buy the current issue of Gaelic Life (on sale from October 20)