The lesser-spotted Sheridan preparing for another busy year
Interview
Kevin Óg Carney
His father’s from Arva, his mother from the Czech Republic – “neither a hurling stronghold”, to coin a phrase from the late RTE commentator Micheál O Muircheartaigh.
Stephen Sheridan is well into his second year, studying Energy Systems Engineering in University Galway. He’s also up and running in his second full season with the Cavan senior hurlers; non-plused as he faces up to the pre-season pain that is all muck and gutters.
Cavan hurling fans can't get enough of Stephen Sheridan. Football opponents long for the day they'll see the back of him. The 20 year old continues to catch the eye in both codes as he bewilders those tasked with out-foxing him. In the art of hustling and harrying forwards into losing their rhythm and forcing them into over-carrying the ball, there are few better operators in Cavan than Sheridan.
Crucially, the Arva footballer and Mullahoran Saint Joseph’s hurler is keen to knock back any suggestion that hurling might be taking a back seat in 2026:
“No, I’m ready and happy to go again with the (county) hurlers and I’m looking forward to 2026,” Sheridan declares. We’ve already started training. It’s not much fun at this time of the year but its nice to get rid of any bit of rustiness you might have picked up since the last game.”
The last game Sheridan namechecks will go down in the annals of Cavan GAA. It was the day last May when New York denied Sheridan and co. in the final of the Lory Meagher Cup. Focussing on going one step further this coming year is the balm he’s using to negate 2025’s end-of-season malaise.
“You have to go into another year with the idea that the squad will keep improving; that you’ll keep improving yourself personally and that, as all together, we’ll maybe prove ourselves good enough to get t our hands on silverware,” Sheridan enthuses.
“The league will be coming up shortly and we’ll try and do as well as we can in it but it would be brilliant if we could land the Lory Meagher Cup in 2026 and make up for the big disappointment we had in Croke Park last summer.”
On January 3rd next, he’ll tog out for Cavan’s premier hurling team in the Conor McGurk Cup with an opening round tussle with Derry which is down for decision on the Oak Leafers’ home patch in Owenbeg. It’s bound to be either windy and raining there or coated in sub-zero temperatures. So why bother with Cavan’s minority Gaelic game? What’s the attraction?
“I’ve always enjoyed the hurling,” says Sheridan. “I think it suits me as a player even though it takes a lot more work to get the skills right in hurling than in football and takes a lot more practice.
“It’s a good challenge to have to learn new skills all the time. That makes the hurling more enjoyable (than football) in a way.”
Some of the more cynical observers would have you believe that the only way is down for Cavan’s senior hurlers given the heights they have reached over the last handful of years but Cavan’s stand-out dual player is having none of it.
“We’ve a good mix of experience and youth and I think mixing it with the best in the past year and giving a good account of ourselves every time we went out will have given us a lot of confidence and self-belief and I think we can build on that.
“Even though we got relegated from division three of the (national) league, we gave a good account of ourselves and we were unlucky in the end to go down to division four. I think we can bounce back this year and do well again in the league before starting the championship campaign (Lory Meagher Cup).”
Cavan remains a cold house for hurling and Sheridan is one of only a handful of players on the Cavan hurling scene who can truly call himself a dual player. Son of former long-time Arva senior footballer and one-time senior countyman Michael Sheridan, the forceful centre-back starred with first cousin Conal Sheridan on the Arva team which landed the All-Ireland Club JFC title in 2024.
But can he continue to play both Gaelic codes in the coming year(s)?
“I will, for as long as I’m enjoying playing them. I think the fact that I’m a student does leave me in a position that I can more easily play both sports but I don’t know what it’ll be like when I finish college and am working.
“My parents have always supported me in playing both games growing up and they still do and I’m fortunate that every manager I’ve had so far has helped me to keep up to speed at the same time in football and hurling.”
Of course, Sheridan is better known as a footballer and his stint not so long ago at county under 20 level (under the aegis of Larry Reilly) marks him down as a player who is on the right track towards making a sufficient impression to warrant a run at senior county level. In the short term, at least, Sheridan is only concerned with improving his skill-set in both codes and maintaining the desired fitness levels. He is razor keen to do well on both the club and county fronts in 2026.
But was he taken aback by the decision of the outgoing Cavan senior hurling management axis of Ollie Bellew (team-manager) and Tomás Mannion (coach) to commit themselves to a sixth year in the hot seat?
“A little bit, I suppose, ‘cause of the distances they have to travel for training and matches plus the fact that they have their own families in Belfast and Galway and it can’t be easy for them with all the travelling.
“I suppose the lads (Bellew/Mannion) believe we left things behind us in Croke Park last May and that we have another good chance of making it back there in 2026 and, hopefully, this time get to celebrate.
“I think that the management’s decision to stay on says a lot about the potential they think there is in the camp. That should mean a lot in terms of our own self-belief as players. Continuity is a big thing too. They know us and we know them. It’s all looking positive and we’ll try and hit the ground running and take it from there.”