Fermanagh manager Joe Baldwin has targeted three areas to help push the squad on following defeat in Saturday’s Lory Meagher Cup final to Louth in Croke Park.

Baldwin accepts that his side’s conditioning needs to be better while he also wants to see them improve their touch.

And he stresses that they will have to make use of the three player rule which allows so called weaker counties to bring in three players from outside the county.

“We have had no conditioning done and that is not having a go at whoever was in before me. I was fortunate to be on the pitch with the Waterford boys after the game and that’s what you are aspiring to, to get to that physique.

“We are going to have to get back shortly after Christmas, if Covid allows, and get proper gym plans and get the boys into proper strength and conditioning.

“Our touch also needs to be better but that’s something we can work on in terms of hurling. We are not a million miles away but there is work to do.,” he said.

Baldwin had looked at adding Down man Barney McAuley to the squad earlier in the season but was too late for this season although McAuley did come in and make a positive impact on training and around the squad having joined up with the management team. Indeed, Baldwin will look to use up all three slots for next year.

“We are going to have to avail of the three player rule, the boys know that themselves. Barney was very good when he came in and trained with us and the reality is that we need that physical presence in the air,” he explained.

The Fermanagh manager had been expecting to lose some players to retirement at the end of this season but he says that he has been contacted by a number of them who have now committed for next season.

“There were boys who said beforehand that this was going to be their last game but they have now changed their mind. I had contact with some of the players early Sunday morning to say they are going to give it one more go.

“Croke Park is a very special place to be and it was a good evening despite the defeat.

“We had 30 Fermanagh men in Croke Park, the experience will do us good and we will be back again and it won’t take five years, I can guarantee that,” he said.

Baldwin is optimistic for the future of Fermanagh hurling with a number of clubs now fielding underage teams and he hopes that those young players will be able to watch the senior side in action this year.

“The most disappointing thing is that we didn’t get a win just to boost that development at underage but hopefully this thing clears up and we get home games next year and get the young players in watching games and playing at half time and just raise the profile of hurling in the county,” added Baldwin.

On the game itself, Baldwin was pleased with the start his side made although he felt they should been further ahead.

“We got a very good start and the penalty was as good a penalty as you would see anywhere. But we had also missed a couple of chances before that so we probably should have been another couple of points up by that stage. I was pleased with how things were settling in the first quarter,” he said.

However, Louth turned things around after the water-break and Baldwin felt that the loss of Sean Corrigan during this period was a big blow.

“Since Sean Corrigan has come back he has been so instrumental for us in terms of his general play and just grabbing games by the scruff of the neck and when Sean went off it did unsettle us a wee bit.”

He was disappointed though with the ease that Andrew Mackin got in for the first Louth goal.

“For their goal Rory slipped but their man then waltzed through four of our boys and there wasn’t a hand laid on him.

“Little things went against us from then to half time,” he commented.

However, Fermanagh got the response they were looking for at the start of the second half.

“We talked about a few things at half time and the emphasis was on winning that first ball and we did that and got the goal and then the point and we looked in a good position,” he said.

However, Louth started to get on top after this with Fermanagh giving away a number of frees that were punished by Darren Geoghegan and when Mackin bagged his second goal it was game over.

“There’s three things that we worked on; we worked on discipline, on work rate and on shot selection and for some reason they all went out the window. We had worked very hard on trying to tackle the ball and not the man and not give the referee an excuse to blow the whistle. We have to learn from this, we can’t foul at this level.

“Their second goal then knocked the stuffing out of us and the game drifted away from us,” he said.

He did though feel that the 11 point margin was harsh on Fermanagh.

“We missed four frees, we had a goal disallowed and then Ciaran Corrigan’s kick goes over the bar instead of into the net and if that had gone it then we would have been back in it. Maybe the boys tired late on but I don’t think it was an 11 point game,” he added.

Baldwin had drafted in Danny Teague and Ciaran Corrigan after the footballers season ended and started both on Saturday. He intends to have a conversation with football manager Ryan McMenamin about keeping the pair on board.

“I think we need to have a chat with the football management about Ciaran and Danny, we would love to keep them involved.”

And Baldwin was full of praise for the efforts of the players over the last couple of months.

“It is well documented that we are picking from just one club, that is a panel of roughly 25 players from one club. Louth have four teams, it is only three more but it means they are picking from 100 players, it is four times what we are picking from.

“Hats off to these boys, we had no club hurling, there was no club championship and we had seven weeks to prepare for this and if we can do that in seven weeks what could we do in seven months?”