Saturday 30th August saw the South Ulster Hurling Academy take part in the All Ireland National Hurling Talent Academy Finals for the very first time in Newry Co. Down.
The team consisted of players from Cavan, Fermanagh and Monaghan who have been training on a weekly basis since the 1st of June.
The main aim of this Academy was to provide talented players the opportunity to train and compete at a higher level than they had ever experienced to date.
South Ulster entered three squads into the competition (U14 A&B and U16’s)
The South Ulster U14 Squad competed in the All Ireland B Grade. This was a considerable step up in standard for our players, competing against Liam McCarthy & Christy Ring standard opposition.
We were narrowly defeated by eventual Cup winners Meath in our first group game.
Assessing the game after the final whistle, we agreed we had been overawed by Meath paying them too much respect.
We were determined to do ourselves justice and bounced back from this defeat with victories over Wicklow & Kildare which earned us a place in the Shield Final against Westmeath.
The Shield Final proved to be an excellent game with both sides answering each other score for score throughout.
In the end Westmeath proved to be that bit cuter in the second half, creating a lead and holding onto it. Congratulations Westmeath.
We are extremely proud of our boys on such fantastic performances.
The South Ulster U16 Squad competed in the All Ireland C Grade and went into the competition with serious aspirations of taking home the Cup.
We were paired against competition favourites Donegal in the first round. After an excellent game where both defences shone the teams could not be separated and took a point each.
The Donegal game primed our players and we brought this performance into the Sligo game and got a comprehensive win.
We unfortunately lost out to Donegal for a position in the Cup Final on Score Difference and had to be satisfied with a place in the Shield Final where we had a comfortable win against Louth.
We are very proud of the lads and hope that these performances will grant us a position in the All Ireland B Grade next year.
The South Ulster U14B Squad competed in the All Ireland U14 C Grade. This was a significant challenge to our team as age and size proves a great asset at this grade.
However our players were confident that what we lacked in size & strength we would make up in our Hurling Skills.
Although we lost both group games to Leitrim and Longford we were delighted with how the players performed and are excited by the thought of them coming back to challenge for the All Ireland B Cup at U14 grade next year.
This project has proven to be a great success.
We are now in a position to achieve the aim of a Talent Academy “Provide Talented Players the Opportunity to Train and Compete at a Higher Level”.
The overall message coming from coaches, parent’s players and officials is that “We cannot allow traditional County boarders inhibit the development of Hurling in this area”
