It has been a busy number of weeks for all our hurling squads as they prepare for their respective championships!
Following a disappointing league run the Senior hurlers opened their Lory Meagher Cup campaign on April 12th when they welcomed Leitrim to Inniskeen. Boosted by the return of a number of players who were side-lined for large parts of the league through injury, Monaghan recorded an opening day win on a score line of 2-13 to 0-09. Seven days later Monaghan faced competition favourites Cavan in Kingspan Breffni, in a game that ebbed and flowed in the first half Cavan found another gear in the final quarter of the second half to make it two wins from two on a scoreline of Cavan 2-20 Monaghan 1-14. On Saturday April 26th Monaghan will host a winless Warwickshire in Inniskeen in Round 3, Arthur Hughes and his team will know they must secure maximum points from this fixture before facing into a two week break. Remaining fixtures will see Monaghan travelling to Abbotstown to take on Lancashire before concluding the round-robin stages at home to Longford on May 17th. The controversial inclusion of New York in this years competition has them parachuted in at the semi-final stage, should Monaghan finish second in the group they will play New York in Parnell Park, Dublin May 24/25 with the carrot of topping the group securing automatic progression to the final on June 1st in Croke Park.
The U20 hurlers have secured their place in the All-Ireland Andrew O’Neill final for a second consecutive year. Having secured the Ulster DHL trophy in March following an unbeaten record in the league, Monaghan carried their league form into the Quarter-final where they dispatched of Cavan on a score-line of 4-22 to 3-07. Six days later they met Longford in a semi-final that was closely contested throughout, Monaghan led by 2-6 to 1-7 at half-time and despite being pegged back on a number of occasions during the second half, Patrick Hannon’s side got over the line in a thrilling finish by the narrowest of margins: 4-10 to 3-12. It sends Monaghan through to a second appearance in the U20 “C” final from two seasons competing at this level, 12 months after they lost out to Leitrim in a penalty shoot-out. Monaghan’s opponents in the final will be neighbours Armagh who have steamrolled their way to the final having been regraded to the “C” championship this year where they enjoyed a 4-18 to 0-09 win over Louth in the semi-final. Game throws in Saturday May 3rd at 13:30 in Kingspan Breffni and will be shown live on TG4 Youtube channel.
The Minor hurlers are in the thick of their Celtic Challenge Championship having recorded one win and two losses to date. on May 10th they face a semi-final show down with Leitrim in Carrick-On-Shannon with the winners assured a place in the Corn Tom Hogan final on June 7th with one round to spare. Having contested Celtic Challenge finals in 2023 and 2024 the ambition of getting back to the final in 2025 has not dwindled and the squad is preparing diligently for May 10th. Tom Duffy of Castleblayney has been appointed Captain of this years Celtic Challenge squad and team manager Patrick Hannon had the following to say in the announcement “Tom has been an integral part of our squads since he first came in with us at U14 level and he has proven great leadership qualities both on and off the pitch over the last four years. Its a great honour for Tom, his family, and club to be chosen as this years captain”
At development squad level our U15 hurlers opened their Hibernia Cup campaign with a 0-20 to 2-10 loss to Armagh in a tightly contested game, and have further upcoming games with Donegal and Tyrone before they face into a finals day in June. All preparation is building towards June where this squad lifted silverware at last years blitz day following winning the Hibernia Cup outright for the counties first time in 2023.
By County Admin Thu 24th Apr
