ELECTRIC IRELAND ANNOUNCE 2017 MINOR STAR HURLING TEAM OF THE YEAR
Electric Ireland, sponsors of the GAA All-Ireland Minor Championships, have announced the Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Awards Hurling Team of the Year for 2017. The Electric Ireland Minor Hurling Team of the Year will be formally recognised at the inaugural Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Awards that will take place in Croke Park on October 7th.
The Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Hurling Team of the Year features six players from the winners, Galway along with five players from finalists, Cork. The team also features players from Kilkenny, Dublin and Clare. The team was selected by a panel of GAA greats from nominees that included the Electric Ireland Man of the Match and Player of the Week winners throughout the season.
The Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Hurling Team of the Year is: Darrach Fahy: Galway (Ardrahan), Caimin Killeen: Galway (Loughrea), Sean O’Leary Hayes: Cork (Midleton), Darren Morrissey: Galway (Sarsfields), Aidan McCarthy: Clare (Inagh-Kilnamona), James Keating: Cork (Kildorrery), Lee Gannon: Dublin (Whitehall Colmcilles), Daire Connery: Cork (Na Piarsaigh), Conor Fahey: Galway (Padraig Pearses), Brian Roche: Cork (Bride Rovers), Sean Currie: Dublin (Na Fianna), Adrian Mullen: Kilkenny (Ballyhale Shamrocks), Sean Bleahane: Galway (Ahascragh-Fohenagh), Jack Canning: Galway (Portumna), Brian Turnbull: Cork (Douglas).
The four-man awards selection panel which was unveiled back in March, consisted of legendary former Cork hurler and current Clare hurling selector, Dónal Óg Cusack; former Armagh All Star footballer, Oisín McConville; former Galway hurler and AIB All Ireland Club hurling championship winning manager, Mattie Kenny and Meath Senior football manager Andy McEntee.
The inaugural awards emphasise that there is ‘nothing minor about playing Minor’ and so will honour the best individual performers from the entire season, also recognising the crucial and admirable part played by the families, clubs and communities of players which allowed them to get to this point in their sporting career.
Dónal Óg Cusack, Electric Ireland Minor Star Awards Judge; “To be named on the Hurling Team of the Year is a real honour for these players, their families, counties, schools and clubs. There is some serious talent in the team and we are looking at the future of hurling there. They deserve recognition for the commitment and quality they gave to their teams this year both on and off the pitch and it gives their team mates and players across the minor championships something to strive for. Only one team can lift the All-Ireland but these great players can be celebrated.”
Having been sponsor of the GAA All-Ireland Minor Championships since 2012, Electric Ireland has committed to continuing the partnership until 2021. Throughout the course of the partnership, Electric Ireland has been re-defining what it means to be a Minor in GAA with the This Is Major campaign, designed to empower young players, ensuring they feel driven to compete, improve and to strive for more in their sporting lives.