Talent pool remains strong as Tipp win Celtic Challenge

GAA: Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge - Corn Michael Hogan Final

Tipperary 3-17

Galway 0-8

Report: Kevin Egan in Abbottstown

The GAA’s Celtic Challenge (Under 17) competition is a unique event in the association, in that it does a remarkably good job at serving different needs for different counties.

For large swathes of the county, particularly those counties north of the N4, it has become the de facto minor championship. For others, such as Cork, Limerick and even Kildare in 2022, it is used to enter multiple teams to expose a greater number of hurlers to the challenges and the honour of playing underage for your county.

Then there are counties like Offaly and Westmeath, who use the championship as a testing ground for the best of the county’s U16s, all with a view towards preparing for the following year’s minor championship.

Galway and Tipperary are among those counties who took a different approach this year, choosing to create shadow minor panels to back up their first-string teams, picking from the best of the U17s and U16s available to them, outside of their primary minor panels.

That focus on quality was very much in evidence on Saturday in Abbottstown, as Tipperary produced a hurling masterclass to win the Corn Michael Hogan, which is the elite competition within the six-tier structure of this competition.

Robbie Ryan top-scored for the winners with a bountiful haul of 1-10, but it was the industry and power of players like Simon Blackmore, Daniel Rossiter and Bill Flanagan that helped set the tone to Tipperary, who were the superior side from start to finish.

Vice-captain Jim Ryan played a free role as a sweeper and Galway couldn’t find a way to keep the ball away from the Holycross/Ballycahill player, despite some excellent hurling from players like Niall Feeney and David Mannion in their own half of the field.

Corner back Conor Fahy was left as the spare man by default at the Galway end of the field, and he seemed unprepared for the role, making no significant contribution in terms of offering defensive cover, or assisting in their attempts to play through the lines in possession.

Tipperary, in contrast, looked like a team that were brilliantly coached, as they worked the ball up the field with purpose and intensity, creating high quality scoring chances that contrasted sharply with the hopeful efforts on the Galway side.

Robbie Ryan set the tone with a magnificent strike from out on the right wing while David McGrath also led the line well and popped over two good first half points, at a time when both sides struggled to adapt to swirling breeze. Shane Buckley notionally lined out at corner forward but dropped back to play a marking role at centre back, which freed up Jim Ryan to control the game from the edge of his own arc.

At 0-9 to 0-4 in arrears at half-time, Galway were just about hanging in, but they were rocked back when a barnstorming run from Blackmore set up Rossiter for the game’s first goal in the opening minute of the second half.

Darragh Kelly fired in a second with his very first touch after coming onto the field, also laid on by Blackmore in a move that was almost identical to that which resulted in the first green flag, and Kelly was also central to the next score, a third goal which brought Robbie Ryan’s tally to 1-10.

Shane Buckley’s industry helped to set up Kelly in possession on the 45m line, and his inch-perfect thirty metre pass into Ryan’s palm was measured to perfection. From a tight angle, Ryan whipped the sliotar across the Galway goalkeeper and inside the far post.

Tipperary went on to empty the bench, quite literally, with Jim Ryan the only starting player who played the full sixty minutes. Yet the quality barely wavered, suggesting that while 2022 may have been a bleak year for Tipperary hurling at senior level, there are plenty of willing and gifted young hurlers waiting in the wings to bring about a change in fortunes very soon.

TEAMS - Tipperary: James O’Dwyer (Holycross/Ballycahill); Oisín O’Donoghue (Cashel King Cormacs), Darragh Linnane (Mullinahone), Pádraic O’Dwyer (Killenaule); Eoin Larkin (Roscrea), Jim Ryan (Holycross/Ballycahill), Kieran Purcell (Durlas Óg); James Doyle (Holycross/Ballycahill), Kieran Grace (Burgess); Bill Flanagan (Moycarkey/Borris), Robbie Ryan (Holycross/Ballycahill, 1-10, 0-6f), Simon Blackmore (Ballingarry, 0-1); Daniel Rossiter (Durlas Óg, 1-0), David McGrath (Cashel King Cormacs, 0-2), Shane Buckley (Knockavilla Kickhams).

Subs: Jamie Lahart (Holycross/Ballycahill, 0-1) for Flanagan (36), Darragh Kelly (Éire Óg Annacarty, 1-1) for Rossiter (40), Anthony Walsh (Cashel King Cormacs, 0-1) for McGrath (44), Joey Davis (Cashel King Cormacs) for Larkin (46), Andrew Irwin (Cashel King Cormacs) for Linnane (49), Conor Cooney (Burgess) for Doyle (51), Cathal Treacy (Silvermines) for Newell (51), Luke Ryan (Killenaule) for O’Donoghue (53), Emmet Ralph (Durlas Óg) for P O’Dwyer (53), Daniel McAllister (Drom & Inch 0-1) for R Ryan (54), Filip McIntyre (Nenagh Éire Óg) for Buckley (55), Cormac Bourke (JK Brackens) for J O’Dwyer (55), Jack Bergin (Golden-Kilfeacle) for Purcell (55), Danny Quinn (Silvermines) for Grace (55).

Galway: Mark Grealish; Conor Fahy, Dean Spelman, Tyler Earls; Stephen Kelly (0-1f), David Mannion, Cathal Penney; Niall Feeney (0-1), Seán Duggan (0-1); Colin Counihan, Brian Horan, Cillian O’Donovan (0-3, 2f); Ryan Rabbitte (0-1), Michael Curtin, Seán Newell.

Subs: Aaron Doyle (0-1) for Newell (25), Ross Finn for Counihan (27), Daniel Keane for Duggan (32), Éanna Kenny for Rabbitte (40), Eoghan Lohan for Kelly (44), Alex O’Flynn for O’Donovan (46), Daniel Cosgrove for Horan (47), Barry Forde for Earls (47),

Referee: Alan Lagrue (Kildare).