Breeding a new generation to sport the black and amber

ONLY IN Kilkenny could collecting ten consecutive Leinster minor hurling titles be regarded as bad for business.

Back in 2001 they got to thinking about how to improve the standards of underage hurling on Noreside, and county chairman Ned Quinn decided to call in Kilkenny legend Pat Henderson.

“Ned put a group of us together to come up with a way to improve the situation,” recalls Henderson. “We’d won ten or 11 minor titles in a row but we were performing dismally at All-Ireland level. We were having success without having success.