Young stars grasp chance to shine
Bubbling below the surface, however, the underage scene is at boiling point, and in a quartet of tournaments this weekend, a host of budding stars will be strutting their stuff.
Prime among those tournaments is the Tony Forristal, held in memory of a man who did so much for Waterford hurling in his short life. Within a year of his tragic death in a road accident in 1981, the Waterford Crystal GAA club – whom he was managing – had instituted this tournament in his honour.
While the first year was a local affair, Kilkenny beating Waterford in a two-team event, it soon spread, and spread rapidly.
“We have 18 teams playing in four venues – Mount Sion, Walsh Park, De La Salle, St Saviours,” says Josie Greene, of the well-known Mount Sion hurling family involved in the running of this weekend’s event.
“There are 10 teams in division one – Cork, Tipperary, Waterford, Limerick, Clare, Kilkenny, Wexford, Dublin, Galway, Offaly – with eight of those counties then having a second team in division two competing for the Sonny Walsh Cup – Sonny was one of the early organisers but he died in ‘83.”
In Tipperary, there’s the Arrabawn U16 tournament, and again, as outlined by Tipperary Bord na nÓgofficer Neil Ryan, it’s a long-standing event.
He explained: “It was started by Galway in 1988, with just four counties involved, but it’s grown now to the stage where we have the 12 leading hurling counties involved – Tipperary, Clare, Limerick, Dublin, Kilkenny, Waterford, Galway, Cork, Offaly, Wexford, Antrim, Laois. It starts on Saturday with four groups of three teams based in four different venues – Dundrum, Cashel, Cappamore and Clonoulty.
“The top teams in the groups play in the cup semi-finals, the runners-up in the shield, and those finals are played in Semple Stadium on Sunday.”
The third event is a newcomer to the underage hurling circuit, the Eugene Carey Memorial Tournament in the Mallow GAA complex, held in remembrance of an outstanding local club man who died three years ago.
“It’s an U17 tournament,” explains Kevin O’Callaghan, a development officer with the Cork County Board, “with six teams, Cork, Limerick, Clare, Waterford, Dublin andKilkenny. This is our third year, and it’s run jointly by Cork Coaching and Mallow GAA. It’s a one-day event, starts on this morning at 10.45am with two groups of three. The winners of the two groups go forward to the cup final and the runners-up to the plate.”
And there’s more. Cork, Limerick, Tipperary, Clare and Waterford will compete for the Ted Hanley Memorial Cup in the 14th Annual Carrigdhoun/Munster U15 hurling competition at the Ballymartle GAA Grounds in Riverstick, Cork. The competition is organised by the South East GAA Board and will be run off today.
The question is, however – how valuable are those tournaments? In Waterford, long-time Tony Forristal organiser John Quinn (whose brother, Larry, is honoured with the Waterford Crystal player-of-the-tournament trophy) is in no doubt:
“This is our first chance to see these youngsters perform on a nationallevel, the first indication of what’s coming down the line, and it’s useful from that point of view.
“We’ve seen the likes of Henry Shefflin, Eoin Kelly of Tipperary, Ken McGrath from Waterford, Rory Gantley of Galway (come through) – Ciarán Carey from Limerick was one of the earliest stars.
“Even in division two, you had the likes of Adrian Fenlon and Paul Codd from Wexford, guys like Ruairi McGrattan from Down in division three. Of course you have a lot offellas who don’t come through either, stars at that age who don’t maintain their development, and a lot of the lads who captained the winning teams down the years didn’t feature much afterwards.”
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