By Kevin Egan

Talk to anyone involved with a team in the Celtic Challenge, and the same words keep coming up. Structure. Development. Focus.

Five championship finals and five consolation finals were played at venues all over Ireland last Saturday afternoon, and while there was all the passion, skill, heartbreak and delight you might expect at occasions of that stature, the recurring theme when talking to managers involved is the huge value of these competitions in terms of providing a clear pathway through to adult hurling for players and counties that haven't always had access to a games programme that allows for consistent development.

Colm Dillon was in charge of the Tyrone hurlers who had a difficult afternoon against Roscommon at Kinawley Brian Borus GAA club in South Fermanagh, but he watched as his players conceded four goals in the first quarter but worked their way into the game against strong opposition, and ended up winning the second half against a Roscommon side that is very highly rated locally.

"Celtic Challenge is absolutely the way to go", said Dillon.

"You get good games against teams you wouldn’t normally play, and you might take the odd trimming here and there, but it’s about two or three years down the line for them players. Today’s result will be very good for these players down the line".

Dillon referred to how his players had already taken one tough defeat against Antrim earlier in the competition, but how the group system within the Celtic Challenge allowed his charges to recover, and to take lessons from the defeat and put them into practice further down the road.

"We took a bit a bit of a trimming against Antrim but the lads battled back very well against Donegal, they put in a big performance, and the beauty of a competition like this is that it gives you the chance to do that, you’re not knocked out at your first defeat with no chance to learn from it". 

For Roscommon too, a narrow defeat to Wicklow might have been the end of their season under a different format, but instead they were able to bounce back, pick up a big local derby win over Mayo in their semi-final, and get something positive out of the season. For manager Mickey Fallon, who reflected on how the county also tasted Celtic Challenge success in 2019, it means that there is a solid group of players ready to compete at U-20 level next year, and that there is now a consistent path for players to play underage hurling for their county and get used to competing together in county colours over a sustained period of time.

He remarked: "You have excellent players there, and now we have to bring these players forward to U-20 next year. There’s a very group who won a Celtic Challenge in 2019 against a good Limerick squad, so you put that team with the best of the players here who will be overage for U-17 next year and the group of players who should have played Celtic Challenge last year – and there was a group that had started to train and they were showing well.

"So it’s about getting them together earlier and get them training so we have a full group who’s ready to be part of getting Roscommon hurling back to where it should be, and the Celtic Challenge means we've had the ability to put this in place.

For a county that endured a difficult year at adult level, losing every U-20 and senior game that was played in league and championship, he believes that silverware in this competition will energise those involved in hurling in the county and be a huge source of encouragement when the cycle starts again for 2022.

Even for those counties that are going well, the Celtic Challenge is a chance to see first hand how the development work in a county is on the right track, and that the right building blocks are in place. 2021 has been an incredible year for Derry GAA, with league success for the senior footballers, a famous All-Ireland minor football victory, a place in the Christy Ring Cup final, and now an unbeaten Celtic Challenge campaign saw them lift the Corn Michael Hogan at Abbotstown, following a very impressive performance against Wicklow in the decider.

The game was played on Saturday evening at the West Dublin venue in order to facilitate Wicklow's Christy Ring cup semi-final clash with Offaly earlier in the day, and it was a move that manager Kevin Kelly was very happy to make.

"We were only too happy to accommodate Wicklow with their request, a great wee county like ourselves, trying to develop the game, and GAA people and in particular the hurling fraternity should be looking out for each other” he stated. “Sure, the bonus was we got to play the match on possibly the best pitch in Ireland bar Croker, and Wicklow GAA streamed the game free on Facebook, for our supporters who where unable to travel, I think it was a great compromise.”

It took time for Derry to settle into the game, which was finely poised at 0-6 to 0-5 at half-time, but with more intercounty experience under their belts, the management team was happy with the composure his players showed from then on.

“We had a number of goal scoring opportunities, which were not executed” said selector Marty Birt.

“We weren’t worried at half time, just a wee bit frustrated. We have a number of thoroughbreds, first class hurlers, who we felt just weren’t at 90% not alone 100%. We wanted them to express themselves, while still hunting in packs when we lost the ball.”

"We made a commitment to each other at half time that no matter what, if we win or lose this game, it's on our terms, no excuses.

“We had a good lead, but we where keen to get as many men game time as we could” said Birt, “we have 9 of this panel back next year and its important all these men get game time in these occasions. It's one of the beauties of the Celtic Challenge, it's unlimited subs, the way all underage competitions should be, to allow for development. The only difference for this side is that the lads coming on are every bit as good.”

Birt's reference to developing a good squad of players in Derry was echoed in Offaly, where current senior goalkeeper Stephen Corcoran was one of the coaches of the Faithful County panel that had a hugely successful competition, fielding two teams.

"We started with a panel of just over 20, but then there were 12 players from the full minor panel that were released to us, and we spoke as a group about entering two teams, to make sure every player got as much playing time as possible. The 12 were split up six and six, and we divided up the rest evenly as well, and it was a huge success" he said.

"It's a short run in, we just trained one night a week to allow lads to keep playing with their clubs, but for the Monday nights that we had them, they worked really hard and put everything into this competition. Some of them might never play for Offaly again, some of them will move on to compete for U-20 places next year, and there's maybe eight or ten that will be part of the 2022 minor squad. But everyone got plenty of playing time wearing the county colours, and when we go to Croke Park on Sunday for the Christy Ring final, it's a big boost to know that there are so many more good hurlers coming up behind us, it's a great motivation to want to put things in as good a place as we can before these lads move up to playing senior themselves".

All around the country, there were players that used the platform of the Christy Ring Cup to put in eye-catching performances in their county colours. Billy Nolan, Jack Hayes Cummins and Chris Buckley all delivered some superb scores for Carlow in their narrow two-point win over Meath at Fenagh, a contest between two counties that competed well in the Joe McDonagh Cup in 2021 and just need a little extra push to help them make a real drive to get up to the Liam MacCarthy Cup, while Ballyconnell hosted an equally thrilling encounter between Monaghan and Fermanagh, rounding off a very successful year for underage development in those two Ulster rivals.

Perhaps most significant was how the imagination of the general public has been caught by this competition, which has taken root in the consciousness of hurling communities and indeed the wider GAA audience. Previously, the tradition was to host all the main finals in the one venue, for example UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny or Bord na Móna O'Connor Park in Tullamore, but that approach could yet be rethought after some good crowds showed up for some of the games.

As Stephen Corcoran of Offaly explained, players entering the Celtic Challenge now have high expectations of the competition that they're in, they know they're part of something that has a clear and valued place on the GAA calendar, and is widely respected as an important stepping stone to bigger and brighter things in the future.

"We were supposed to host Westmeath in the final of the Corn William Robinson, but because we had the two panels, we had to move that game to the Friday night, and so it went to Mullingar. The lads all wanted to hurl on O'Connor Park but the important thing was it went to a great venue with a great surface, where parents could come along and help add to the excitement and the sense of occasion, and that will all be part of the positive memories these lads will have of Celtic Challenge hurling. I've no idea what the plans are for the future with it, but I know that it's something players want to be part of, because they see what it can do for their hurling and their progression".