REVEALED: Tipperary's 48-player strong Celtic Challenge hurling panel announced

The Tipperary panel for this year's Corn Michael Hogan Celtic Challenge U17 hurling competition has been announced.

Similar to recent years, Tipperary will divide the panel into two - Blue and Gold - and will compete as separate entities in the early stages of the competition.

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The Electric Ireland Celtic Challenge was established in 2016 and has been hugely successful since its inception. The ethos is a developmental one with teams initially competing at group stages.

Depending on results, teams are graded for the knockout stages, giving all an opportunity to compete at their own level.

The inclusion of second and even third teams from Tier 1 counties has proven very successful as it can result in teams from for example, Christy Ring counties playing teams from Liam MacCarthy counties in a final.

The Tipperary Gold team got all the way to the final last June, narrowly losing to a strong Cork White team at FBD Semple Stadium. The competition will begin in early February.