Preview: Kildare U20 hurlers begin their campaign

placeholder image — Preview: Kildare U20 hurlers begin their campaign

Kildare get their campaign up and running on Saturday, April 7, at Manguard Park, Hawkfield against Kerry

O'Neill's.com Leinster U20 Hurling Championship (Tier 2, Group 2) sees Kildare get their campaign up and running on Saturday (April 7) at Manguard Park, Hawkfield when Kerry are the visitors, a game that throws in at 2 pm

This is a three team group, Carlow being their third and The Lilies are once again managed by Eoin Stapleton.

There are few around that know more about hurling that Stapleton, his love of hurling is known far and wide and his is more than acutely aware, as he has reminded us on many occasions previously, that the U20 competition is a stepping stone, a place where players can learn, gain experience before, hopefully, going on to represent their county at senior level.

Kildare had a bye in the first round and as the manager explained when we met for a pre-championship chat “this year the U20 championship comprises of 12 teams, six in the top and six in the bottom tier, each group comprises of three teams, last year we had three groups of four while this year we have four groups of three so we are only guaranteed two games this year, we were guaranteed three games last year and got out of the group where you then meet the big boys, last year we met

Offaly, were beaten by double scores, to be fair they were 10 to 15 points better than us but we have two home games this year.

The manager added that he has a lot of young players coming through, 12 Leaving Certs and 5 fifth year players, so a young panel.

The manager added that in his opinion “under 20 is a bit of basket case, years ago if you were a minor team (u18) you had all Leaving Certs, now all the Leaving Certs are on the U20 panel; I'd prefer if it was U21 because then you had men who could play senior straight away; while I have 17-year-olds, who can't play senior but having said that because we are a developing county and the squad that Brian Dowling (senior manager) has at present, about 23 or 24 we have handled somewhere along the way so the pathway is working; last year when we were knocked out we sent three players straight into the senior panel to fill it out and a couple of them started playing then, unfortunately with injuries they got in and we will be hoping to do the same this year, the minute we are knocked out we would be hoping to get a few lads into the senior panel for 2024 and fell it out.”

Asked if he felt that was his role, he replied “we are a pathway panel but you must remember we are not the no. 1 sport in this county and you have to explain that to the players; we have no dual players on the panel this year ; the first time in a long time, they have all chosen football but I don't have any problem with that, absolutely no problem, it is a young players decision.”

The manager explained that a few of his squad have gone onto the senior panel, players such as Dan O'Meara, Cian Boran, James Dolan (Celbridge) but these lads, the manager explained, that those three lads will come back to the U20 squad.

With the likes of Galway, Derry and Galway operating in Leinster those teams can't play in the middle of the week so we have to play at weekends which will be a problem and will cause conflict added Eoin.

“If we can get three, maybe four championship games into the lads, which is a lot for young fellas then they are ready to see what training looks like and that is our aim and hopefully we can manage that.”

The U20 Panel:

Adam Mooney Cappagh

Alex Bell Moorefield

Andy McNiffe Celbridge

Ben Loughlin Naas

Bill Hennessy Naas

Charlie Carroll Naas

Cian Brody Maynooth

Cian O'Reilly Eire Og CC

Ciaran Kirwan Celbridge

CJ Boran Naas

Conor Egan Sallins