2019 Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge launched

The Tyrone Centre of Excellence at Garvaghey was the venue on Tuesday evening for the Ulster launch of the Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge 2019.

Representatives – players and coaches – from each of the nine Ulster counties were present at the event addressed by Ulster GAA Vice-President Ciaran McLaughlin.

After a great Q&A session with two Senior Inter-County hurlers – Damian Casey (Tyrone) and Mark Schutte (Dublin) – the players from each of the competing Ulster counties were presented with their bespoke Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge jerseys, which are kindly sponsored by O’Neills House of Sport.

The Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge is the National Hurling Development Competition for 16 and 17-year old hurlers. For 2019, a total of 44 teams from all 32 counties will take part across eight groups – that are determined on a geographical and developmental basis – and feature county as well as regional teams.

In total there will be nine Ulster teams in this the fourth year of the competition.

Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh and Tyrone will play in Group H of the competition where a round-robin system will guarantee each team five games between Sunday 31st March and Sunday 5th May.

Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan will join the fray later on. Cavan and Monaghan will play in Group F against opposition including: Louth, Longford, Kildare Cadets and Wicklow Gold. Donegal will take on teams from Connacht in Group G including: Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo and Galway Tribesmen. Their Group games will take place between Wednesday 1st May and Wednesday 5th June.

After the initial round robin group phase of matches, teams will be graded on their performance and will then be assigned to one of six Divisions for Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals where again they will compete against teams of a similar level of ability.

The six Divisional Finals will be played on Saturday, June 29th and will be streamed live by Pundit Arena and on GAA Now.