Christy O'Connor on the U20 All-Ireland winners ready to make their mark at senior in 2024

WHEN Limerick played Clare in the league back in early February, Micheál Houlihan first announced himself to the wider hurling public when scoring 0-12, 0-8 from play, and walking away with the official man-of-the-match award.

Houlihan has been one of Kilmallock’s top players, and was the Limerick senior club championship’s top scorer in 2021. At 25, he had a few more years on the S&C ladder than some of the younger players, but in the aftermath of that Clare match John Kiely left Houlihan in no doubt as to how much ground he still had to make up if he was to fully establish himself on the squad.

“If he’s going to earn his place on the team he’s going to have to do that regularly,” said Kiely. “Well done to him. But it needs to be backed up again as we go forward.” When Kiely clearly felt that it wasn’t backed up, he ruthlessly acted on it. In Limerick’s next match against Galway, Houlihan was hauled off after 45 minutes.

He didn’t feature in Round 4 against Westmeath and, while Houlihan returned to start the final regular game against Wexford, he was whipped off again in the third quarter. For the remainder of Limerick’s season — nine matches— Houlihan played just one minute.

It wasn’t just Houlihan that didn’t get a look in after the league. Shane O’Brien was probably Limerick’s best player on that February night against Clare but he only got a handful of minutes for the remainder of the competition.

Donnacha Ó Dálaigh made his debut that night against Clare, coming off the bench to hit a goal. O’Brien, Ó Dálaigh and Mark Quinlan all came on in the league final but none of those three featured in the championship.

In 2023, O’Brien was still only 19, Ó Dálaigh was 22 and Quinlan was 23. 

Age profile is never an easy gauge around success, especially when a successful team is maturing and evolving. Cathal O’Neill was the only young player to break into the Limerick team last year, when he was still U20.

In 2023, no Limerick player made that leap. Limerick used 26 players in the championship but some of those appearances were limited to a handful of minutes. Oisin O’Reilly came on in additional time of the All-Ireland semi-final against Galway, while Aaron Costello and Barry Murphy were introduced for their only minutes of the championship in additional time of the All-Ireland final.

Adam English played just 11 minutes across two cameo appearances, but he scored a key point in the Munster final against Clare.

English was still U20 but, despite it being so hard for young players to break into such an established and successful team, it is getting harder for young players across the board to make their mark at a younger age than in the past.

The increased levels of S&C training has made it harder to make up that ground now against established players immersed in that S&C culture since their mid-teens.

It is more difficult for young players coming through to reach those levels straight away, but elite young hurlers are still stepping up.

Ciarán Joyce was one of Cork’s best players in 2022 and 2023. Mikey Butler has won successive All-Stars in his first two seasons. Clare’s Adam Hogan was shortlisted for Young Hurler-of-the-Year when still U20. Mark Rodgers, who won that award this year, made his championship debut in 2021.

At face value, no county should currently have more talented young hurlers to pick from than Cork, with the county having won three of the last four All-Ireland U20 titles, and with Cork favourites to win the 2024 title.

Cork had 17 All-Ireland U20 winners from 2020 and 2021 on their extended panel in 2023, two of whom — Ben Cunningham and Eoin Downey — were still U20 this year.

A raft of those former All-Ireland U20 winners did feature for Cork this season. Joyce and Shane Barrett had established themselves but Tommy O’Connell and Brian Roche were the only two new faces to really announce themselves in the 2023 championship, while Eoin Downey made his mark in the spring.

Downey couldn’t play the opening game against Waterford due to suspension but he did start against Tipperary, while Pádraig Power, Cormac O’Brien, Brian Hayes and Ethan Twomey came off the bench at various stages during the Munster round-robin.

PUSHING ON

Those players, and more of the successful 2021 U20 side, will be important players for Cork going forward but who may make that step up in 2024?

Outside of Cunningham and Downey from the 2023 successful U20 side, only two have that potential in 2024, both of whom are on the current senior panel – Brion Saunderson and Micheál Mullins. Their primary focus though, will be on trying to adjust to the training load and nailing down a place on the panel.

Darragh O’Sullivan and William Buckley have already been assessed by the senior management, but both are still U20 and will be focussing on that campaign in the short term.

Ryan has spread the net wide. Three players on the current training panel have come in from the development squad in place earlier in the season, and which played challenge games against Tipperary, Waterford and the Cork U20s; Robbie Cotter, Eoin Carey and Danny Harrington.

Of the players who featured in last year’s U20 final and who are still underage this year, a significant chunk have the potential to play senior championship in the coming years; Buckley, O’Sullivan, Shane Kingston, James Dwyer, Tadhg O’Connell, Diarmuid Healy, Jack Leahy and Adam O’Sullivan.

However, the numbers game shows how making that step up is becoming more arduous than it used to be for younger players. For now, Pat Ryan and his management will be focussed on trying to develop that cohort of All-Ireland U20 winners from 2020-’23, and get them ready to try and establish themselves at senior level in 2024.