2009 Bord Gáis Energy GAA Hurling U-21 All-Ireland Championship launch

The 2009 Bord Gáis Energy GAA Hurling U-21 All-Ireland Championship was launched at Croke Park on Monday.

At the launch, the competition sponsors unveiled a team of six ambassadors who will support an array of activity planned for the season ahead to promote hurling and the U-21 Championship.

The Bord Gáis Energy ambassadors are Portumna star Joe Canning (Galway), Ritchie Hogan (Kilkenny), Liam Rushe (Dublin), Patrick Horgan (Cork), Seamus Callanan (Tipperary) and Arron Graffin (Antrim).

As Bord Gáis Energy ambassadors, they will be involved in a number of initiatives to be announced over the coming months, including the development of a hurling skills poster aimed at teaching children the basic skills of hurling and ambassador training sessions with under age teams across the country.

At the launch, GAA President Christy Cooney wished everyone connected with this year’s competition every success ahead of what is an eagerly awaited U-21 spectacle.

He said: ‘The U-21 grade is a hugely important one for us, especially in hurling. We need as many big, high profile games for hurling as we can get and the Bord Gáis Energy GAA U-21 Hurling Championship has not let us down in this regard in recent seasons.

‘I look forward to another eventful campaign and thank Bord Gáis Energy for the imaginative and passionate support they have shown for a competition that aids and assists so many of our promising hurlers on their way to senior level.’