Laois U-20 hurling manager Derek Delaney has named his panel, captain and vice-captains ahead of the 2025 season opener this afternoon.
Laois begin their Leinster championship at home to Galway at 3.45pm and Delaney has named his starting 15 plus subs for that.
The U-20s will be captained by Castletown’s Rory Kelly for the upcoming Leinster championship.
While he will be assisted by Camross’ Eoghan Cuddy and Ciaran Flynn of The Harps who are vice-captains.
On the panel, a total of 13 clubs from across the county are represented.
The Harps, who have won the last three U-20 championships, have the highest representation with eight players.
Clough-Ballacolla and Camross come next with six each while Castletown have five.
Abbeyleix provide three while Borris-Kilcotton, Rosenallis and Portlaoise provide two each.
Players from Trumera, Mountrath, Park-Ratheniska/Timahoe, Ballinakill and Clonad make up the remainder of the panel.
There are five players, Ciaran Flynn, Cormac Hogan, Cormac Byrne, Tom Cuddy and Jer Quinlan, who have been extra busy as they have also been with the senior hurlers.
After reaching the Leinster minor final in 2022, Laois are designated as a Tier 1 side in the U-20 competition this year.
That placed them in a group with Galway and Offaly – with the other Tier 1 group containing Dublin, Kilkenny and Wexford.
After today’s game, Laois will travel to Offaly on April 12.
The group winner progresses straight to the semi finals, second goes to the quarter final and third goes to the preliminary quarter final.
The preliminary quarter final features the winners of the two Tier 2 groups – one of Carlow, Kerry and Kildare and one of Meath, Westmeath and Antrim.
In terms of the team selected for today, there are some changes from the side that lost that minor final in 2022.
The Harps duo of Bobby Murphy and Liam Kirby are not part of the panel while Eoghan Murphy (The Harps), Jack Breen (Castletown) and Thomas Brennan (Clough-Ballacolla) miss out through injury.
Check out the team, subs and full panel below:
LAOIS: Brochan O’Reilly (Portlaoise); Rory Kelly (Castletown), Ciaran Flynn (The Harps), Oran Gorman (Rosenallis); Cormac Hogan (Clough-Ballacolla), Tom Cuddy (Camross), Joseph Pearson (Clough-Ballacolla); Eoghan Cuddy (Camross), Kevin Byrne (Camross); Cormac Byrne (Abbeyleix), Ben Deegan (Camross), Evan Cassin (Clough-Ballacolla); Rick Bannon (Camross), Jer Quinlan (Borris-Kilcotton), Ruaidhri Kavanagh (Trumera)
SUBS: Peter Rafter (Clough-Ballacolla), Justin Duggan (The Harps), Mark Downey (The Harps), Ryan Peters (Castletown), Cian Hill (Mountrath), Andrew McDonagh (Ballinakill), Kevin Hyland (Clough-Ballacolla), Conor Mortimer (Camross), Kyron Cuddy (Castletown)
LAOIS U-20 HURLING PANEL 2025
Ciaran Flynn (The Harps)
Ross Deegan (The Harps)
Mark Downey (The Harps)
Justin Duggan (The Harps)
Donal Deegan (The Harps)
Hugh Whelan (The Harps)
Cormac Dunne (The Harps)
Eoghan Murphy (The Harps)
Joseph Pearson (Clough-Ballacolla)
Cormac Hogan (Clough-Ballacolla)
Thomas Brennan (Clough-Ballacolla)
Peter Rafter (Clough-Ballacolla)
Kevin Hyland (Clough-Ballacolla)
Evan Cassin (Clough-Ballacolla)
Eoghan Cuddy (Camross)
Tom Cuddy (Camross)
Ben Deegan (Camross)
Rick Bannon (Camross)
Conor Mortimer (Camross)
Kevin Byrne (Camross)
Kyron Cuddy (Castletown)
Jack Breen (Castletown)
Ryan Peters (Castletown)
Rory Kelly (Castletown)
Ray Goode (Castletown)
Cormac Byrne (Abbeyleix)
Eli Quinn (Abbeyleix)
Stephen O’Donnell (Abbeyleix)
Jer Quinlan (Borris-Kilcotton)
Ciaran Coss (Borris-Kilcotton)
Shane Walsh (Portlaoise)
Brochan O’Reilly (Portlaoise)
Oran Gorman (Rosenallis)
Sam Somers (Rosenallis)
Ruaidhri Kavanagh (Trumera)
Cian Hill (Mountrath)
Enda Shortall (Park-Ratheniska/Timahoe)
Andrew McDonagh (Ballinakill)
Patrick O’Callaghan (Clonad)
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