The Laois minor hurlers have named their captain and vice-captain for the 2018 season.
Rosenallis’ Conor Cosgrove will lead the team and he will be assisted by Rathdowney-Errill’s Thep Fitzpatrick.
It caps a brilliant week for the latter after he was a big part of the St Fergal’s Rathdowney team who won the Leinster Schools ‘C’ hurling title on Monday.
Last week, manager Enda Lyons also picked his panel for the year which can be viewed in full below.
Like the footballers, 17 clubs are represented in total in the squad.
The U-16 champions from last year were Clough-Ballacolla/Mountrath and they have a combined total of seven players on the team.
Mountrath have four of those and that is the joint highest alongside Castletown-Slieve Bloom who won the U-16 shield last year.
Like the football, the minor hurling championship in Leinster has been changed to U-17 and has a new format – one with three tiers.
There will be four teams in Tier 1: Kilkenny, Dublin, Wexford and Laois; four teams in Tier 2: Offaly, Meath, Antrim and Kildare; and three teams in Tier 3: Carlow, Westmeath and Down.
Laois begin away to Wexford on May 12 before facing Dublin at home on May 19. They end their group campaign at home to Kilkenny on May 25.
All of the Tier 1 teams are guaranteed a place in the quarter finals, regardless of where they finish in the group.
Laois have played a number of challenge matches already this year including games against Westmeath, Kildare, Tipperary, Colaiste Cholm Tullomore, St Fergal’s Rathdowney and Carlow.
LAOIS MINOR HURLING PANEL:
Conor Breen (Castletown-Slieve Bloom)
Ben Shore (Castletown-Slieve Bloom)
Conor Walsh (Castletown-Slieve Bloom)
Tadgh Cuddy (Castletown-Slieve Bloom)
Bryan Bredin (Mountrath)
Killian Kirwan (Mountrath)
Gearoid Williams (Mountrath)
Lorcan Fitzpatrick (The Harps)
Jim Kirby (The Harps)
Billy McEvoy (The Harps)
Kevin Mulhall (Clough-Ballacolla)
Mark Hennessy (Clough-Ballacolla)
Evan Hawkes (Clough-Ballacolla)
Rossa Duffy (Rosenallis)
Conor Cosgrove (Rosenallis)
Shane Farrell (Rosenallis)
Niall Carey (Portlaoise)
Eoin Naughton (Portlaoise)
Oisin Murray (Clonaslee-St Manman’s)
DJ Callaghan (Clonaslee-St Manman’s)
Darragh Lyons (Ballyfin)
Allan Connolly (Ballyfin)
Fionan O’Mahony (Abbeyleix)
Ciaran Byrne (Abbeyleix)
Cillian Maher (Rathdowney-Errill)
Thep Fitzpatrick (Rathdowney-Errill)
Dan Moore (Camross)
Niall Bennett (Camross)
Adam Kirwan (Trumera)
Gearoid O’Neill (Trumera)
Danny Brennan (Park-Ratheniska)
Keelin Kelly (Borris-Kilcotton)
Dylan Cuddy (Shanahoe)
Cathal Shaughnessy (Ballinakill)
Fionn Holland (Clonad)
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