By Damian Lawlor

Although drawing from an extremely small playing pool these are fruitful times for Down hurling.

Their seniors are unbeaten in the Christy Ring Championship this season and hot on the scent of promotion to the Joe McDonagh Cup.

Last year, they won the Ulster section of the Bank of Ireland Celtic Challenge (All-Ireland under-17) before beating Dublin Plunkett in the Division 3 Corn William Robinson final. 

During that campaign their manager at the time, Ronan Sheehan, used contacts from his native county and brought up players like Diarmuid O'Sullivan and Donal Og Cusack from Cork to give coaching sessions to the young players.

This season, under JP Napier and Jamie Fowler's guidance, they topped Group H with five wins from five and accumulated a massive 40-point total with a scoring difference miles ahead of their rivals. They are currently preparing to push for more national honours in the coming weeks when the Celtic Challenge competition reaches its finale.

One of the team's leading coaches is current Down senior star and talisman, Danny Toner, who has linked up with the county's Celtic Challenge manager JP Napier to help develop young players coming through the system.

"From my perspective there is no doubt that there are quality players emerging who could compete with players of their own age in any county in Ireland," says Napier.

"However, we need to put the structures in place at club and county level in order to increase participation and develop the appropriate pathways for our elite players.

"In Down, we are inhibited by limited playing numbers compared to other counties. Our pick centres around the three senior Ards clubs which is the stronghold of the county and maybe outside that you are looking at five to seven clubs, who are predominantly football clubs," he explains.

"Last year we launched the Down Player Pathway which was the first step on this development journey and it provides a useful reference for coaches at club level when benchmarking players.

"We are also trying to ensure consistency and establish best practice coaching strategies by learning from previous years experiences and ensuring that the County Games Promotion Officer, Danny Toner, is included as both a selector and in a coaching capacity."

A close working relationship between Napier and Jamie Fowler, joint-managers of the Celtic Challenge team, and long-serving county secretary Sean Og McAteer and development officer Conor O'Toole, is also paying off.

"These people proactively support us in ensuring that the players are supported and have helped create a culture in which young lads relish the opportunity of playing for their county and feel appreciated when they do so," adds Napier.

"I have been involved with the Down Celtic Challenge teams over the last three years and last year's victory was a great success for both players and hurling in Down. It has allowed us to play a range of teams in a proper competition structure which we would otherwise not be able to avail.

"This is clearly having an effect and it is also clear that, in Ulster, counties are buying into the Celtic Challenge and see the benefits.

"As a consequence, the standard of competition has greatly improved. Over the early part of the season we enjoyed really competitive games against Antrim, Tyrone and Derry.

"I am very pleased with the level of interest we have had this year - from our initial trials through the team selection process and there is a nice balance of players from across the County. 

"More importantly the balance of one training session to game is excellent for keeping the young lads interested and I am very proud of the lads and it is a great achievement to win all their games.

"I suppose our biggest challenge is trying to maintain momentum and at the same time support lads as they prepare to take their exams.  

"I appreciate that it is impossible to please everyone, but I think that the scheduling of the knock-out stages of the competition in the middle of the exam period has a greater adverse impact on counties like Down which have a very small catchment of players.

"But it would be important to note that the attraction of competing in the Celtic Challenge is exposing our players to those players coming from the stronger hurling counties.

"At this age it is extremely important that our players can gauge where they are in comparison to the emerging talent pool from these stronger counties. It provides us with the opportunity to instil belief and develop a winning mentality among our players."

While Napier's team await their knock-out stage opponents, the Down seniors will play Derry next weekend in a bid to make it three Christy Ring Cup wins on the trot.

With impressive young Down players like Eoin Coulter, Donal Óg Rooney, Daithí Sands and the talented McCrickards, Conor and Ruairi, coming through it's clear that the development work in the Mourne County is starting to pay off.

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