Hurling Development

A three year Hurling Development Action Plan was launched by the GAA’s Hurling Development Committee (HDC) in December 2015. The main aim of the Hurling Development Action Plan is to increase the number of opportunities for people to play the game of Hurling - at all ages and across all Counties.

The Action Plan contains 4 “Pillars”, that are key to achieving the goal of providing an increased number of meaningful games opportunities for everybody. The Pillars span a range of different topics including:

• Increasing the number of meaningful games opportunities (Pillar 1);
• Facilitating Coach Education (Pillar 2);
• Improving planning and funding for Hurling Development initiatives (Pillar 3)
• Supporting the Hurling community through sharing best practice (Pillar 4).

The Action Plan identifies a number of tasks and initiatives under each Pillar and outlines the short-term actions required to deliver on these in 2016. The cornerstone of the Plan is the introduction of The Celtic Challenge 2016. The Celtic Challenge is a competition for players, aged 16 and 17 years old, who are not participating in State Examinations during May and June 2016.

The competition will run from Wednesday 4th May to Saturday 18th June 2016. 38 teams from all 32 counties will participate in the competition and, in total, 110 games will be provided to 912 players. To learn more about the Celtic Challenge please click here.

**Further updates on the activities contained in the Action Plan will be provided on this section of gaa.ie throughout the year. **

At the end of 2016 the Action Plan will be reviewed, amended and improved as required and a new set of short-term actions will be agreed and implemented for 2017. This approach reflects the fact that the Action Plan is flexible and responsive to change and improvement.

To find out more about the activities that are taking place under the Action Plan and to get involved please contact: Caoimhe Ní Néill – caoimhe.nineill@gaa.ie; 01 865 8622