The Electric Ireland Minor Hurling Championship continues to be a showcase for some of the country's brightest young players. There are burgeoning stars all over the country as evidenced by there being a representative from Clare, Antrim and Dublin in the running for July's player of the month.
Antrim's Tiarnan Murphy notched 1-5 in his side's comfortable win over Derry, which helped secure their fifth consecutive Ulster title. The Rossa man also scored 0-4 in the next round as they were defeated by Dublin so he has proven to be a consistent scoring threat, particularly from frees. Antrim fans can look forward to seeing more from him in the future.
A large part of the reason Antrim were dumped out of the Championship was due to the astonishing performance of the next nominee: Dublin's Sean Currie. The Na Fianna man scored the bulk of his side's 2-20 total with an individual tally of 2-13.
While the highlight of his campaign thus far, it's not a huge departure from his other performances this season. He had already scored 0-28 across their three Leinster matches. A semi-final rematch with Leinster champions Kilkenny now awaits Dublin, with another huge game from Currie likely needed to come out on top this time around.
Last but not least, is a defensive rock for Clare as Aidan McCarthy is the third nominee. Though the game was actually played on June 28th, he won player of the week for the opening week of July in one of the best games of the season so far as the Banner county squeaked past Limerick in the Munster semi-final in an extra-time thriller. McCarthy even raided forward for a critical point to tie things up in the first period of extra-time. From there, Clare were never behind as that score seemed to give them the impetus to drive on and secure victory.
Unfortunately for McCarthy and the rest of the Clare panel, they were defeated in the Munster final by Cork but there are still plenty of things about their 2017 campaign to be positive about as they look to the future.
This year is the first year of the Electric Ireland GAA Minor Star Awards. Throughout the summer, players from each week’s games will be shortlisted by an expert panel of judges which consists of Donal Óg Cusack, Oisín McConville, Mattie Kenny and Andy McEntee.
Every week, you have the opportunity to have your vote for your Player of the Week on Electric Ireland's Facebook page and get involved with the conversation around the brilliant Electric Ireland Minor championship.
There have been some fantastic Minor Hurlers voted as players of the week this month. Each player of the week will be in with a chance of making their way to the Minor Star Awards later this year. Who was the stand out player for you? Cast your vote below.
