Sligo Senior Hurling Championship gets underway this weekend with new format which ensures minimum number of competitive games

Irish Independent

23-07-2025

The championship this year will feature seven teams. It will be run in a new format which focusses on providing a minimum number of competitive games for all of the participating teams.
Last year's championship finalists Easkey and Naomh Eoin are seeded in this year's competition and will join the competition at the group stage from mid-August.
Next Sunday's game will be the first in a series of qualifier rounds to select two clubs from the remaining five in the competition to join the seeded teams in that group stage.
The three teams that don't make that group stage will then compete for the Martin Brennan Cup.
This is only the second time that St Molaise Gaels have participated in the Sligo senior championship, and the new structure is a very welcome development according to the club's Coaching Officer Edwin Mullane.
'It is a real incentive for our club which is in the early stage of its hurling development. Although ours is a new team that would struggle to be competitive with the Easkeys and the Naomh Eoins of this world, this new competition format offers us four games at a level where our team can grow.'
Mullane is excited by the mix of backgrounds and talents that have been attracted to play hurling at the Grange based club which he believes will grow and grow.
'The opportunity to be involved in something competitive is attracting players of very different backgrounds, young and old, local, from outside Sligo and from outside Ireland.
'Over recent years we've also had local lads like Tola Carway, Conor White and Adam Roberts involved with Sligo U17 and U20 county teams. It is great to see them now being able to play championship with their home club which strengthens their connection to their community.'
The sides have met twice this year already – in round two of the senior league in mid April and then two months later in the semi-final of the Dermot Molloy League Shield.
Mullane, who played club hurling in his native Dublin before his relocation to Sligo, said 'we have progressed well in that time and our most recent game was much more competitive'.
Although he has been struggling with a knee injury in recent weeks which saw him confined to goal keeping duties during the league, Mullane hopes to be out the field on Sunday with Sligo senior goalkeeper Kevan Brennan manning the goalmouth.
Calry's Hurling Officer Darragh Cox is in no doubt that Sunday's opponents are a growing force. 'From literally a standing start at adult level just two years ago, they are improving as they play in each competition.'
The Calry St Joseph's club is very much in a transition. Father time has caught up with the core of the group that helped the club dominate Sligo club hurling for almost a decade, but there is now a new generation now emerging that promises to bring new life to the famed gold and blue shirts.
With players like Michael Costigan who captained the Sligo U20 side this year and Marc Gray who was part of the ATU Sligo team that won the Fergal Maher Cup combining with current Sligo seniors Brian Shannon and Conor Griffin, the Hazelwood outfit will be still have ambitions to reach the group stages of the championship.