The 2023 Ulster Under 15 Football Academy programme came to a close for this season with a 30-player squad taking on Dublin GAA Academy in challenge games at the Box-It Athletic Grounds in Armagh this week.
The panel of players, from across all nine counties in the province, were selected by Ulster GAA coaches from three regional camps that took place over recent weeks in Tyrone Centre of Excellence, Garvaghey, Monaghan GAA Centre Cloghan and the Derry Centre of Excellence, Owenbeg.
As part of the Academy programme, all the young players have learned about key areas such as developing resilience, game sense/decision-making and performance analysis for positional play and statistics. There were also special Q&A sessions with star players and former Academy graduates, Ruairi Canavan & Oisin Gallen.
The game against the Dublin-select was refereed by Enda Mallon, from Armagh, and was played out in excellent conditions in Armagh, with strong, free flowing football from both sides.
Both squads observed a moment’s silence for the late Peter Cassidy, father of Josh Cassidy from Monaghan, who had been due to represent Ulster on the day.
The full list of 30 players who were selected for the Ulster panel were:
Joe Logan Antrim
Cathair Mckenna Antrim
Connaire Smyth Antrim
Tomas Fox Armagh
Gavin O’Rourke Armagh
Cormac Murphy Armagh
Daithi O’Callaghan Armagh
Nathan Quigley Cavan
Cody Rocks Derry
Sean O’Kane Derry
Emmett Og McKeever Derry
Emmett Spiers Derry
Oisin Mulholland Derry
Cathal Doherty Donegal
Thomas Carr Donegal
Bobby Magowan Down
Alex Heaney Down
Callum Travers Down
Conor Casey Fermanagh
Liam Mulholland Monaghan
Tristan Nugent Monaghan
Josh Cassidy Monaghan
James Ennis Monaghan
Harry McQuillan Monaghan
Thomas Meenan Tyrone
James Mulgrew Tyrone
Padraig Donaghy Tyrone
James Daly Tyrone
Peter Colton Tyrone
JP Doris Tyrone