A fantastic summer of hurling continues this weekend and begins tomorrow in Clones where six finals are being held in the new Táin Óg Youth Hurling League.

The Táin Óg has been driven by the GAA's National Hurling Development Manager Martin Fogarty and has involved more than 600 U13 hurlers.

The players come from 32 clubs in 11 designated developing counties - Armagh, Cavan, Down, Fermanagh, Louth, Leitrim, Longford, Monaghan, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo where work is continuing to encourage more and more young people to play the game.

The competition has provided additional games to young hurlers and groups have been graded geographically as well as in terms of their ability.

Martin Fogarty told gaa.ie: "When we had our first meeting about it we felt that if we could get 12 or 16 teams involved that it would be great.

"The whole idea was to get games to clubs in counties that have just a handful of hurling clubs by coming across the borders and mixing them up. We ended up with 32 teams right across the country from Sligo to Louth. That was super. It shows the interest in the game that is in all these counties."

GAA Ard Stiúrthóir Tom Ryan has hailed the success of the new initiative. He said: "The success of the Táin Óg League is a reward for the people who have done so much work to promote and develop hurling in these counties.

"A lot has been done to ensure that it is a very special day in Clones this Saturday for the players lucky enough to be in the finals. Already I know that, based on the progress of this year, there are plans to build on this success by developing the 2018 players further over the next two years and starting out with another group at U13 in 2020 to bring more young hurlers through."

The action in St Tiernach's Park on Saturday starts at 10am with finals scheduled every 90 minutes.

See below for a full list of Táin Óg Youth Hurling League Finals:

Final 1: Erne Gaels (Fermanagh) v Cootehill (Cavan)

Final 2: Carrickmacross (monaghan) v Craobh Rua (Armagh)

Final 3: Killeavy (Armagh) v St. Fechin's (Louth)

Final 4: Longford Slashers (Longford) v Four Roads (Roscommon)

Final 5: Warrenpoint (Down) v Ballinamore (Leitrim)

Final 6: Wolfe Tones (Longford) v Naomh Moninne (Louth)

Stay up-to-date with all this weekend's football and hurling championship action on the hoganstand.com live match tracker.

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