Cúl Heroes is the official trading cards of the GAA/GPA and the 2017 collection was launched in May in Croke Park by Cúl Heroes brand ambassadors James McCarthy and Padraic Mannion.

Other player ambassadors for 2017 include Michael Murphy, Noel McGrath, TJ Reid, Colm Cooper and Diarmuid O’Connor.

Cúl Heroes is entering its third year on the market and aims to continue its promotion of Gaelic Games, the players and the unique skills of our national sport.

This year’s trading card collection includes 612 cards, including a mixture of players, as well as gold, silver and bronze cards.

Because of the influence the GAA and its players has among young people; each card portrays a positive message around diet and emotional wellbeing. Cúl Heroes aims to be a positive influence in the lives of young people through an increased amount of messages this year such as “Feed your body with healthy food” and “It’s good to talk to someone when you’re sad.”

Each pack has seven cards included with the standard packet of cards, this includes one special edition card. Additional products are: Starter Collection Folder and Collector Tin. Speaking at the 2017 launch, Cúl Heroes managing director Matt McCormack said: “Every year we add to the collection in different ways, the 2017 collection has some very exciting and unique additions.

We would like to welcome the ladies footballers and camogie players to the collection, also Meath and Galway hurlers join us for the first time. “We can’t find any other trading card involving team sports that have male and female players in the same collection.”

Each county card has its own unique background texture that relates to historical or geographical facts” This is a fun learning tool for our young collectors”.

“We believe more than ever than these cards help promote our games in a very positive way with our youth and we hope they get as much enjoyment out of this year’s collection as they did in previous years. We feel it’s an opportunity for young fans to collect all these great players that play our national sports.”

The 2017 new Personalised Cards are now available online. This allows each of our young players to “Become their own Cúl Hero” where they get 16 personalised cards that they can swap with their friends. They also get a 10” x 8” framed enlarged front and back personalised card. These can be purchased online via the website www.culheroes.ie.

A packet of Cúl Heroes trading cards (7 cards per pack) will be on sale for €1.50/£1.30 throughout the 32 counties.  The Starter Collection Folder with 14 cards is available for €6.50/£5.50, with a Deluxe Collection Folder containing 50 cards available for €10.00/£8.50.