In attendance at the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Captains Call at Croke Park in Dublin are, from left, Paudie McCarry of St Raphaels Loughrea, Galway, Stephen Minogue and Geoff Neary of St Kierans College, Kilkenny. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
St. Raphael’s, Loughrea are very aware of the severity of the challenge they will face in Saturday’s Masita Croke Cup Final against St. Kieran’s College.
The Kilkenny school are reigning champions and bidding to win a seventh All-Ireland title in just nine years.
When these two teams met in last year’s All-Ireland Quarter-Final St. Kieran’s triumphed by 2-28 to 0-13, though it would be unwise to read to much into that result because a year is a long time in schools hurling.
St. Raphael’s certainly looked like a quality outfit themselves when beating Harty Cup champions Nenagh CBS in this year’s All-Ireland semi-final, but this game is likely to be a more severe test again.
“Ah, it is, and we know that,” says team manager, Francis Forde. “They've been the aristocrats at this level for as long as I can remember. We played St. Kieran's in the quarter-final last year and it was a heavy defeat but sometimes you just have to take those things on the chin.
“You might say getting beaten by more than 20 points is not a great learning experience, but it was still a good experience to see the level that those lads were at. I suppose if you were to ask me that day going out in Nenagh would we be back again, I wouldn't have seen it when you see the level they were at.
"In fairness our lads have worked very hard and we're here on merit and obviously we want to put our best foot forward.
“St. Kieran's play the game with the values of their school and all of that, you can see that written across the way they do everything. That's admirable.
“But we have our own way of doing things and we're hoping that we can bring that to Croke Park. As long as our lads go and perform and hurl to their ability we won't worry too much about the result.
“The result tends to take care of itself if you can get that decent performance and if we can show that we're able to play I'll be very happy.”
St. Raphael's College senior hurling team manager, Francis Forde.
No Connacht team has won the Croke Cup since St. Raphael’s themselves lifted it back in 1995.
This current team has some connections to that one, and even reaching a final is an impressive achievement when you consider they draw their players from a relatively small pool.
“The majority of the players would be from three clubs,” says Forde. “We have 39 players. 37 of them from Sarsfields, Loughrea, and Kilconieron. One from Cappataggle, and one on our extended panel from Tynagh-Abbey/Duniry
“So, it's essentially three clubs which I know at this stage is probably very rare. I was at the Leinster Final and I was looking at the programme and I saw that on the St. Kieran's panel of 30 there were 17 different clubs represented.
“The other side of that is that our lads are a tight bunch and they are very close because they’re all from that eight, nine mile radius.
“You probably have a situation where you have a good few families connected and stuff like that. That certainly adds to it. I suppose what's kicking in a little bit is some of the history of St Raphaels. We are the only Galway team to ever win an All-Ireland Croke Cup back in 1995.
“And we actually have some sons of those players on this team. Vince Morgan is playing for us, his dad Stephen was on that team in 1995. Vinny Maher was on the team in '95 and his son is Gavin. They're lovely connections to have.”
St. Kieran’s have swept all before them on the way to this final and pose a variety of threats in attack, but Forde doesn’t want his team worrying too much about how they might stop the Kilkenny juggernaut.
Instead he wants them to trust in their own ability and play to the strengths that have earned them this shot at the title.
“We have to go and do our thing,” he says. “We are comfortable in the way we play the game and that will be the focus for us – to try to go and play the game the way we want to play it. I would say what we have is very skilful hurlers who play very well together as a team.
“If we can go and do that then that will be our primary target. We just want our lads to embrace it. It's a massive occasion and sometimes you can maybe worry about lads being in awe of the venue and the occasion and all of that and letting it pass them by.
“You would just hope that lads of that age would just embrace it and go for it. It's probably even bigger now given that the minor finals are not played here anymore.
“I know the St. Kieran's lads were here last year and what not. On our side, none of our lads have played in Croke Park before. You just hope that they take to it and embrace the occasion and go for it.”
Saturday, March 16
Masita GAA Post Primary Schools Croke Cup Final
St Kieran's College, Kilkenny v St Raphael's, Galway, Croke park, 1pm (TG4)
Tickets for the game can be purchased HERE.
