The O'Carolan College team that will contest Saturday's Masita Post Primary Schools All-Ireland Senior Football 'C' Final.
By John Harrington
Rarely has a team progressed to an All-Ireland Final as impressively as O’Carolan College, Nobber.
The Meath school contest Saturday’s Masita Post Primary School’s All-Ireland ‘C’ Final against St Pat’s Castleisland after a run of six victories that has seen them score 28-77 and win those games by an average of 20 points each.
Their biggest win of all came in the All-Ireland semi-final when they defeated Ulster champions Dean Maguirc by 6-15 to 0-1, so it’s safe to say they’re coming into Saturday’s Final in a rich vein of form.
“Yeah, we've had a couple of big wins on the way here,” says O’Carolan College manager, Stephen Smith.
“The lads, in fairness to them, a lot of what we do is down to hard work. They're a talented bunch of players but they're exceptional workers and that's what they pride themselves on. They never stop, which is great. No matter what score they're up by, they keep pushing on and trying to drive forward.
“This year is the first year we've had strength in depth in a while so the lads coming off the bench are trying to prove a point and they're not letting up and are trying to get as many scores on the board as possible.
“That's how a few of our games have finished out, whereas in other years when you might have a weaker panel you wouldn't have finished the games as strongly.
“This year we have a lot of talented players coming through from the younger age groups and they're trying to prove a point as much as they possibly can.”
This O’Carolan College team is stacked with player with inter-county experience with Meath.
Sean O'Hare is one of four Meath All-Ireland winning minors on the O'Carolan College team.
Four of them, Sean O’Hare, Killian Smyth, Rian McConnell, and Adam Matthews, won All-Ireland minor medals in 2021. Three of them, O’Hare, Smyth and McConnell, are now members of the Meath U-20 panel.
They also have four players who played for the Meath minors last year in Darragh Smith, Darragh Kelly, Declan O’Reilly and Rian Stafford, who is a nephew of Royal County legend Brian Stafford.
“It's just been a lucky group of lads who all kind of came together,” says Smyth of his talented team.
“A group of them did TY and stuck together and it made the difference to the group coming though. There's good experience there and a lot of them have made the breakthrough to playing for their club at adult level and that experience is vital.
“We have some great leaders on the team throughout and it's been amazing having fellas like that all come together at once. They control a lot of what happens on the pitch.
“You have people who are willing to stand up and keep everyone motivated and driving forward all the time. It's great to have that experience on the team.”
In attendance at the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Captains Call at Croke Park in Dublin were, from left, Chair of the GAA National Post Primary Schools Committee Liam O’Mahony, Rían O'Connell of O'Carolan College, Cathal and Jack McElligott of St Pats Castleisland.
The Nobber school will understandably start as favourites after the nature of their run to this Final, but their opponents are a talented team too.
St Pat’s defeated a highly rated Dunmore CS in the All-Ireland semi-final when they came back from 12 points down in the second-half, so they have character as well as ability.
“That's the kind of game we were hoping to get in our semi-final, it's great preparation for a final,” says Smyth.
“Our lads have to be on their toes from the word go because they move the ball well. They're good footballers, they're a Kerry team, so what else would you expect.
“It's going to be a big challenge, it's an All-Ireland Final, so we'll go out there and give it absolutely everything that we have and please God on the day it'll be enough to see us through and finish off the year on a high. I'm sure they're thinking the exact same thing.
“They're a good, strong side, loads of talented footballers, and a very physical outfit so we'll have our work cut out for us.
“There's certainly no complacency on our side. Yes, we've had big wins, but the lads know they have come from hard work. That's the big message we're giving to the lads, there's a reason you've had those wins and it's not from going through the motions.
“They'll keep their feet on the ground and keep focused because there has been a huge buy-in from the local community. And no better people to keep the players grounded than their parents.”
Saturday March 11
All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior 'C' Final
O'Carolan College, Nobber v St. Pat's, Castleisland, Netwatch Cullen Park, 3pm.
