FINAL PREVIEW: Thurles CBS ready to paint Croke Park blue and gold this St Patrick's Day
Thurles CBS will face Presentation College Athenry in Croke Park
Ten years is a long time to wait for a school with the hurling pedigree of Thurles CBS.
Some excellent hurlers who have gone on to star at club and county level have gone through the famed Tipperary hurling establishment and have failed to get to the showcase of school’s hurling but the current crop have done so and they have shown their ability in every facet to beat all that have come before them in the last six months.
It’s been a long year for this group of players and they wouldn’t have wished for anything else when they set out on their journey all the way back in September and this St Patrick’s Day showdown is the culmination of a significant amount of work.
The psychology of schools hurling is interesting, particularly in the case of Munster teams who all set their stall out at the start of the year to get their hands on the coveted Dr Harty Cup; the pinnacle of schools hurling in Munster that has so much history and prestige attached to it.
Take for example the last decade of Croke Cup finals and you will see the dominance of St Kieran’s College of Kilkenny. They have won seven of the last 10 finals with just three titles going the way of Munster schools.
There is a fair argument to be made that it mirrors the intercounty provincial championships in that the Leinster schools scene is less competitive, whereas it's Munster counterpart is a viper pit of schools with numerous different winners lifting the Harty Cup in the last decade.
As it is, Thurles CBS will be delighted to be here and will not be considering this as ‘bonus territory’ with the group of players at their disposal and considering the mid Tipperary school has only one Croke Cup crown to its name, the current outfit will be eager to make this opportunity count.
The jubilation of the Harty success will be firmly in the rearview mirror now for Thurles, and the reality check and grounding of the hard-fought semi-final win over Colaiste Bhaile Chlair, I would wager, was secretly welcomed by management.
Thurles were hot favourites going into that game, and with some appalling shooting on show from them, along with a stubbornness to their Galway opponents, it was a closer run thing than it maybe should have been.
Having a stick to beat the players with will be no bad thing and there is absolutely no denying that they will need everyone firing on all cylinders in this upcoming final, and with that, the biggest area of concern will be their conversion rate in a forward line that has massive potential to cut loose if on form.
Any Galway hurling historians reading the earlier passages of this article would be laughing at a Munster man speaking the poor mouth over a lack of success at All-Ireland schools level. The county has only ever produced one winner in this competition in its history, with St Raphael’s of Loughrea the winners of the 1995 edition.
But it must be said, Presentation Athenry will be as strong a representative that Galway have had since then in this final, and with the personnel at their disposal and the performances to date, that is a justified statement.
Similar to Thurles, the Athenry school have improved with every game since the start of the year, and their ease of passage out of Connacht as well as a demolition of St Kieran’s College in the semi-final is noteworthy to say the least.
Like Thurles, they have a big intercounty representation with Séan Murphy, Jason Rabbitte, Darragh Counihan, Aaron Niland, Michael Fallon, Robert Burke, Ronan Murphy, and Ciaran Leen all part of Galway squads at underage level in recent years.
You must all consider the fact that they have gotten to this point without arguably their best player in the form of Aaron Niland, who only returned for his first appearance in the semi-final win over St Kieran’s, returning after over six months of injury and his influence could be massive if fit and available to start this game.
Both teams are so similar in their journeys to this point, their personnel and their hunger to claim what would be an historic victory for not only their schools, but for hurling in their respective counties.
It has been so rare to see a final contested without St Kieran’s College involved and often, the team going up against the Kilkenny kingpins are fighting against the weight of tradition and history that goes with that, but for the first time since 2013, that won’t be a factor here.
This one is impossible to call but with so little to choose between the teams, this could be a final to savour in what will be a massive occasion for all involved in GAA headquarters.