Dr Harty Cup: Previews of semi-finals as potential all Tipp final is on the cards

There was a point last Wednesday week when Tipperary looked likely to have three teams in the Dr Harty Cup semi finals for the first time ever.

The delayed start to Our Lady’s Templemore game against Ardscoil Rís in UL meant that with word filtering through of Thurles CBS and Cashel Community School’s success, there could be an unprecedented result from the quarter final stage of this competition.

Alas, it wasn’t to be as a late surge from the Limerick school put paid to that idea, but the sight of two Tipperary schools at this stage and on opposite sides of the draw, throw up the incredible possibility of an all Tipperary final for the very first time ever in Dr Harty Cup history.

Some very even contests were the feature of the quarter final stages, in all four games, none more so than Thurles CBS’s late escape act against St Colmans Fermoy of Cork who essentially led to the game from start to finish, only for a late Tommy Maher goal proving decisive.

Cork provides the opposition again for Thurles CBS in Saturday’s as Midleton CBS will prove to be a big obstacle after having a late escape act themselves in a pulsating quarter final against De La Salle last Wednesday. 

Trailing in added time, Midleton found two goals in the red to rescue themselves from defeat, so both these teams will have huge belief going into this game.

Midleton CBS are going to be a real test for Thurles and have a good pedigree in this competition, having won the competition as recently as 2019 and with 2019 All Ireland minor winner with Cork Jack Leahy the real standout player in their ranks.

Leahy bagged the first of the two injury time goals from a 20m free and finished the game as the top scorer for his side, bagging 1-9 of their 2-15 total and will take minding by the Thurles defence. 

Curtailing Leahy could go a long way to winning the game for Thurles CBS, with only two other scorers populating the scoring charts on the day, so that will be something Eamonn Buckley will surely be emphasising this to his players.

A very lively full forward line for the Tipperary school proved to be the bright spark again in the win against St Colmans, with Robbie Ryan bagging three important points from play when Thurles were chasing the game, while Robbie Stapleton was impressive in patches.

Tommy Maher struck his frees well but he, along with the likes of Joe Egan will need bigger games if Thurles are to make it into their nineteenth Dr Harty Cup decider.

In the other game, Cashel Community School continue to improve all the time as they were perhaps the most comfortable qualifiers from the quarter final round, having come through with three points to spare with an impressive win over CBC Cork.

Ben Currivan’s goal within a minute of the throw-in helped to settle Cashel very early in the miserable conditions in Ballyagran, Limerick, and they showed real composure and character to withstand a second half comeback from CBC playing against the wind.

You could see what the win meant for the players and management at full time, having really improved on last year’s disappointing quarter final loss to Thurles CBS in a game where they never got going.

They have quality all over the pitch this year, with Jack Quinlan and Ger O’Dwyer both playing very well in defence, while Ronan Connolly had a terrific game against CBC from midfield scoring 0-5.

In attack, they have really added some punch with the addition of minor All Ireland winner Adam Daly from Rockwell College this year taking them on a level. 

But their main man has been Golden Kilfeacle’s Ben Currivan who has a real eye for goal and continued his scoring run with that early goal which set them up well for the win.

However, in terms of opposition, it scarcely gets tougher in a Harty Cup context than facing Ardscoil Rís who survived a mighty scare against Our Lady’s Templemore in the quarter final to book their place in this game.

They still have a good bulk of players who won last year’s All Ireland title in Croke Park, and when the game needed to be won against Our Ladys, they really stepped up to the mark to blitz their opponents.

Despite being a Limerick school, they have a large Clare contingent in the side as usual, with eight of the starting team hailing from the Banner county, and amongst those are some very dangerous players, with corner forward Michael Collins impressing scoring 0-6 in the game, while Daire Neville (a cousin of Tipp senior hurler Shane) also bagged 1-1 in a very pacey outfit. 

The sides met in the group stages back in October and it took a very late Ardscoil goal from Shane Gleeson to separate the sides in a very evenly fought match in Cappamore.

Cashel though will take serious confidence from the fashion of their win over CBC Cork though, and with a good blueprint of how to get at this Ardscoil team designed already by Templemore previously, and from their close clash in the group, they will fancy their chances of getting to a final.

Both games take place this Saturday, January 21st in Kilmallock (Cashel game) and Mallow (Thurles CBS game).