Colaiste Choilm have historic Leinster Colleges football title in their sights

A RARE opportunity to make history has presented itself for a talented young group of footballers from Colaiste Choilm in Tullamore and they will play the biggest game of their young lives when they take on favourites, Naas CBS in the Leinster Colleges Senior Football Championship final on Saturday next – the venue was not decided at the time of going to press.

It will be a huge day for the school, the town of Tullamore and the vast surrounding areas that feed into it. It is certainly the biggest GAA day for the former Tullamore Christian Brothers School and the final will attract a county wide interest.

Known simply and fondly to generations of Offaly people as “the Brothers”, there has been a long history of promoting gaelic games in the school, particularly football but this has been their best era ever.

A very good group won a Leinster Colleges Senior “B” Football Championship title back in 1990 and Colaiste Choilm repeated that feat in 2020. Unfortunately, the 2020 group didn't get the opportunity to challenge for All-Ireland honours as the national series was cancelled because of the Covid 19 pandemic.

That 2020 group included excellent footballers such as John Furlong, Cormac Egan and Jack Bryant, along with many others. Furlong, Egan and Bryant were sensational as Offaly won the All-Ireland U-20 Football Championship in 2021 and there is absolutely no doubt that they would have been good enough to compete in the “A” grade that year.

Whether they would have won it or not is a question that can never be answered. St Joseph's of Rochfortbridge, captained by Rhode's Aaron Kellaghan, had a great win over Naas CBS in the 2020 “A” final and had a very good side. We can, however, say without fear of contradiction that Colaiste Choilm would have been very comfortable competing against St Joseph's and Naas and would have given both a run for the money.

They were in the “B” grade though and their success here was an important step forward. Colaiste Choilm's long time presence in “B” football in colleges has often been discussed in Offaly GAA circles. They have the advantage of being a boys only school in the biggest population centre in Offaly but there have been years down the decades when they didn't compete that well.

Obviously the talent wasn't there at those times, though there were also some decent teams that didn't play to potential and made innocuous exits.

It is a very good thing for Offaly football to have a school competing so well at this level. Colleges “A” competitions are a very high standard and the best players will generally go on to play county at the various grades. It is very important for Offaly football to have a team competing at this level and Colaiste Choilm's progress to the final is a huge boost.

It is also a reflection of the good work that is going on at county and club level in underage coaching in the past few years. A few of the Colaiste Choilm team have come up through the county development squad system and they are the key players.

There have been other significant achievements by Offaly colleges down the years.

St Mary's of Edenderry had great wins in Leinster in 2009 and 2012, going on to win the All-Ireland in '12. That was a fantastic achievement for them but from an Offaly perspective a Colaiste Choilm win would be even bigger. St Mary's had several players on their squad from across the Kildare county boundary and the title could not have been won without these whereas every single player on the Colaiste Choilm panel is from Offaly.

Before that, a few Offaly players played a starring role on the great Carmelite College, Moate team that won Leinster and All-Ireland titles back in the late 1970s, early 1980s while there was a few on the Portlarlington CBS team that won Leinster in 1984.

In hurling, the Offaly combined schools team had a fantastic win in Leinster last year, beating famed Kilkenny nursery St Kieran's in the final. As a combined team, they were not allowed to compete for the All-Ireland but they probably would have won that – St Kieran's recovered to capture the All-Ireland title.

Colaiste Choilm's progress to the final is a bigger thing for Offaly. It is a stand alone school whereas the Offaly side last year had the pick of every school in the county. It is a debate for another day but the wisdom of allowing combined teams into colleges competitions is very debatable. It is good to have more competitive sides and it was a great thing for Offaly to win it but they were essentially a county team, a feeder squad for the Offaly U-20 side that went to the All-Ireland final last year – several of the Offaly schools side played huge roles in the U-20 campaign.

It certainly served Offaly well but combined teams does undermine the integrity of schools' competitions and it is very hard on stand alone schools. The point has been made about the number of clubs on the St Kieran's squad last year but that will happen in big town schools and if there is a strong GAA ethos there, they will attract in some of the best hurlers and footballers in the wider area – there are two big schools catering for boys in Kilkenny and this year Kilkenny CBS and St Kieran's are clashing in the hurling decider.

It is the same in Colaiste Choilm. Just five of the starting team that beat St Pat's of Navan in the semi-final last Friday come from Tullamore GAA Club. There were also players from Raheen, Cappincur, Kilclonfert, Kilcormac-Killoughey, Shamrocks, Clodiagh Gaels, Shamrocks, Durrow and Ballycommon on the starting fifteen – Daingean's Cian Bracken would have started only for injury and is likely to be in for the final against Naas CBS.

There is ten clubs in all on the panel but that is the nature of a big town school – it is different than allowing combined schools in.

In the town, there is another strong school in Tullamore College and there are a couple of students there who Colaiste Choilm wouldn't mind having on their football squad. Already, the school is reaping dividends because of their GAA work – there are young children in National School opting for Colaiste Choilm over other choices, including more convenient ones, mainly for GAA reasons: they are of course also assured of a very good education in Colaiste Choilm, as they are in other schools.

It is a great time for Colaiste Choilm, who have also competed well in “B” hurling competitions in recent years.

After winning the “B”, they had to avail of the opportunity of going “A”, even though some of the best players of that side were leaving school. They have competed really well since making that leap.

There were no schools competitions in 2021 because of Covid but Colaiste Choilm competed in the last two semi-finals, losing to Naas CBS in both. They were blown out of the water in 2022, 6-6 to 0-12 but lost by only a point last year and had their chances to claim the Kildare students' scalp.

They performed very solidly this year, losing to St Mel's of Longford in the first round. They were missing players that day and the 4-12 to 2-7 defeat put pressure on them but they recovered well with wins over Marist of Athlone and Moate CS to progress out of the group - these were tight character building games and Colaiste Choilm had to dig deep to advance..

They have taken things to another level in the knockout stages. They had a good win over Maynooth Education Campus in the quarter-final and crossed the rubicon with their semi-final win over St Pat's last Friday. A third consecutive semi-final win did not bear thinking about and they looked to be heading for that well into the second half. They were 1-9 to 1-6 behind with five minutes left but staged a great finish, scoring the last five points and storming into the final on a 1-11 to 1-9 score.

Now they find themselves facing Naas CBS for the third consecutive year and they are underdogs but they have a great chance of a historic win. Colaiste Choilm's confidence is sky high and they are well prepared.

To win, they will need their star players to hit top form. The Tullamore trio of centre half back Patrick Kenna, midfielder Cillian Bourke and forward Niall Furlong are absolutely pivotal to their prospects. Kenna is very consistent at centre back, so composed on the ball. Bourke has emerged as one of Offaly's brightest footballing prospects and he looks to be a county midfielder in the making while Furlong, the latest member of one of Offaly's greatest footballing dynasties to arrive on the scene, has oceans of natural ability. He can be temperamental and have off days but he was at his brilliant best against St Pat's. He brings a bit of unpredictability to the table, that is not a bad thing and if he clicks, Colaiste Choilm's victory prospects will be enhanced.

Colaiste Choilm have a lot more going for them, a lot of players playing very well. Defender David O'Rourke and midfielder Eoin Dunne have also been in great form while Cian Bracken and Ryan Kenny are key figures in attack – the work rate of captain Steven Doran is a great asset to their forward line.

Colaiste Choilm will be under no illusions about the challenge Naas will present. The Kildare school have been almost unstoppable in recent years and they won the All-Ireland title in 2022 as well as losing the final in 2019. It is their sixth Leinster final in a row and their only defeat was against St Joseph's in 2020 – that is remarkable consistency and shows how tough they will be to beat

They have very good midfielders in Liam O'Connor and Cian O'Reilly, a very efficient defence and a lot of forwards who can score and it will take a huge display from Colaiste Choilm to win.

They have that in their armoury. In some ways, Colaiste Choilm are in bonus territory. It was very important for them to make a final and now that they are there, that pressure is off.

These opportunities, however, don't come around too often and finals are very hard to reach. It should be a great occasion with a terrific atmosphere. Colleges games provide a magic of their own with bus loads of loud singing supporters creating a very special atmosphere – something that combined schools can't replicate as they can't bring a school to life in the same way, though there will of course be huge interest in them.

Colleges games provide an atmosphere that doesn't present in other underage games or adult. There may be risque chants and songs, and free takers will be whistled and jeered as they line up to take their kick; very fit players may be “fat shamed” by hundreds of roaring students. That would not be accepted anywhere else but it is all part of what makes these competitions so special.

It also creates its own pressure on players and how they react to and cope with this often dictates the result. They have to shut out the noise and they do this remarkably well but if you can slot over a crucial free with hundreds of students whistling and shouting for you to miss, one in front of 50,000 silent spectators in Croke Park may be routine in comparison.

It is hard to know how this will go and the first requirement for Colaiste Choilm is to be competitive, to stay in the game to the end. It's a big ask but they have a great chance and anything is possible for this exciting young group of footballers.