Kieran’s College face up to stiff Ardscoil Rís challenge

Taking away the two years that were lost to the Covid pandemic, St Kieran’s will be looking to qualify for a ninth All-Ireland Colleges Croke Cup final on the trot when they face Munster finalists Ardscoil Rís in Bansha GAA Club, Co Tipperary on Saturday afternoon at 2pm.

You’ve to go all the way back to 2013 for an All-Ireland decider that didn’t involve the Kilkenny school, but this will be a big test for Brian Dowling’s men.

While most of the players have changed, you only have to look at the All-Ireland final from two years ago to see the threat that the Limerick school will pose to Kieran’s.

Like this weekend, Ardscoil Rís went into that game on the back of losing the Harty Cup final but they bounced back to win the All-Ireland crown at the College’s expense.

They again come into a meeting with the Kilkenny school after losing out in the Munster final to Nenagh but let’s not forget that it was only a last minute goal that denied them in Ennis a few weeks ago.

Ardscoil Rís have since accounted for a Presentation Athenry team that lost out to Kieran’s in the All-Ireland Final last St Patrick’s Day and had a calibre of player which included 2023 Galway minor stars Aaron Niland and Jason Rabbitte.

Unlike in previous years where Ardscoil had numerous talented Limerick youngsters coming through the ranks, this team is heavily backboned by Clare stars with Matthew O’Halloran, Marc O’Brien, Eoin Begley and Michael Collins all part of the Clare minor team that won last year’s All-Ireland title. The Banner County beat the Cats on the way to that success, so a number of Kieran’s players will know exactly what’s coming.

In saying that though, the Kilkenny school have huge arrays of talent in their own ranks and the way they dismantled their city rivals the CBS in the Leinster final earlier this month is a prime example of what they can do.

The Kieran’s management may be a little worried that their opponents will be a lot more battle-hardened ahead of this last four tie but if Kieran’s can get to the pitch of it from the start, they certainly have the players to do damage.

Graigue-Ballycallan’s Aaron McEvoy and St Martin’s Sean Hunt have arguably been the main two players in attack for the defending All-Ireland champions. Much will be expected of them again on Saturday afternoon.

The dynamic pair lined out at centre and full-forward respectively against Kilkenny CBS and did major damage as a result.

Man of the match in last year’s final, Rory Glynn, and Ed McDermott are also big players up front and Kieran’s will hope that McDermott is fit after going off injured the last day.

The midfield duo of Sean Deely and Ed Lauhoff did enough to suggest they will start again at the weekend while team captain Jeff Neary leads the team from centre-back.

Neary tends to drop deep and despite his small frame, he is excellent at sweeping up around his own goal. His influence will be crucial to how the final result ends up.

As usually tends to be the case, Kieran’s have huge strength in depth at their disposal with the likes of James Hughes, James O’Neill, Conor Doyle, Oisin Bateman and Bill McDermott all capable of making an impact.

A tight game is expected - don’t rule out the prospect of extra-time either!