Croke Cup: Presentation Athenry stand in the way of Thurles CBS success in decider

One of the quirks of the Masita GAA Post Primary Schools Croke Cup (Senior A Hurling) is that it has only been won once by a Galway school.

That was all of 30 years ago back in 1995 when a Kevin Broderick inspired St Raphael’s College, Loughrea swept to victory over Midleton CBS in the final.

Since then Galway schools have reached seven more finals but lost them all.

When you consider that in the same period they’ve won 11 All-Ireland minor hurling titles it does make the relative lack of success in the Croke Cup all the more stark.

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Seasoned observers of post-primary schools hurling think there’s a good chance Galway’s long wait for success in the Croke Cup may well end on St Patrick’s Day when Presentation Athenry play Thurles CBS in this year’s final.

The Athenry school has beat a seriously impressive path to get there, but team manager, Paul Hoban, knows that history can weigh heavily.

“It just shows the standard, they’re not easily won,” he says when you mention the solitary Galway success of St Raphael’s in 1995. “That’s 30 years ago now.

“I actually met one of them this morning and he wasn’t long telling me. Clement Earls a friend of mine was part of that St Raphael’s panel. He said I hope ye pip our title.

“Hopefully we can over the line and put our name up on that mantle-piece but it's obviously going to be a huge challenge because Thurles CBS are a fine team.

“I’ve seen bits of them and they were very impressive in the Harty Cup Final. They’re a very fast team.

“When you get to an All-Ireland Final you’re going to be up against a good team. We’ll just try to do our best, and hopefully we’ll get a good performance and see where that takes us.”

Athenry are fancied to end Galway’s long famine in this competition because of the impressive body of work they’ve put together in recent weeks.

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They cruised to a very impressive 15-point victory in the Connacht Final over a talented Coláiste Bhaile Chláir team that subsequently defeated Kilkenny CBS in the quarter-final and ran Thurles CBS very close in the semi-final.

Then, in the All-Ireland semi-final, they beat the Kingpins of this competition, St Kieran’s College Kilkenny, by eight points.
The same St Kieran’s that had appeared in the last nine Croke Cup Finals in a row, winning seven of them.

Three of those victories came against Presentation College Athenry in 2018, 2019, and 2023, so finally getting the better of St Kieran’s was a real monkey off their back for the Galway school.

“I think everyone has suffered against them,” says Hoban. “Ah yeah, it was great. It was all about the performance for us that day, anything in the past didn’t matter.

“That’s all that mattered. You have to be a good bit better to beat them. At stages they looked like they would come back into it.

“They bring a lot with them. The crowd, the noise, they’re a big outfit.

“We were delighted to get the win. That was our first win over them which I didn’t know previously, but it just shows you the class that they have.”

Class is something that this Athenry team also had in abundance, including two Galway senior panellists in the shape of Seán Murphy and Aaron Niland.

Murphy made his League debut for the Tribesmen earlier this year while Niland is one of the most promising hurlers that Galway has produced in a very long time and is ably supported in an impressive Athenry attack by the likes of Jason Rabbitte and Ciarán Leen.

It’s not the high-profile individuals that makes this Presentation College Athenry team such a formidable force, though.
It’s the team-ethic and work-rate from back to front that will make them a hard nut to crack in next Monday’s All-Ireland Final.

“You have to work to get rewards and in fairness to them so far they’ve worked hard,” says Hoban.

“They have a great work ethic, they’re always ready to go and you’d nearly be holding them back sometimes. At the start of the year we had a good few injuries and other lads came into the fray and added more to it.

"That’s probably been the most pleasing part of the campaign, we could have 40 lads training and the 26 the next day could be very different to what you had the last day.”

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