Peters hoping to banish personal final heartache in this weekend's Harty Cup Final

The current crop of Nenagh CBS Harty Cup hurlers haven’t had to look far afield for someone with experience in getting to the pinnacle of Munster Schools hurling. They have the advantage of having one of their selectors who was in this very position 12 years ago - the last time the school contested the final.

Jack Peters of Kilruane MacDonaghs was a key member of the Nenagh CBS team who got to the decider over a decade ago, beating the likes of Thurles CBS and Saturday’s opponents Ardscoil Rís - both after arduous replays - before falling at the final hurdle against a combined Waterford Colleges outfit.

“I don’t have great memories of the Harty Cup final, now!” he laughed.

“That final was probably over after 20 minutes but we had the semi-final and the quarter-final that year which both went to replays which were great occasions.

“In all my school years in the Nenagh CBS, Thurles would have always beaten us coming up along. I remember at U15 they beat us by 30 points. At U17 they beat us by around 15 points, so it was great to turn it around against them that year.

“And to beat Ardscoil then in the semi-final after a replay was great too, and they were four heavy matches and that’s probably what worked against us in the final because I don’t think we got back down to earth after being on such a high and we really just fell flat in the final.

“At the same time, we came up against a really class Waterford Colleges team that had the likes of Tadgh De Burca, Tom Devine, and the Currans as well, so we were very lucky when we got out of the Harty that they were taken out by Kilkenny CBS. I wouldn’t have fancied coming up against them again!” he admitted.

DRAMA

The semi-final was heart-stopping in the extreme for the Nenagh CBS team and management, with the late drama of having a legitimate point struck before going a point down in injury time bringing back some painful memories from campaigns in recent year, and Peters thought that it was going to be another hard luck story against Charleville CBS.

“Probably, yes. I’m not going to lie!” Peters said when asked if he thought the game was gone late on.

“From my own experience, we’ve a good few games that have been decided like that and we’ve never been on the right side of those, so you could say it was probably the first time we’ve gotten the rub of the green. A bit of luck.

“We played CBC Cork in a quarter-final back in 2019, Bryan McLoughney scored a goal to put us two points up and then 30 seconds later, CBC went down the other end and scored a goal so I was worried that the same thing was going to happen again! You can never really relax until the final whistle is blown,” he added.

HEARTBREAK

It is a black mark against Nenagh CBS that they have yet to win a Harty Cup, given the calibre of players that have gone through the school in its history and that is something that Kilruane MacDonaghs man Peters acknowledged when talking about the school's underachievement at the grade.

“Yeah, it is disappointing if you go through some of the hurlers we’ve had in the school.

“With the likes of Jake Morris, Jerome Cahill, Craig Morgan, Billy Seymour, Sean Hayes, and Kevin McCarthy; there’s been great talent over the last few years,” he referenced.

“I think we’ve just been unlucky in a few of those years and to be honest, we probably do take a while to get going because the U21 championship goes on very late and we don’t really have full access to the players until late December.

“So you're really hoping that you can get through the group and when we do that we do fancy ourselves to go into the quarter-final stage. But look, it is disappointing that we’ve not been in a final since 2012.

However, Peters believes that the current group has exactly the right attributes to create history for the North Tipperary school, and he has been nothing but impressed by their attitude and dedication to the campaign thus far.

“This group though are exceptional. They’re a really driven bunch and we don’t have to do a whole pile with them ourselves.

“We started back in the first week of August and the enthusiasm they’ve shown from the very get-go has been brilliant and when you have a group like that, they drive the whole thing themselves and it’s great to see.”

A huge occasion beckons for the school in Ennis this coming Saturday with Ardscoil Rís having a slight advantage in that the majority of their team would be Clare-based players, but Peters dismissed that notion and highlighted how well the players have been training and there is a huge sense of excitement around the school and all of North Tipperary who has been behind this group all year

“I think the U17 team winning the Dean Ryan for the first time has given great momentum to the school, and to the group as well because a lot of the older lads would have looked at that and seen that they can achieve something as well.

“Training is brilliant and there is still competition for places, even the lads coming off the bench, we are using different players all year at different times so everyone knows that they have an opportunity if they perform in training.

“We’re quite happy to have the game on in Ennis. I think it is going to make for an unreal atmosphere because I think Ennis can hold something like 11,000.

“When it goes to a stadium like the Gaelic Grounds or Thurles, it is probably nicer to have it in a ground where it’s almost like a club atmosphere.

“There is huge excitement. We were off on Monday so it was a bit delayed but it was great on Tuesday in school.

“After the match on Saturday, it was great to see so many teachers students, past and present rush onto the field. It means so much to the school community and the area, and to have everyone rowing in behind the team is brilliant.

“We really do have the support of all of North Tipperary. There’d even be lads coming from Borrisokane, and the Vocational School in Nenagh because they would have friends involved, and it's great to see the support because the lads need it getting to this stage,” he finished.