St Colman’s ready to bring home the Hogan Cup

Colm Boyle is well positioned to advise any young man about to play in an All-Ireland final in Croke Park.

He played in four of them with Mayo and one with Davitts, leaving on each occasion empty-handed and with blood, sweat, and tears left out on the field.

READ MORE: ‘It was nothing like I’d ever experienced’ - Colm Boyle recalls playing for St Colman’s

His inspirational displays belied the nervous wreck within, but Boyler never faltered on the big occasions.

His advice to the young men seeking to do what no Mayo school has done since 1977?

“Just enjoy it. Enjoy it but focus on what you have to do because at the end of the day they are going up there to do a job and their job is to win the game and come down with the Hogan Cup and bring it back to the school,” Boyle tells The Mayo News.

 “Obviously the fact that it’s in Croke Park brings another element as well and a huge form of excitement. The thing is not to let that drain you, not to let that become what this is about, because it’s not, it’s about winning a game.

"The same thing applies if this game is being played in Athlone or being played down in Cork or wherever it is. They have to go up there and do the same job and get the performance; that’s the thing.

"Go after the performance. If they get the performance, there is a fair good chance that the result will follow.”

When asked to highlight the strength of this St Colman’s team, he doesn’t mention forwards, backs, midfield, fitness, or physicality.

“Their main strengths is they have got character.”

He takes us back to the start of the school year, to the day he watched them limp to a Flanagan Cup final loss against their bitter rivals.

“I thought they were quite a bit off St Gerald’s that day and thought they had quite a lot of work to do.”

A tough championship group lay in wait. It started with a hard-fought home win over Ballinrobe, followed by a chastening defeat to Summerhill ‘that could have ended a lot of other teams’ campaigns’. Then St Gerald’s again.

“It was all on the line, winner takes all, winner goes through to the semi-final, and they were absolutely brilliant that day.”

ANALYSIS: who are St Colman's College's Hogan Cup final opponents?

Rio Mortimer and Darragh Beirne are the first names that trip off the tongue when analysing this St Colman’s crop.

But call them a two-man show at your peril.

“I think this has been more a team effort than outstanding individual effort,” says Boyle. “The two boys that day, to me, they just looked like senior players in a schools game, the way they stood out, they way they physically stood out, from a leadership point of view. So it’s great to have them fellas leading them into a Hogan Cup final.”