‘It’s where we want to be and where we feel we deserve to be’ – St Gerald’s College one game away from provincial glory

A year can make an awful difference to a senior school team.

Some of your best lads might shuffle off after the Leaving, while your younger players will be a year old and wiser.

That gap between 2023 and 2024 will tell when two teams with intercounty pedigree seeping from nearly every pour cross swords in the Connacht Post Primary Schools ‘A’ Championship final in Bekan tomorrow (Sunday).

The Mayo representatives, St Gerald’s College of Castlebar, will look to add an eighth senior ‘A’ provincial title to their glistening trophy cabinet.

David Joyce and his selectors; Kilmeena coach Eoin Sweeney, ex-Mayo footballer Mickey Conroy and a fella called Diarmuid O’Connor, have no less that 13 current or ex-Mayo Minors to call upon tomorrow afternoon.

You’d be a long time listing them all, but the most prominent names include star forward Ryan Gibbons, Gavin Forry and Shane Cunningham (all Castlebar Mitchels).

Parke pair Cathal Keaveney and Dara Neary have both impressed up front for the seven-time Connacht senior champions.

Defensively, the Castlebar school can rely on cousins Seán and Fionnán O’Reilly (also Castlebar Mitchels) while Yousif Coghill (Breaffy), Jack Prendergast (Ballintubber) are both fine all-rounders.

“We were disappointed last year we didn’t get out of the group stage, so we were eyeing this up all year and there’s a massive hunger there,” David Joyce told The Mayo News after their Connacht semi-final win over Summerhill.

“St Gerald’s is a very proud football school. We feel like we should be competing every year for Connacht titles and that’s our ambition. To be back up into a final with a match against Claregalway on the line, it’s where we want to be and where we feel we deserve to be”

If talent got them started, then it was their attitude that has gotten them to where they are, according to their manager.

The words of Shane Cunningham, twice cited in The Mayo News, that this group ‘would die’ for each other are not merely words.

“There’s a load of leaders in that group, so they tend to manage themselves, we just give them a platform and give them a foundation to work off,” said Joyce.

“Shane is right, we are so used to playing with each other over the years. There’s a lot of talent over the years, and they’re hungry and they’ve eyes on the Connacht title and they’re not going to stop. We just have to make sure they keep focused on the right path and hopefully it will all come good for us.”

St Gerald’s have long been a force in colleges football in Connacht.

But a new force is emerging in the form of Coláiste Baile Clár, a school that only saw it’s first Leaving Cert class graduate in 2019.

An exploding population in the Galway city commuter land of Claregalway has already produced a school team that is contesting at ‘A’ level in both Gaelic football and hurling.

With two junior and two juvenile provincial titles to their name already, a much-coveted Connacht Senior ‘A’ title went from an ‘if’ to a ‘when’ when Maurice Sheridan’s charges lost last year’s final to Summerhill – a team that went on to reach the Hogan Cup final.

Like St Gerald’s, they are bursting with the seams with county pedigree – moreover, All-Ireland-winning pedigree in the form of 2022 Galway Minor captain Éanna Monaghan.

A diminutive footballing wizard who can hurt the best of teams on his day, Monaghan is flanked by other star performers in the form of Stephen Curley – who hit Rice College for six – and another ex-Galway Minor, Jack Lonergan.

Add in Ryan O’Flaherty and the defensive power of Sean O’Flynn and John Lynn and you have one serious colleges team.

Even with seven or eight veterans of last year’s Connacht final defeat still knocking around, Maurice Sheridan maintains that their past successes are no guarantee of a first senior title tomorrow (Sunday).

“We’re up against a fine team, we played each other in a group game earlier on in the year in Claregalway, there was a point or two in that in the end, it was a very tight match,” Sheridan told The Mayo News.

“They had a few players missing, we’re aware of that, that haven’t played for them, they might be back in the squad at the weekend.

“They are a strong team in every line of the pitch. Their full-back line are very impressive. They are very strong in the middle of the field. They’ve got a few excellent players up front. Gavin Forry, Ryan Gibbons as well. We’ve seen them play, they are very well coached so we’ll be up against it but we’re looking forward to it in a big way.”

It promises to be a classic, whoever the victor is.

FIXTURE

Connacht GAA Post-Primary School Senior ‘A’ Championship Final

St Gerald’s College v Coláiste Baile Clár

Venue: Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence, Bekan

Throw-in: 2pm