Gaelic Games

St Kieran’s College make no mistake as they to secure a 24th Croke Cup title

Anthony Ireland Wall, Donagh Murphy and Ted Dunne all score goals in Croke Park decider

Ted Dunne scored the third goal for St Kieran’s College. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Ted Dunne scored the third goal for St Kieran’s College. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho
Paul Keane at Croke Park
Fri Mar 17 2023 - 18:51

St Kieran’s College 3-13 Presentation College, Athenry 0-12

They don’t take kindly to defeat in Kilkenny, that’s for sure. Between last year’s Croke Cup final loss to Ardscoil Rís, and last month’s Leinster final reversal against a combined Offaly schools team, St Kieran’s were loaded up with chips on their shoulders and highly motivated to bounce back.

They duly made their point with a powerful Croke Park display, blitzing Presentation College, Athenry for the third time in four campaigns to capture a 24th All-Ireland title for the Kilkenny school.

Anthony Ireland Wall’s 24th-minute goal tipped the balance of a tightly contested first half in the direction of St Kieran’s, though the second half was played largely on their terms, yielding further goals from Donagh Murphy and Ted Dunne.

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“We learned a huge amount from it,” said manager Brian Dowling of that early February provincial defeat. “We said in the dressingroom that day that we’re not going to have this pain again and it drove us on for the rest of the campaign.”

To be fair to St Kieran’s, they didn’t have joint captain Harry Shine last month and Rory Glynn, man-of-the-match at Croke Park, only came on for the final quarter of that game, while Ben Whitty, a starter in last year’s All-Ireland decider, didn’t feature against the Offaly combination either.

Athenry set up with Cian Donoghue as their sweeper but after a tidy first half from the number 15, the tactic had to be abandoned as the westerners chased goals that never came.

“For long stages of the match we put it up to Kieran’s but we just weren’t strong enough and just fell away at the very end,” said Athenry manager Cathal Moore. “Physically they are a very strong team, they are probably a bit older than us. We had several transition year students playing and it tells in the end.”

Athenry captain Tiarnan Leen struck two early points which helped open up a 0-4 to 0-2 lead but once Glynn put St Kieran’s ahead with a 19th-minute point, they didn’t look back.

Glynn’s sniped four first-half points from various angles and distances and, allied to Ireland Wall’s screamer of a solo goal, it left them 1-7 to 0-8 clear at half-time.

Free-taker Aaron Niland struck half of Athenry’s first-half tally but the scores dried up on them after that, just four points in the entire second half and only two from play.

The second St Kieran’s goal, from Murphy in the 38th minute, left five between them and provided a cushion which was made even more comfortable following Dunne’s third goal late on.

ST KIERAN’S COLLEGE: S Manogue; B Hughes, K Corcoran, J Neary; T Kelly, T McPhilips, P Naddy (0-1); A McEvoy, D Murphy (1-0); B Whitty (0-1, 65), T Dunne (1-1), K Doyle (0-1); R Glynn (0-4), A Ireland Wall (1-2), H Shine (0-2, one free).

Subs: N Shortall for McEvoy & B Murphy (0-1) for Kelly (39 mins); S Hunt for Wall (58); S Keenan for Whitty (63).

PRESENTATION COLLEGE, ATHENRY: D Walsh; S Murphy, C Lawless, A Shannon; C Donoghue, M Tarpey (0-1), M Fallon; A McDonagh, D Counihan; T Leen (0-2), G Fahy (0-1), D McCartin; O Burke, A Niland (0-6, five frees, one 65), E Byrne.

Subs: C Counihan for D Counihan (h/t); S Monaghan (0-1) for Byrne (39 mins), J Rabbitte (0-1) for McCartin (49), N Kelly for Burke (57), O Quirke for Fahy (58).

Referee: J Murphy (Limerick).