Imagine heading to Croke Park, on St. Patrick’s Day, and coming home with your first All-Ireland hurling title.
For the players on the St. Kieran’s College team, that was very much the case as the disappointment in defeat to Ardscoil Rís this time last year was put behind them with a comprehensive 3-12 to 0-12 win against Presentation College Athenry.
It was the Kilkenny city school’s eighth consecutive All-Ireland senior colleges final with five of the last seven going back to the College Road. We’ve seen Brian Dowling’s Kilkenny senior camogie side get goal hungry when it’s needed and it was exactly the same today for the students with Anthony Wall (first half), Donagh Murphy (second half) and Ted Dunne (in second-half injury time) all hitting the back of the net.
In typical form, despite conceding the Leinster title to Offaly in UPMC Nowlan Park earlier this year, there’s no real writing off of St. Kieran’s College as the steamrolled through St. Raphael’s of Loughrea and Cashel Community School in the All-Ireland quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
Leading 1-07 to 0-08 at the break, Brian Dowling’s side came out swinging in the second half, Donagh Murphy scoring inside the opening ten minutes. Four points from Rory Glynn and another pair from Harry Shine added to the overall tally to help land a 24th senior colleges title for the Kilkenny school.
You can listen back to the game in full below and hear the thoughts of Brendan Hennessy and Michael Walsh from our live commentary.