Masita Hogan Cup semi-finals: St Mary’s Magherafelt (Derry) v St Brendan’s Killarney (Kerry)
While Congress debates potential changes to underage grades in the comfort of the futuristic Air Dome at the Connacht Centre of Excellence on Saturday, outside some of the best up-and-coming footballers will do battle in the Hogan Cup semi-final (throw-in 5.30pm).
MacRory Cup champions St Mary’s Magherafelt clash with the Munster kingpins St Brendan’s of Killarney for a place in the St Patrick’s Day decider at Croke Park.
The Derry school won the MacRory Cup for the second time earlier this month with a 2-9 to 0-8 win over Holy Trinity Cookstown at the Athletic Grounds.
As impressive as St Mary’s were, they are coming up against a team who have won the Munster title (Corn Uí Mhuiri) a record 23 times and have four Hogan Cups, including back-to-back wins in 2016 and 2017.
Their alma mater includes Colm Cooper and David Clifford and they’ve a host of current Kerry minors in their ranks.
The fact that they were able to defeat fellow Kerry side Tralee CBS by five points in their provincial final minus the services of Kerry minors Rian Colleran and Luke Crowley speaks volumes about their strength-in-depth.
St Mary’s manager Ronan Devlin, who is part of a three-man management team which includes Kevin Brady and John McElholm, knows his side will have a huge battle on their hands on Saturday afternoon.
“When you are going through their team, every player seems to be a Kerry minor or a former Kerry minor. It is like playing a county team,” said Devlin.
“They've watched clips of us as everything is online and we’ve watched them. They look like a real classy team - a typical Kerry team with good footballers.
“They seem to have a few top-class forwards. You have the best four teams in the country left so it was never going to be an easy game.
“They are a team with serious pedigree.”
No doubt the Sem’s management will have been impressed by the manner of Magherafelt’s MacRory Cup success in Armagh also.
Cahir Quinn and man-of-the-match Niall O’Donnell bagged goals in the first half and Holy Trinity weren’t able to bridge the gap in the second half.
Devlin hailed the discipline of his players, especially during the second half as they kept a clean sheet and forced numerous turnovers with some textbook tackling.
“I think we controlled the game very well,” said Devlin.
“I think Holy Trinity went out to mark Conhuir Johnston and put a lot of eggs in that basket and that freed up Niall O’Donnell a bit.
“That’s the advantage of having a couple of quality forwards - it is very hard to put fires out everywhere.
“Discipline is a big thing for us and we’d preach that here. We are always talking about how they act when they get off the pitch in school in terms of keeping their work going and being well-mannered to staff and things like that.
"I think that carries - we try and get them to leave the referee alone. Discipline is shockingly underrated. I think a team with good discipline always has a chance.
“It isn’t that we play with a defensive structure or anything like that, we’ve good lads, with good positional sense and we’ve good leaders - we’re blessed in our defence that way.”
While St Mary’s lost their 2017 Hogan Cup semi-final to St Peter’s of Wexford, the last two renewals of the competition have been won by Ulster schools.
St Ronan’s Lurgan lifted the Hogan Cup in 2018 and were succeeded by St Michael’s Enniskillen in 2019.
With Naas CBS facing St Jarlath’s of Tuam in the other semi-final on Saturday, St Mary’s will have to do things the hard way if they are to emulate St Ronan’s and St Michael’s.
Yet, Magherafelt showed enough in their MacRory campaign to suggest they’ll have a big say in the destiny of the Hogan Cup and they could pull off an upset against a star-studded St Brendan’s side on Saturday.
