Presentation College, Athenry retain the John Ryan Cup in impressive style

Presentation College, Athenry   0-15

St Brigid’s Vocational School, Loughrea 0-6

Mark Kelly at Kenny Park

Presentation College, Athenry picked up the John Ryan Cup for the second year in succession at the expense of St Brigid’s, Loughrea. and while the Athenry secondary school narrowly came out on top in last year’s decider 1-16 to 0-16, their victory this time around in Kenny Park was a clearer run thing.

An All-Ireland semi-final awaits for the Pres next weekend, but St Brigid’s are not out of the equation for ultimate honours either. Their management duo of Martin Raftery and Galway hurler David Burke will have been busy refocusing their troops this week, ahead of this Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final meeting with St Peter’s from Wexford.

The last time a Galway secondary school won an All-Ireland title in this grade was back in 1995. John Bruton was Taoiseach and Jack Charlton was still Irish soccer manager, and it was St Raphael’s of Loughrea who lifted the Dr Croke Cup 20 years ago.

Side notes aside, the Pres defeated St Brigid’s on Saturday for a couple of reasons. They started and finished well, scoring the first five and last five points of the game. In between, they restricted St Brigid’s to six points, and they better handled playing the majority of the game with 14 men.

In the 9th minute of the first half, referee Tom Connor dismissed Andrew Greaney of the Pres and Shane Fahy from St Brigid’s.

The flashpoint resulted after Fahy and Cillian McDaid collided in a race for possession. Players from both sides got involved, with Greaney joining the schemozzle to send Shane O’Brien to the floor with a shoulder. Problem was, he connected with O’Brien’s midriff with the butt of his hurl, and gave the referee little choice. Fahy’s red card was for striking in the act of tackling.

Perhaps the most important reason why the Pres won however, was because they had a more potent forward division. Brian Burke was the driving force in the final quarter from right-half forward, his physical presence causing the St Brigid’s half-back line no end of issues.

While Shane O’Brien, Damien Finnerty and Michael Lynch all looked dangerous on different occasions, the Pres defence coughed up very little in the way of space for St Brigid’s lighter forward line. As well as Burke, the Pres could rely on Cian Burke and Evan Niland for scores, and the trio contributed all but one of their team’s 0-15 total.

The Pres were 0-5 to 0-0 to the good when Greaney and Fahy were sent off. Niland scored four of those points from frees. Sean Loftus, who covered between his full and half-back lines throughout, chipped in with a monster score from play as well, and it wasn’t until the 11th minute before St Brigid’s got off the mark.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.