St Raphael’s primed to throw the gauntlet to champs Pres Athenry

SIXTEEN years on from their last triumph, St Raphael’s College, Loughrea are back in the Connacht Post Primary Schools Senior A hurling decider for the first time since when they face three in-a-row chasing Presentation College, Athenry at Duggan Park on Friday (throw-in 1pm).

This has been a long time coming for St Raphael’s, who remain the county’s sole winners of the All-Ireland colleges title way back in 1996, but due to a lack of numbers have competed in the B grade in the years following their last provincial success over Portumna Community School back in ’04.

That’s all begun to change in the last six years, however, following a successful amalgamation with Mercy College, Woodford which yielded a Connacht Senior A title in 2013 and a host of Senior B provincial titles on their own as St Raphael’s.

Eleven months ago, St Raphael’s, with 11 of the side likely to start on Friday afternoon, defeated Castlecomer Community School in the All-Ireland Senior B final, thus becoming the first Galway school ever to do so.

Later that same afternoon in Tullamore, Presentation College, Athenry fell short for the second year in succession against St Kieran’s College in the Croke Cup (Senior A) final.

Now they face-off against one another and win or lose on Friday, both will advance to the All-Ireland series, the one caveat being that the winner will progress straight through to the All-Ireland semi-final, while the loser must play the loser of the Harty Cup final in a quarter-final.

Pres Athenry won seven of the 10 Connacht titles on offer in the last decade in an unprecedented spell of dominance while Mercy Colleges, as noted, claimed the honours in 2013.

When Dungarvan Colleges (another amalgamation) won the Croke Cup final that year, Croke Park put a halt to such amalgamations, so ending the successful Raphael’s/Woodford partnership.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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