St Patrick’s Maghera set sights on All-Ireland hurling glory

Two decades ago James O’Kane coached St Patrick’s Maghera to their first All-Ireland hurling title. Two months ago his two sons, Pádraig and Seán, played their part in the school securing their 14^th Mageean Cup and they are now on the cusp of adding a national title after a narrow single point victory over Coláiste Abhann Rí Callan a fortnight ago.

The O’Keefe Cup hadn’t come north since St Mary’s CBGS Belfast took their second title in 1974. Maghera’s 2006 victory kicked open the door. Five years later they repeated the achievement with Karl McKaigue captain and Brendan Rogers, Gerald Bradley and Cormac O’Doherty all on board.

Cross & Passion Ballycastle won two All-Ireland titles in between those Maghera successes and St Mary’s and Ballycastle raised the cup for the third time immediately after Maghera’s second title.

There was then a nine year gap before the present run of national successes began, with the Pady Buggy Cup now the prize. St Killian’s Garron Tower a couple of years ago were followed last year by CPC and now Maghera are attempting to bridge a gap of 15 years with a team that contains many from the football team that last year scaled Hogan heights.

Back in January they lost a MacRory Cup quarter-final to eventual champions Abbey CBS on a Sunday afternoon and just three days later were able to lift themselves off the floor to beat the Mageean Cup holders Cross & Passion by 4-13 to 1-12 at the Dub in the final.

Captain Rian Collins was one of eight Maghera dual players who played in that MacRory Cup quarter-final defeat in Celtic Park. Niall McNicholl, Pádraig and Seán O’Kane, Darragh O’Neill, Dáithí McCloskey and Odhrán Doherty all started the football game with Finn Cartin coming off the bench later on.

Tralee CBS face a similar challenge this weekend – although they have just four duals. The Hurley twins, Ryan and Cillian, Mikey Corridan and Eoin O’Flatherty played in the 1-19 to 0-20 hurling semi-final win over Portumna and then featured in Croke Park on Tuesday when the Kerry school lost the Hogan Cup final in the last few moments to Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar.

Their semi-final followed a similar pattern to Maghera’s against Callan – never much between the sides throughout although Tralee were generally a point or two down, while Maghera were mostly ahead. Both winning teams survived despite wayward shooting (Tralee 12 wides, Maghera 16).

Naturally both teams will want to improve their shooting, but Maghera will have been disappointed with their overall performance. They didn’t look like the team that had dominated the Mageean Cup in late autumn and then the final in January.

Forwards had been comfortable changing roles before and during games in Ulster. Against Callan there wasn’t the same sense of team-play going forward, although it has to be stated that the school on the Kilkenny-Tipperary border had more quality players than any side Maghera had met in the Mageean.

While bringing Rian Collins out to the half-forward line cut down on Maghera’s goal-threat inside, the captain got on a lot more ball and made it work for the team.

Defensively they gave away too many frees – eight were turned into points and there was also a couple of wides – another area where a slight adjustment could widen the margin between the teams on the day.

Reports on the Tralee semi-final suggest that they too didn’t perform to their optimum on the day, but like Maghera they still got the result.

Those that featured in Croke Park winning their Hogan medals last year, some of them also All-Ireland minor medallists with Derry, those experienced players will be expected to lead for the Ulster champions. If they do just that, then the rest of the team will also rise to the occasion.

Very few players have left school with All-Ireland medals in both codes. St Mary’s CBGS managed to win both in 1971. Maghera teams have come closest to emulating that feat in the 55 seasons that have followed. Today (SATURDAY) half their team might just get over the line.