Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior B Football Paddy Drummond Cup Final – Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig (Cork) 1-11 Scoil Aodháin Glasnevin (Dublin) 1-10

Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig (Cork) defeated Scoil Aodháin Glasnevin (Dublin) by 1-11 to 1-10 in the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior B Football Paddy Drummond Cup Final on Sunday April 12th at Croke Park.

Coláiste Choilm from Ballincollig in Cork claimed the senior ‘B’ post primary title with a narrow defeat of Scoil Aodháin at Croke Park. Declan Hyland came off the bench to score the all-important late goal for the Cork outfit.

Source: TG4

Glory day for Coláiste Choilm

By Eoghan Cormican for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Coláiste Choilm, Ballincollig 1-11 Scoil Aodháin 1-10

When Declan Hyland stepped onto the Croke Park turf, his sole aim — indeed his sole directive — was to impact, however possible, upon proceedings. The Coláiste Choilm substitute, introduced on 49 minutes, drifted immediately into the left corner despite having replaced right half-forward Seán Curzon.

Click to view photos from this final

Manager John O’Shea would joke afterwards that Hyland was more filling an empty space than following any tactical direction from the sideline. Nonetheless, possession was floated to the Inniscarra youngster, unmarked and very much under the radar of the Scoil Aodháin rearguard. Off he raced, soloing twice with the right boot before unleashing an unstoppable effort with the left into the top corner of Seán Motherway’s goal. All within 10 seconds of entering the fray. Incredible.

The score fired Coláiste Choilm 1-11 to 1-8 in front, the first time the Cork school led, but instead of pushing for home, they shut up shop in a bid to close out the result. O’Shea considered if differently: “Scoil Aodháin sensed time was running out and pushed hard for scores so we had no option but to funnel players back. I wouldn’t say we retreated.”

Conor Kavanagh (free) reduced the deficit on 57 minutes having missed a similar effort moments earlier. Scoil Aodháin struggled from placed ball with centre-back Alan O’Brien also missing a crucial free down the home stretch. Still, when Ian Jesson found Kavanagh in acres of space underneath the Hogan Stand, the margin was cut to the minimum.

The Leinster champions enjoyed a raft of openings thereafter, the outstanding opportunity falling to Cathal Doran; the half-forward, though positioned inside the 21-yard line, was unable to oblige, his tame effort falling into the arms of keeper Christopher Kelly. Presented with a late free, Kavanagh opted to pick out a team-mate rather than have a pot at goal, and referee Séan Hurzon signalled full-time before Jesson got his kick away.

“We are absolutely thrilled, it was a great game to win,” reflected O’Shea. “It didn’t look good for us for long periods. We stuck with it as we’ve done all year, we’ve been in worse situations. Again, the character came through. “Scoil Aodháin could have had three goals inside the opening quarter. It took us a long time to get to the pitch of the game. Lads were extremely nervous. I told the lads to stick at it during the break, we were now winning a lot of possession around the middle that we weren’t in the first 10 minutes. They have savage belief and Declan’s goal was a major point.”

As noted, Coláiste Choilm were subject to severe examination during the opening exchanges, Scoil Aodháin threatening to put this one to bed very early on. Conor Kavanagh pounced for the opening goal in the second minute, the centre-forward, set up by Séan Ryan and Patrick Small, crashing an effort beyond a hapless Kelly.

Further goal chances presented themselves but, crucially, none were capitalised upon — Eoghan O’Donnell blasting wide from close range on six minutes. The winners eventually settled and points courtesy of Sean O’Donoghue (0-2), an impressive figure throughout, and Aaron O’Raw squared matters after 15 minutes. Scoil Aodháin, though, continued to enjoy the upper hand, the midfield pairing of Aaron Elliott and Séan Ryan dominant, and reasserted their advantage through Kavanagh (free), Elliott (0-2) and Gavin King — 1-4 to 0-5 the interval difference.

Coláiste Choilm twice pared back the margin at the change of ends, O’Donoghue’s accuracy from the placed ball central to their resurgence. In truth, the winning captain fought a lone fight for much of the contest up front, Cian Kiely’s 47th-minute white flag the only other score from open play by a Ballincollig forward. It didn’t matter. Hyland’s goal kick-started a memorable afternoon for Munster colleges football.

Scorers for Coláiste Choilm: S O’Donoghue (0-6, 0-2f); D Hyland (1-0); C Kiely (0-2, 0-1f), D Murphy, D McCarthy, A O’Raw (0-1 each).

Scorers for Scoil Aodháin: C Kavanagh (1-4); A Elliott, C Doran (0-2 each); J Connell, G King (0-1 each).

COLÁISTE CHOILM: C Kelly; K O’Regan, K O’Sullivan, P Cronin; D Murphy, M Lordan, D McCarthy; A O’Raw, R O’Toole; L Collins, S O’Donoghue, S Curzon; C Kiely, D Kelly, C Hughes.
Subs: D Hyland for Curzon (49), E O’Shea for Kelly (60), M O’Leary for Hughes (60).

SCOIL AODHÁIN: S Motherway; K Nangle, S Brennan, I Jesson; J Connell, A O’Brien, J McCloone; A Elliott, S Ryan; C Doran, C Kavanagh, G King; P Small, G Doyle, E O’Donnell.
Subs: E Craig for King (50).

Referee: S Hurson (Tyrone)

Congrats Colaiste Choilm Ballincollig All-Ireland Vocational Schools Champs! @LiveGAAResults @PostPrimaryGAA @RTEgaa pic.twitter.com/wB061UCKDg

— Inpho Photography (@Inphosports) April 12, 2014

Source: TG4

The Paddy Drummond Cup Final between Cork’s Coláiste Choilm Ballincollig and Dublin’s Scoil Aodháin promises to be a cracker. “We have a proud Gaelic football history and hopefully we can keep it going,” said Scoil Aodháin selector Ollie Kelleher.

“We won an All-Ireland U-14 ‘A’ title in the mid 1980’s and Leinster in the same grade in 1973, 1974, 1979 and 1980. This year we have won Dublin and Leinster U-14 ‘A’ football, Dublin U-16 ‘A’ football, senior ‘B’ football and also a senior Dublin ‘A’ Hurling title.”

They boast many talented past pupils including former Dublin All-Ireland winners, Tommy Drumm, Paul Clarke and Paddy Moran. Joey Boland and Tomas Brady also attended as did Irish soccer legend Liam Brady.

Their opponents won the Moran Cup (Munster U15 AFC) in 1999 before winning the Frewen Cup (Munster U16 1/2 AFC) in 2001 and 2002. They caused quite a stir at the time by beating a lot of the traditional Kerry schools, St Brendan’s, Intermediate School Killorglin, Tralee CBS and Colaiste na Sceilige.
Their current team won the Simcox Cup this year, beating De La Salle Macroom by 4-13 to 1-18 in the final in January. They beat PS Inbhear Sceine Kenmare in semi-final after being 10 points down at half-time. Then they took Hamilton HS Bandon in the final after a replay, before beating Holy Rosary Mountbellew in the All Ireland semi final.

The starting team is drawn from six clubs in Mid Cork – Eire Og, Ballincollig, Inniscarra, Ballinora, Canovee and Kilmurry and Kerry native John O’Shea is the manager. Past students include current Cork senior footballers Patrick Kelly, Daniel Goulding and Noel Galvin along with AFL player Ciaran Sheehan.
Their captain Sean O’Donoghue is midfield for the Cork minor hurlers who were in action mid-week meaning a very busy seven days for him.

Source: Post Primary Schools