Match Reports: In respect of winning the All Ireland final, four years have passed for St. Kieran’s College, Kilkenny. But in Semple Stadium, Thurles, the Kilkenny school would take their seventh in style. After losing two All Ireland finals in a row, St. Kieran’s did not want to be in the runner up seat again. From the very start the Kilkenny team never relented in their drive till the end. Although facing a Cork team of any sort is never a task to be relished. In comparison to the blistering performance that St. Kieran’s gave Coláiste Iognaid Rís seemed to be a very ordinary side that seemed inferior of an All-Ireland status. Coláiste Iognaid Rís were only novices at free taking. While they were able to get height, they were not able to get the distance to put the ball over the bar. While St. Kieran’s were like marksmen when shooting. Only one ball was hit wide which was within shooting range. The loss of their full back didn’t help Coláiste Iognaid Rís which took an amount of confidence from the other two men on the full back line.

The one thing that Kieran’s boys did very well was exploiting the weakness of Coláiste Iognaid Rís, which worked very effective on the day. The strongest line of the St. Kieran’s team had to be the trio of Harry Ryan, Paddy Prendergast and Michael Cuddihy. Although Ryan was small his skill was superb. Paddy Prendergast could have arguably played the best game of his life.  Cuddihy also settled well after his man scored an early goal in the game.

As well as a brilliant team performance there was some very inspiring individual performances also. The bravery of Harry Ryan who threw himself between the ball and the goal to seal a gap, and a triangular movement from John Ryan, Seamus Brennan and Harry Ryan was very effective with the ball got bottled in the corner, but was gradually worked out the field. It was as if the day itself knew that St. Kieran’s were going to give an exhibition. The rain ceased before the match. And the sun failed to appear so it was left to the teams to dazzle the crowd. And St. Kieran’s did just that.

Kieran Brennan was as good a captain as any team would need. Just like in the Leinster final he kept a bit in reserve and punished the opposition when they thought he had run himself out. Paddy Prendergast and Declan Fitzpatrick controlled midfield. Fitzpatrick was very speedy while Prendergast was accurate at the free taking which made them an awesome duo. Dermot McCurtain, Damien Philpott, Billy Collins put up a strong fight for Coláiste Iognaid Rís. The huge vocal from the crowd also gave the Kieran’s players a huge lift to finish the match in style.

Back Row: Michael Meagher, Patrick Gannon, Patrick Brennan, Richard Dalton, Gordon Ryan, James Lennon, Brendan Broderick.

Middle Row: Michael Cuddihy, James Prendergast, Kevin O’Shea, Declan Fitzpatrick, Patrick Prendergast, Toddy Farrell, Richard Marnell.

Front Row: Rev. Diarmuid Healy, Seamus Brennan, John Ryan, Kieran Brennan (Captain), Martin Joyce, Harry Ryan, Lester Ryan.