St Mark’s out to bring back glory days
Masita All Ireland Post Primary Schools’ Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan final
Saturday 2pm in Newbridge
St Mark’s Warrenpoint v CBS Mitchelstown
from Irish News
A big worry for St Mark’s Warrenpoint ahead of this Masita All Ireland Schools’ final for the Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan Cup in Newbridge today (SATURDAY) is the scoring power of their Cork opponents from Mitchelstown CBS.
In all of their six knock-out games to reach the final the Cork team has scored at least 13 times, the lowest return a 0-13 to 2-5 win over Lisdoonvarna in the Munster semi-final. The other five totals ranged between 22 and 24 points, while Lisdoonvarna’s 2-5 was the most they conceded in a single game.
Essentially they have won all their games fairly easily, taking their first Munster crown in a quarter of a century along the way. Indeed there is no one player standing out as their main score-getter; their 4-10 in the Munster final coming from seven different players with none scoring more than three times.
St Mark’s path by contrast was one of much closer games, the closest of all being a 2-14 to 1-13 win over Presentation Athenry in the All-Ireland semi-final a couple of weeks ago, with Tiarnan Rushe sealing victory with a late goal.
That score brought his personal total to 2-5 while Paddy Smyth hit 0-6 indicating that the south Down side has a narrower range of scorers.
They came into the O’Doherty Cup through winning the Shield competition before Christmas but built up a head of steam after defeating county rivals St Patrick’s Downpatrick in the preliminary round.
By the time they met Rathmore Grammar in the Ulster final, they knew where the nets were and fired home 6-9 to 0-9 with Rushe 3-1 and Smyth 2-2 accounting for a sizeable chunk of the total.
However their defence has improved along the way as well with Caolan and Shea Fitzpatrick tying down the central positions. Rushe started the campaign as a midfielder, but the progress of CJ Barr and Conor Lowry has meant that he can do much more damage from centre-forward.
St Mark’s had a big reputation in Vocational competitions over a 30 year period when Barney McAleenan was the guiding force. There is a feeling that this All-Ireland run could re-kindle that love affair with provincial and national competitions.
They are one step away from winning their first All-Ireland title for quite a few years, but they will need to settle quickly and make the game into a dog-fight, something that Mitchelstown have not experienced.
If they do that, they have shown already that they can last the pace and hit the front in the last five minutes to hold out.
St Mark’s (probable) : Dean Toner, Chris Killen, Caolan Fitzpatrick, John McKernan, Mark Doyle, Shea Fitzpatrick, Cathal Fegan, Conor Lowry, CJ Barr, Shane Annett, Tiernan Rushe, Ciaran Tinnelly, Paddy Smyth, Aaron Magee, Conor Owens.
Subs : Jamie O’Conor, Shane O’Hare, Thomas Travers, Ryan Caulfied, Jack Grant, Darragh Murdock, Connail Gallagher, Paddy Brannagan, Darragh Connell, Tomas Gordon, Joe Murphy, Michael Mckey, Michael McNally
