A REPEAT of last season’s Danske Bank Mageean Cup final, sees St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast face holders St Louis’, Ballymena at St Enda’s, Glengormley (throw-in 2.30pm).
Last Halloween, St Louis’ justified the favourites’ tag they carried into the final with an impressive performance to win only the school’s second title and first in 27 seasons.
This season the boot is on the other foot and St Mary’s are the form team coming into this afternoon’s semi-final.
They impressed in each of their three outings in the league and those three wins saved them the problem of a quarter-final last week.
St Louis went into that quarter-final with An Dún as an unknown quantity, blowing hot and cold in their league games against firstly Maghera and then St Killian’s.
However, they emerged from last Monday’s game with an enhanced reputation and are a real threat to a St Mary’s outfit that has collected all the silverware through their school careers.
Players such as Nathan Gibson, Dominic McEnhill, Colm McLarnon, CJ McKenna, Shea Shannon and Tiarnán Murphy all featured a year ago in the final and are determined to put the disappointment of last Halloween behind them to lift the Cup.
Ballymena may not have the all-round strength of last year, but a number carry the experience of having won the biggest prize in Ulster schools’ hurling.
Players such as Dunloy’s Seaan Elliott, a scoring star against An Dún, and Ryan McGarry as well as Paddy Graffin and Conor Ferris stepped up a gear from the league performances last week.
Colleges’ Allstar Conal Doherty-Cunning, who missed that game through suspension, will add a lot to the mid-Antrim school’s attack and they look to be coming together well as a team at the right time.
However, the favourites’ tag from the start was with St Mary’s and the Mageean league form-book doesn’t suggest that they are not up to the mark this time.
So, the holders will do well if they are still in the race for this year’s title by 4pm this evening.
In today’s other semi-final in Ballymena, St Killian’s, Garron Tower take on Cross and Passion, Ballycastle at 2.30pm.
Little from their league run suggested that Cross and Passion could mount a real challenge for Mageean Cup this season.
However, their performance in dismissing St Patrick’s, Maghera last Tuesday puts them right in the mix again.
Two seasons ago, they were coming from a similar base, but powered past St Killian’s to earn a final spot and then, with sheer determination, came through a very tight final at the Dub against An Dún.
That sheer determination was in evidence in an impressive quarter-final against Maghera.
Six points in arrears at the end of the first quarter, they held the opposition to a single point from open play and won 2-13 to 3-5.
The performance was not without blemish as at least one of the goals conceded was of the soft variety and they managed to shoot a number of wides while the game was in the melting pot.
However their defensive unit was very impressive, in man-to-man battles and in their structure in covering for each other.
With little conceded at the back, there was a platform for Ryan Hill, Ronan Molloy, Declan Smyth and Darren McGowan to pick off the scores to see them through.
This is their third meeting with St Killian’s at the semi-final stage over the past four seasons – and each year St Killian’s had the more impressive underage form. The last two semi-finals started as 50/50 encounters but were won easily by Cross and Passion.
Can this one be different?
St Killian’s topped their league group, winning five points out of six, the draw coming against Maghera. However they were very wasteful in the final league game against St Louis’ Ballymena in Glenravel, firing almost 20 blanks over the hour.
Crucially though, when they needed to lift their game during the third quarter, they did so with goals and were, in the end, comfortable winners over the holders in a game that would deliver a semi-final ticket.
There is a question mark over two key players though – neither midfielder Daniel Black nor centre-half back Shane O’Connor have trained during the past fortnight.
Without them it is difficult to see the Tower team making a first final at this level in 11 seasons.
