Danske Bank Casement Cup final: St Mary’s, Magherafelt v Scoileanna Thír Eoghain (Friday, Loup, 7.30pm)
THERE was a period in last Friday’s Danske Bank Casement Cup semi-final in Dungannon when it looked as if the combined Tyrone schools’ team was teetering on the brink of elimination after having led by 3-6 to 0-6 at the break.
A valiant fightback from Our Lady’s and St Patrick’s, Knock saw them hit nine of the first 10 points of the second half to close the gap to a single point.
But Tyrone rallied and Eoghan Ruadh pair Cian Ferguson and Rory Weir hit two points apiece in the final 10 minutes to rescue their challenge for a first Casement title.
Weir and Ferguson are just two from the seven or eight players from their club likely to start tonight’s final under lights in the Loup.
Eoghan Ruadh won the recent Ulster Minor Club Hurling Shield in Ballinascreen although they couldn’t push on in the Cup competition against Dunloy.
Conor Devlin was a key component of the club team at centre-half back while Sean Paul McKernan and Ben Gormley also shone in that Ulster run.
There are also three other club teams contributing to the Red Hands’ schools’ outfit and players from Omagh, Strabane and of course Éire Óg, Carrickmore have featured strongly in recent games, including the single-point group win over St Mary’s, Magherafelt last month.
Ryan Haughey pulled off an excellent save at the death in the semi-final with Knock and free-taker Ruairí Slane picked off a few vital scores along the way.
St Mary’s team captain Ciaran O’Neill, goalkeeper Jake Donnelly, Morgan Nelson, Emmett Donnelly and Ronan Kalla are the five survivors from last year’s superb effort in the final against a St Patrick’s, Keady side that took a second successive title.
Also in search of a first ever Casement title, Magherafelt, like their neighbours St Patrick’s, Maghera in the Mageean Cup, are guaranteed a spot in the All-Ireland semi-finals in February regardless of the result tonight as combination teams such as Tír Eoghain are not allowed to progress.
But team manager and Derry forward of the last 15 seasons Ruairí Convery (left) is hoping that the experience gained in last year’s decider can help them push on to take a first provincial senior schools’ title after a couple at lower age levels.
Their games to date have been a mixed bag, some super performances mixed with a couple of matches that were just that little too close for comfort. However when Nelson, Kalla, Josh Higgins and Conor Duffin hit form, the whole team seemed to gel better.
Having beaten Magherafelt already in the league, albeit narrowly, and given that they have been together as a group longer than their opponents, Scoileanna Thír Eoghain can follow the example of the other county team in schools’ senior hurling, An Dún, and be the team that breaks new ground.
