Summerhill College hoping to achieve historic first

By John Harrington

Summerhill College will bid to create a special piece of history on St. Patrick's Day by becoming the first ever Sligo school to lift the Hogan Cup

This is only the second time Sligo have been represented in the Final, and on the last occasion back in 1985 it was also Summerhill who had the honour.

They came up short on that occasion against Coliste Chrost R of Cork, but will believe they can go one better tomorrow after overcoming quality opposition in Connacht and then in the All-Ireland semi-final when they bested a fancied St. Brendans College, Killarney team.

Its a big day for Sligo football, and the teams joint-manager, Mark Breheny, hopes his young players grasp the opportunity to show just how good they are on the biggest stage of all.

The immediate joy of winning the semi-final straight away parachuted your mind to Croke Park and the venue, he admits.

But we're trying to reemphasise the point that we want to win an All-Ireland, that's our objective, and whether we play it in a small pitch or in Croke Park it's just about winning the game.

Croke Park is certainly a massive factor and it's brilliant for any young plyer, but at the end of the day we just have to go about our business and win the match firstly. It's important to enjoy the occasion too. It's massive for their families, for the local community, the school itself.

It's the first final our school will ever have played in Croke Park and it's an occasion that they're all looking forward to. I hope they're not overawed by it, I don't think they will be. I hope that they just embrace it and are up for the challenge of it.

In attendance at the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Captains Call at Croke Park in Dublin were, from left, Eoin McElholm of Omagh CBS and James Donlon of Summerhill College.

Summerhill have put together and impressive body of work to reach Fridays Hogan Cup Final against Omagh CBS.

Connacht was particularly strong this year and they overcame quality opponents in St. Geralds of Castlebar, Rice College of Westport, and Ballinrobe Community School before edging out a highly rated Claregalway College in the provincial final.

That earned them a semi-final joust with last years beaten All-Ireland finalists, St. Brendans College Killarney, and once again the Sligo team showed their quality to win a thrilling game by three points.

We were delighted with the win obviously over St. Brendan's, says Breheny. We knew their calibre from their Munster campaign. They were good throughout, we'd seen clips of the Munster semi-final and final.

Just the way the game transpired we knew it was going to be a tight affair. We had a good first half, probably the opposite to what we were doing in previous games when we were slow starters. So were delighted to get a good start. They got an early goal but we grew into the game.

By half-time were five up which was a bit of an unknown for us because we didn't have that lead in previous games. So it was just trying to get the heads around that.

The second-half, in fairness to St. Brendan's, they came out and were really, really aggressive. They were good a round the middle and they obviously showed their calibre and brought us right to the end. Thankfully we just kept working hard and I think the belief from the previous games coming near the end got us over the line.

Coming down for the high of an All-Ireland semi-final win and getting refocused for a final can be a difficult mental challenge, but Breheny is confident his players will be in the zone for todays showdown with Ulster champions Omagh CBS.

In fairness to our group this year they've shown they can reset very quickly. From the Connacht Final I think they had their eyes on a semi-final performance and weren't just happy with a Connacht Final win. I think that mindset was really, really good, and we saw it again immediately after the semi-final win.

It took a couple of days to come down from the hype of it all, but once we got them back training their focus was immediately back on producing a huge performance for the Hogan Cup Final. They don't want to leave this one behind them.

We have only been in one previous Final in 1985 and they want to do themselves justice on the day.

Left to right, Summerhill College senior football team coach Luke Bree with joint-managers Mark Breheny and Joe Neary.

An interesting sub-plot to Fridays Final is that the teams played each other in a challenge match over the Christmas holidays, with Summerhill coming out on top by a single point.

All the signs point to this rematch being an equally tight affair between two quality teams.

We're glad that we've played them previously because if we'd just seen them win the semi-final by 20 points then you might be really worried, says Summerhill joint-manager, Pat Neary.

We know we can compete with Omagh. They're a quality side, they're a bit like us, a lot of good players. They're what you'd expect from a very good Tyrone team.

They work hard, they get numbers back, they break at pace, and they've some very good footballers all over the park. They're a typical Tyrone team.

On the day it's going to be a great occasion and a great battle. We're really looking forward to it.

Friday, March 17