St Patrick’s hurlers look to make history

15 December 2021

ST Patrick’s Grammar School are preparing for their first ever Mageean Cup final this Friday at 7pm in the Dub Arena, where the local hurlers are set to face off against St Patrick’s, Maghera.

The Red High have been on a steady upward curve with this group of hurlers since they entered the school.

This time five years ago they won the McGreevy Cup in Clonduff against St Colman’s Newry and a decision was made to compete at A grade the following year. They didn’t win anything but, they found that the gap between them and the top teams was not as wide as first thought.

By the time the Foresters’ Cup came around they were competitive and led St Mary’s by 2-15 to 2-14 with six minutes left in the quarter-final only to concede 3-2.

That competition was never finished due to Covid-19 and now two years later they hit the ground running with a thrilling 2-15 to 1-14 win over Maghera in the opening Mageean Cup game on November 4.

Fearghal MacManus and Rossa McGrath scored the goals, but the noteworthy point in the fixture was the team’s ability to close out the game in the last quarter, which wasn’t the case two years earlier.

That same late surge was replicated in a thrilling semi-final against St Louis’, Ballymena, a fortnight ago at the Dub. It seemed during the last quarter that neither team was capable of getting the match-winning scores.

Then St Louis’ hit two points inside 30 seconds to go a point up after 11 scoreless minutes. The Red High found a response with Oisin Coulter levelling in the 58th minute and Tom McGrattan winning a free and pointing at the start of injury time.

McGrattan then played the defence-splitting pass for Finn Turpin to score a goal from which there would be no return for Ballymena.

There was some lovely hurling played in the opening half. But it was being played by both teams and the Downpatrick management realised at half-time that it had to change. They ped Oisin Coulter back in a sweeping role and that cut the supply to Ballymena’s inside forwards that had been doing the damage.

However, it also left the Red High attack a little short on scoring power. But several frees, the long-range ones from goalie Pearse Smyth, the shorter ones from McGrattan, kept the score-board moving.

Maghera’s inside forwards do not carry the same threat as Ballymena and I expect that Coulter will not be needed to play so deep in defence.

However Maghera’s 1-12 to 0-12 semi-final win over St Killian’s, Garron Tower, saw the Derry boys reach even deeper into their renowned reserves of strength and determination.

They trailed by 0-11 to 0-4 going into the second water break, but tagged on two points that gave them something to fight for over the last quarter.

They took a stranglehold over the opposition and hit 1-6 without reply to take them clear in injury time. A goal and four points of that came from frees with Eoin Scullion adding a brilliant point from a side-line.

Maghera’s strongest line is their half-backs who will face probably the strongest line that Downpatrick have. Most of the Red High scores come from that area.

They have two good midfielders in Scullion and Shea McKenna, while their most prolific forward, Peter McCullagh, didn’t play in the semi-final because of injury.

This final will be different to the league match simply because, as Garron Tower found out, Maghera teams are a different animal when they are at the knockout stage of a competition. They will harry and hassle players and give them no room at all.

This Downpatrick team though have quite a number of excellent ball players and they showed against St Louis, Ballymena that they can stand up to the physical side of the game as well.

Maghera will not allow the game to open up as Ballymena did. But in McGrattan, Michael Dorrian, Finn Turpin and Oisin Coulter, they have players who can hit the target from a half chance.

All those half chances will need to be taken on Friday evening, because you cannot leave Maghera in the game for the last quarter.

Red High Panel: Ryan O’Neill, Portaferry; Pearse Smyth, Portaferry; Owen Madine, Drumaness; Oisin Coulter, Ballygalget; Michael Dorrian, Ballygalget; Rossa McGrath, Ballygalget; Adam Rogan, Ballycran; Finn Turpin, Portaferry; Fearghal Casey, Carryduff; Fearghal MacManus, Loughinisland; Oisin McGrattan, Portaferry; Jude Roddy, Portaferry; Sean Mageean, Portaferry; Sean Deegan, Kilclief; Eamann Moreland, Portaferry; Tiernan Connolly, Castlewellan; Conor Leneghan, Liatroim; Luke McCabe, Castlewellan; Sean McCarthy, Ballycran; Noah Rogers, Portaferry; Leigh Morgan, Portaferry; DJ Farrell, Liatroim; Daniel Sharvin, Kilclief; Cian Clarke, Ballygalget; Dara Coulter, Ballygalget; Rossa Byers, Portaferry; Matthew Dorrian, Ballygalget; David Shields, Kilclief; Deaglan Mallon, Portaferry; Tom McGrattan, Portaferry.

Manager: Darren Swail.

Assistant Manager: Sean Paul Gibson.

Background Team: Danny Toner, John Devlin, Declan Morgan.

Tweets by @TheDownRecorder