CBS Thurles 0-24

Presentation College, Athenry2-17

By Paul Keane at Croke Park

A flock of seagulls hovered above the dejected Presentation College, Athenry team and mentors as Robbie Ryan gave his victory speech up in the Hogan Stand.

The majority of the Athenry contingent, down on the Croke Park pitch, simply stood and watched, arms folded. A couple of them sat down, looking like they’d rather be anywhere else. Wherever the seagulls were headed would have done just fine. Two others sat facing away, unable to even watch.

For Sean Murphy, Michael Fallon, Darragh Counihan, Aaron Niland, and Jason Rabbitte, who also featured in the 2023 final defeat to St Kieran’s College, it was a painfully familiar feeling.

That’s five final defeats now for the college and while they all hurt, this was probably the worst of them.

Victory was within touching distance with less than 20 minutes to go after Frank Burke swept beyond Thurles full-back Evan Morris and fired to the net, putting Athenry 2-14 to 0-12 ahead.

In all, between the 28th minute of the first-half and the Burke goal, they outscored the Harty Cup champions by 2-7 to 0-1.

Some of these Athenry players will go on to bigger and better things. Murphy has already made his Galway senior debut so who knows what awaits him in the coming months. He could be joined by a couple more of his schoolmates too.

For others, it may well be the high point of their hurling careers, that electric 15 minutes or so either side of half-time when everything seemed to go right for the side in maroon.

Aaron Niland, introduced almost on the stroke of the 20th minute as he nears full recovery from a serious hamstring injury, fired a free that deflected to the net just before half-time, suggesting that anything was possible.

His team-mates picked up the baton and ran with it after the restart, responding to a Kieran Rossiter point for Thurles with an unanswered 1-6. The climax of their scoring spree was the Burke goal but Jason Rabbitte’s reverse hand pass for Cian Hannon’s 39th minute point best summed up just how much freedom Athenry were playing with at that stage.

Pictured: Pres Athenry’s Ciarán Leen strikes for goal.