St Jarlath’s College, Tuam go in search of their 13th Hogan Cup title on Saturday in Croke Park (1.45pm ).
The school’s last Hogan success was in 2002 when players like Michael Meehan, Gary Sice and Alan Burke collected All Ireland medals under the guidance of the late Fr Oliver Hughes.
Those players have moved on now to represent Galway at u-21 and senior level and that win is almost a decade ago.
There is a now new crop of young hopeful Galway men who, under the guidance of Joe Burke and his management team of Liam Quinn, Clive Monahan, Tommy Newell and Cathal Furey, will hope to emulate those players.
The team produced a top-class performance in the semi-final to defeat Colásite Chríost Rí and they will have to match and surpass that effort if they are to get one over hot favourites St Colman’s of Newry. They are the current All-Ireland champions and they have a good few of those players from last year.
The bookies are confident the northern boys will collect and Jarlath’s, despite their pedigree in the competition, are 2/1 outsiders. However as Galway proved last Sunday against Armagh, it is the team that produces the big performance when needed that wins.
Jarlath’s will look to Adrian Varley, Conor Cunningham, Adrian Nolan, Liam Silke, Gearoid Armstrong, Shane Walsh, Cathal Mulryan and team captain Ian Burke to lead the charge. Others who have caught the eye in the campaign are James Healy, Paul Varley, Pa Glynn, Michael McWalter, Sean Silke, Daniel Collins and Conor McNamara, who scored a fine goal in the semi-final.
Team manager Joe Burke is quietly confident his team can produce the goods this Saturday afternoon;
“We have prepared well and we are injury free which is a big plus. There are some terrific players on our squad and some great leaders. Hopefully they will express themselves and show what they can do in Croke Park.
“They are up against a very good team, we know that, but we firmly believe that we have a team good enough to bring the Hogan Cup back to St Jarlath’s on Saturday evening.”
