St Colman's College, Claremorris, are going to looking to make it six consecutive Connacht College's A titles on the bounce for Mayo schools on Saturday afternoon.
The south Mayo men who have six titles to their name already are looking to make it number seven, when they take on the grandest school of all when it comes to football at this level - St Jarlath's College, Tuam.
The north Mayo nursery have won the Aonghus Murphy Memorial Cup more than any other school in the province, with 48 titles written in their roll of honour, along with 12 Hogan Cup (All Ireland ) titles.
But it has been a lean decade for the famed school, having last won the Aonghus Murphy Memorial Cup back in 2012, and having had to watch the title go six times since then to Mayo schools and once each to Roscommon and Sligo. St Colman's, for their part, are the only school in Mayo to ever go on and claim All Ireland glory in the Hogan Cup final - back in 1977.
There was no college football action last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, with St Gerald's College, Castlebar, the defending Connacht champions, having won the title in early 2020 - just before the onset of the pandemic - and they were not given the opportunity to go on and have a crack at All Ireland glory.
St Colman's, who are managed by Seamus Curry, Brian Roche and Eoghan Collins, saw off Summerhill College in the quarter-final a few week' back and then were 2-16 to 1-8 winners of St Joseph's, Galway, in the semi-final last week in Headford. They put in a stunning second-half performance to book their passage to the final.
At half time in that game they trailed 0-5 to 1-3, but managed to outscore their opponents by 2-11 to 0-5 in the final 30 minutes, for a resounding win. A penalty save from goalkeeper Nathan Moran in the first half that stopped them going six points behind proved to be vital.
Goals in the second half from Adam Beirne and Paul Gilmore proved to be equally important to the St Colman's success story in the contest. The Claremorris based school have representatives from a number of south Mayo teams such as Claremorris, Aghamore, Hollymount-Carramore, Davitts and Mayo Gaels in their ranks.
At the back, the likes of Paul Gilmore and Oran McNulty are key men, along with MJ Duffy and Darragh Joyce in the middle of the park, while up front they will be looking to Dylan Gallagher, Niall Hurley, Adam Beirne and Peter Gallagher to lead the way for them.
Their opponents though will be no pushovers, they defeated a fancied St Gerald's College side in the quarter-final with Sean Birmingham, a former Galway minor, kicking eight of their nine points in that win and with Ross Fahy, another man with inter-county experience, the lynchpin of their defence; alongside Eoin Brady and Bernard Coen, they will be a tough side for St Colman's to get over.
