BREAKING: Super Saints! Kilkenny kingpins Kieran's College crowned All-Ireland champions again!

St Kieran's College players celebrate with the Croke Cup after the Masita GAA Post Primary Schools final PICTURE: Sportsfile

placeholder image — St Kieran's College players celebrate with the Croke Cup after the Masita GAA Post Primary Schools final PICTURE: Sportsfile

St Kieran's College 3-19, Presentation Athenry 2-16

St Kieran’s College are All-Ireland Croke Cup champions for a 26th time after they ran out six point winners over Pres Athenry in the Croke Park decider on St Patrick’s Day.

The Kilkenny school eventually wore down their Galway opponents and with Fionn Mahony and Dan Carroll both finding the net late on, Brian Dowling’s side did enough to come out on top.

It was a similar affair to Kieran’s victories over Loughrea and Nenagh in the quarter and semi-finals respectively with their strength in depth coming to the fore as they powered to success.

Pres Athenry did a lot of the heavy lifting with Ronan Cahalan and Anthony Poniard both excellent from play while Cian Hannon also got a cracking opening half goal but the four time finalists ran out of gas in the second half with Kieran’s strong finish, seeing them home to a third title in the last four years.

SCORERS

St Kieran’s College - Fionn Mahony (1-4); Gearoid O’Shea (1-3); Dan Carroll (1-1); Conor McEvoy (0-4, 0-1 free, 0-1 65); Jake Mullen (0-3, 0-1 free); Ben Nevin, Conor Holohan, Brian Hickey, David Barcoe (0-1 each).

Pres Athenry - Ciaran Leen (0-6, 0-4 frees, 0-1 65); Ronan Cahalan (0-5); Anthony Poniard (0-4); Cian Hannon, Matthew Cloonan (1-0 each); Iarlaith Leen (0-1).

See this week’s Kilkenny People Sport for more