St Kierans to enjoy home comforts for Leinster Colleges Final

After defeating Colaiste Eoin in the Leinster PP A Senior Hurling Championship semi-final last weekend, St Kierans College now go forward to contest the provincial decider against the combined Offaly Schools outfit.

After both sides tossed for a venue, the coin landed on the St Kierans side and as a result the final will take place in UPMC Nowlan Park on Saturday afternoon at 1pm.

The Kilkenny school are the most successful side in the history of the competition and they will be looking to add a 57th provincial success to their ranks against a team that will be aiming to win their first title.

The combined Offaly outfit have a huge amount of county experience in their ranks with a number of their players returning to the venue that saw them suffer a last gasp defeat in last year’s All-Ireland Minor Final with Tipperary.

Speaking after his side’s impressive victory over Colaiste Eoin, St Kierans Manager Brian Dowling outlined the task that awaits his side.

“We can only worry about oursleves and we haven’t won the Leinster Championship in a number of years and we want to win that trophy as much as Offaly do so we will be doing all we can to do that on Saturday.

“We are basically playing an Under 19 county team and that’s what we are up against and everyone saw how good they were in last year’s Minor Championship in beating Laois who beat Kilkenny in the semi-final and they were a puck of a ball away from being All-Ireland Minor champions and they’ve lads the next year up so we’re under no illusions what’s awaiting us this weekend.

“Usually Kierans are massive favourites going into these type of games but I don’t think that’s the case here and we just have to battle for everything we have and hopefully we can come out the right side of it”.

Regardless of the final result, St Kierans are already assured of a place in the All-Ireland Quarter-Finals while Saturday will mean the end of the road for combined Offaly Schools with group teams not allowed to enter the All-Ireland series.

St Kierans have a number of crucial players sidelined with injury but they are hopeful of a return to action for the likes of Danesfort’s Ben Whitty and joint captain Harry Shine before too long.