Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh keen to make the most of opportunity in final

While Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh know the big opportunity that awaits them in tomorrow’s Corn Thomáis Mhic Choilm final, they are keen to focus on the game and not the occasion.

The Bishopstown school take on Tralee CBS in the final of the second-tier U19 Munster post-primary schools hurling competition, with Banteer the venue for a 1.30m throw-in.

Having made the semi-finals last year, Spioraid Naoimh topped a group featuring Hazelwood College of Dromcollogher and Mitchelstown CBS before winning a city derby against St Francis College Rochestown in the quarter-finals and then bettering Scoil Pol of Kilfinane in the semis.

The last time Spioraid Naoimh won this competition was 2007 and a stint playing in the Dr Harty Cup followed. Back then, Brian Donovan was a young student in the school and now he is back as a teacher, helping to guide the team’s fortunes along with Evan Cullinane, another past pupil.

With just over half of the previous season’s squad available, the aims were high.

“I suppose it was always the goal to get up around this stage of the competition,” Donovan says.

“We met at the start of the year and the lads really kind of pushed us, they wanted to get back to a similar stage. They were the ones driving it.”

Spioraid Naoimh’s squad in drawn from eight different clubs, while a large faction of the panel are dual players – the school unlucky to lose by a point to Tipperary town’s Abbey CBS in the opening round of the U19 B football competition.

Any disappointment was channelled positively and now the objective is to put in a performance and let everything else take care of itself.

“We're just going to tell them it's every ball, you've just got to compete for it,” Donovan says.

“It's play the game and not the occasion, really, is what we want from them.

“There’s good support there, we should be bringing a big crowd and it’s great for the students in the younger years to see this and have something to aim for.”