MOUNT Saint Michael, Rosscarbery are through to face Tipperary school Abbey CBS in the 2022 TUS Munster colleges’ senior B football championship decider.
Michael Keohane and James O’Sullivan have overseen the Rosscarbery school’s path to this year’s Munster provincial final.
The West Cork secondary school produced an excellent display to defeat St Michael’s College, Listowel, 1-11 to 0-12 in the recent semi-final. Kilmacabea’s Owen Tobin netted the winner’s all-important goal. That result came on the back of equally impressive victories over Midleton CBS and De La Salle College Macroom, the latter having regraded from the top tier.
Next up for Mount Saint Michael is a Munster final against Abbey CBS on Saturday, February 12th (venue to be confirmed).
The Rosscarbery school panel draws its players from Carbery Rangers, Kilmacabea, Kilmeen, St James, Castlehaven, Tadhg MacCarthaigh and Clann na nGael. This year’s panel is full of quality players including Carbery Rangers’ Conor Twomey who won a Munster MFC title with the Cork minors in 2021.
Michael Keohane is hoping the West Cork school’s players make the most of their opportunity following an encouraging run in this year’s competition.
‘We started very quickly once the lads were back in school last September,’ Keohane told The Southern Star.
‘There was a lot of uncertainty to begin with as there was no colleges’ football at all the previous year due to Covid. There were restrictions when it came to dressing rooms and gatherings but we got going as early as we could and that stood to us.
‘The lads hit the ground running. We knew we had a good panel of about 30 players, an unusually high number for our school. As well as that, this year, there were no distractions and we got complete buy-in from the players.
‘That helped us complete a lot of training sessions between September and October before we lined out against Midleton CBS. It was a good win, by six points in the end, even though we were down two points heading into injury-time. That was a tough battle but once we got over that, training really picked up in the month before we played De La Salle. Our eight-point win was deserved and we continued training up to Christmas.’
Since then, Mount Saint Michael has underlined their ability by taking on and playing superbly against A grade teams Skibbereen Community School and Hamilton High Bandon in challenge games.
‘A lot of preparation has gone into this year's championship,’ Michael Keohane added.
‘The squad will prepare for the final as we have done with every round. We have history with Abbey CBS after playing them many times over the last few years. They have always been very consistent at U16 1/2 and senior level. As tough an opponent as we could have asked for in the final, they will be slight favourites having overcome a strong Kanturk in the semi-finals.
‘As for us, we fear nobody and have every confidence in our own ability. We trust our players and are in good shape heading into the final.’
