Jamesie wants final flourish from Flannan’s

JAMESIE O’CONNOR bids to complete his term as coach to St. Flannan’s senior hurling team by landing All-Ireland colleges glory on Monday.

Win or lose against Dublin Colleges, the former Clare stalwart will take charge of the U14 team for the 2006/07 season and under the system operated in the school, will stick with that group of players to their senior level in 2009/10.

“All-Ireland finals are great occasions,” said O’Connor: “It may the only chance the majority of young players will get to win an All-Ireland medal, and I’m expecting a tremendous game on Monday.

“It’s been a long two years but most enjoyable. Last year’s victories were great because they were unexpected as the team was a year younger. They are very determined to put back-to-back All-Ireland together and create their own bit of history for themselves.

“There was a fear that we would be a bit complacent this year with most of the 2005 team available. Losing to St. Colman’s in the first round was a big wake-up call, and while losing the Harty final to Midleton CBS was a big blow, we regrouped well, showed a lot of bottle in defeating Kilkenny CBS in the All-Ireland semi-final, and are looking forward to this final.

“We have some unfinished business to attend to after losing our Munster title and have no intention of giving up another crown.

“We have the spine of last year’s winning side available to us in Ciaran O’Doherty, Seamus Hickey, Colm Madden, Conor Neylon and Conor Tierney but will need to get on top early and try and nip their challenge before they can get going.

“Dublin Colleges are worthy finalists. They were a bit unfortunate not to win the Leinster title but like ourselves, recovered to beat a highly rated Midleton CBS in the All-Ireland semi-final and with a host of inter-county minors in their team, are going to be very difficult opponents.

“Thankfully we have had a long break from the semi-final as players have been very busy with their clubs and we’ll go into Monday’s final fully refreshed and looking forward to what I’m confident will be another great day for Flannan’s.”

Dublin Colleges have been making tremendous strides in recent years, as reflected by the success of the county minor team in the Leinster championship.

Team mentor Vincent Teehan is confident his charges can give a good account of themselves on Monday.

“There are great strides being made in hurling in the capital city and it’s imperative that we win something to keep the momentum going,” he said.

“The fact that Declan Feeney, the county minor manager, is involved with me, helps enormously. With quite a number of county minors involved with the schools team, it makes it that bit easier to train the squad.

“Our form this year has been up and down. We failed to Kilkenny CBS in the league but reversed that result in the championship final, but it was the victory over Midleton CBS which convinced us that we have a good team, capable of winning the Croke Cup.

“Peter O’Callaghan, who was a county minor last year, missed the Leinster final but his availability for the All-Ireland semi-final was probably the difference between winning and losing that game.

“I watched Flannan’s against Kilkenny CBS and was very impressed by their centre-back Seamus Hickey. They are the defending champions with a huge tradition behind them, and will be favourites.

“However if we can get a couple of early scores to unsettle them, we’re more than good enough to beat them, particularly if our inter-county players – Ross O’Carroll, Shane Lambert, Simon Lambert and Paul Ryan – hit top form. We have a few injury worries, particularly our captain Shane Murphy, but hopefully they’ll have cleared up by the weekend.

“Paul Ryan scored six points for Dublin in their Leinster minor win over Wexford last week and more of that on Monday would go a long way towards we achieving our goal. It’s going to be very difficult, but not impossible.

“I’m just hoping the occasion doesn’t prove too big for our lads.”

* The game is live on TG4.