Back in the game: Schools GAA up and running again in Munster

For the vast majority of the St Brendan’s College, Killarney players, Wednesday was their first time pulling on the green and gold Sem shirt

Players from St Brendan’s arriving at Dr Crokes for the game. Picture: Dan Linehan

“The lads are like calves going out to the field after a long winter,” said St Brendan’s manager Jamie McBride, perfectly capturing not only his own students stepping back inside the whitewash but this week’s return of Munster post-primary action after 18 months under lock and key.

McBride’s most apt comparison was offered up following the Sem’s U15A football quarter-final win over St Francis College, Rochestown at Lewis Road, one of 25 games played around the province on Wednesday.

Such an amount of midweek schools activity has not been witnessed since the spring of 2020 and while it represented another restoration of pre-pandemic norms, the honour of being the first Munster post-primary fixture to be played since the onset of Covid-19 came a day earlier on Tuesday when Presentation Secondary School Miltown and Causeway Comprehensive School clashed in the Corn Éamainn Ui Dhonnchu (U15B football).

A firm hat-tip to Munster GAA post-primary officer Eoin Ryan whose extensive trawl of the province’s results database was able to tell us that Tuesday’s fixture bridged a gap of 573 days to March 11, 2020, when St Paul’s Community College Waterford and Waterpark College Waterford met in the Junior E football championship, the last competitive game in Munster before the shutters came down.

We’ll hear from Ryan further on.

For the time being, though, let’s head back to the action on Lewis Road, the home of Dr Crokes.

St Brendan’s of Killarney were 4-11 to 1-9 winners over Rochestown to progress to the last four of the Br Colm Taft Cup.

NET GAINS: Brian O’Shea gets the opening goal for of St Brendan’s as he beats Rochestown keeper Sam O’Keeffe in the U15 Taft Cup match at Dr Crokes, Killarney. Pictures: Dan Linehan

McBride’s team is predominantly comprised of second-year students, with a sprinkling of third years thrown in. For the vast majority of them, Wednesday was their first time pulling on the green and gold Sem shirt.

The second years in the team played absolutely zero schools football during their first year in the college. As for the third years, their opening competitive fixture as first years during the 2019/20 academic year was scheduled for the St Patrick’s week this country retreated indoors.

All involved had waited more than long enough to make their Sem debuts.

“They were dying to get out today,” said McBride.

“Number one today was enjoyment. These guys, coming from all around Killarney, it is a massive thing to be playing for the school. For them just to enjoy that in itself is massive and we can worry about the performance after. Enjoyment has to be number one at this stage, considering all that has happened.

“For a lot of the lads out there, today was their first time playing with a size five ball, not to mind playing in a competitive Munster game.

Just glad to come out the other end of it. There are smiles there going out the gate, which is always a plus.

St Brendan’s College, Killarney head up the Corn Uí Mhuirí roll of honour with 22 titles. They have also won the All-Ireland Hogan Cup on four occasions. Gaelic football is ingrained in the school’s fabric and so the sight of four different teams — senior, junior, U15, and first-year — heading out the main doors to training and games was very much a sign nature is healing.

“There were around 200 kids ready for road between the four set-ups. It is a big undertaking but that is what you want as football is an integral part of the school’s culture.

“It has been stop-start the last two years, so to have it back and running is unreal,” McBride concluded.

Rochestown College players pass Fitzgerald Stadium on their way to play St Brendan’s in yesterday’s Br Colm Taft Cup (U15) match. Picture: Dan Linehan

Nobody knows more than the earlier mentioned Eoin Ryan just how stop-start it has been on the Munster post-primary front.

Ryan and his colleagues in Munster GAA delivered more than one provisional master fixture schedule last year, none of which got further than the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet they were drawn up on.

“It is great to have the games back,” the Munster post-primary officer began.

“There are 130-plus schools involved across our 30 competitions, and we even have a few schools come back into Munster competitions who had not entered teams for a couple of years.

“Schools have been starved of everything, not just GAA activity. They have been within their own four walls when they haven’t been operating remotely.

“The fact that they can get out and play games again means the enthusiasm is back and there is a pep in the step of teachers and students alike for the year coming.

“So far so good, even if we are only a day or two into it.”