Harty Cup Preview: Tralee CBS aiming to be competitive in debut campaign

The school will be Kerry's first representative in the top tier of Munster schools hurling in 12 years.

DEBUTANTS: Tralee CBS aiming to make a mark in their first campaign.

They are not one of the 18 schools in Harty Cup action this afternoon. That doesn’t matter. They are still the story.

Last season’s Harty field was an enlarged one. 21 schools were on the pitch at throw-in. An increase of seven on the year previous.

In total, there were eight newcomers on the year previous. Most of the eight were returning after a few years spent in the second tier. In CBS Secondary School Carrick-on-Suir and Coláiste Choilm Ballincollig, there were two first-timers.

There are 21 schools again on the pitch for the latest edition of Munster’s most beloved schools competition. St Francis College Rochestown return after spending last season in Senior B. The reigning Senior B champions, Blackwater Community School, return after three years away.

And then there is Tralee CBS. They are the story. Harty Cup debutants. First Kerry representation in the top tier of Munster schools hurling in 12 years. It was an amalgamated Kerry Colleges side that took to the field for the 2012 group stages. This is one Kerry school standing on its own two feet.

This Kerry school has galloped up the hurling ladder. Last season was their first at Senior B. There they reached the quarter-finals where Scariff Community College bested them by two points.

They had initially wanted to bypass Senior B and go straight from the third tier to Harty. The powers-that-be were in favour of a more step-by-step progression.

“Blackwater ended up winning the Senior B last season, we played them in the first round and would have been very close. We said we'd give Harty a crack and the boys were up for giving it a crack,” says manager Mark Ryall, who lauds fellow mentors Daithi Griffin, Colm O'Brien, Morgan Madden, and DJ Flaherty in helping to lift a school that competed at Senior E as recently as 2019.

This year’s panel, save for one departed student, is the exact same crew as 12 months ago. It is a panel who have tasted success coming up along and who no longer want to toil in the lower grades.

During the 2022/23 academic year, the Green won the Munster U15C and U17C championships. They also won the U15 Limerick colleges shield.

“It is great for them to pit themselves against lads who have won All-Ireland minors with their county. It is a huge challenge, but the boys have put in the effort. Training didn't stop during the summer. Any lads that didn't have a lot of club action during the summer would have trained of a Monday evening,” continued Ryall.

“Even going back to Covid, we went online and did 73 gym sessions while in lockdown. You’d have 50 or 60 lads logging in. It was the making of them and we got a good bond together.”

The Harty draw has not been particularly kind to them. The other two teams in their group are annual challengers Thurles CBS and St Flannan’s. But the Tralee students know they have to start somewhere.

“To try and hold our own up there is the big thing for the lads. It is to learn to be up there. It is to compete. If we compete, it'll be a massive steppingstone for the school and Kerry hurling. And it is setting the standard for the next five years for the teams coming after them and the expectation that this is the level you want to be playing at.

“Winning the Limerick first year A championship last year (they beat Ardscoil Rís in the final) and going to the All-Ireland Rice Cup (U14) semi-final was a huge experience and has raised the standard even more. Those lads expect to be playing Harty when their time comes.

“We are U15B this year and a couple of them are asking, why aren't we in A. They were in first year A and so they expect to be able to play there all the way up along.”

Culture embedded. Mindsets fixed ambitiously. Now let’s see how they go.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a shock.”