St Kieran's College strike late on to claim Croke Cup honours and deny Athenry once more
St. Kieran's celebrate with the trophy. Pic: Ryan Byrne/Inpho
St Patrick's Day, or Groundhog Day if you're a follower of either of these two college teams.
For the third time in four seasons, and for the 26th time in all, St Kieran's College are the All-Ireland Senior A colleges champions.
The flipside of that, unfortunately for Presentation College Athenry, is that for the third time in four seasons they are losing finalists.
Athenry's tale of final woe goes on with five defeats now since 2018 and four of those coming at the hands of the famous Kilkenny nursery school.
In last year's final, Athenry led by eight points with 19 minutes remaining and were reeled in by Thurles CBS.
They led by a point in this final with 11 minutes to go but were overwhelmed by the Leinster champions after that with goals from Fionn Mahony and Dan Carroll sealing it for Brian Dowling's crew.
Mahony, who enjoyed a terrific winter with Leinster intermediate club champions Danesfort, finished with 1-4 while Gearóid O'Shea weighed in with 1-3.
Kieran's had nine scores in all including three from Kilkenny underage star Jake Mullen, brother of Cats senior Adrian, and current Kilkenny senior David Barcoe, who captained the team.
In what was their fifth national decider in seven seasons, Athenry looked the more comfortable initially and opened up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead.
The impressive Ciarán Leen, who top-scored for his side, struck their opening point and Ronan Cahalan delivered two more as Michael Finn's outfit built up a head of steam.
But O'Shea's eighth-minute goal for the side in black and white hoops, created by a surging solo run by Louis Raggett, tied it up at 0-4 to 1-1.
It didn't take Athenry long to respond with their own goal, a well-taken score from 2025 finalist and county minor Cian Hannon.
Kieran's then seized the initiative with four points in a row between the 15th and 21st minutes, leaving it delicately poised at 1-6 to 1-5 in favour of the Leinster side.
The scores came to Athenry that bit easier in the closing minutes of the half and back-to-back points from Cahalan nudged them 1-9 to 1-8 clear at the interval.
Dowling sprung Brian Hickey from the Kieran's bench and he was immediately impactful, taking a point from three score attempts.
Anthony Poniard came alive then at the other end for Athenry, twice slaloming beyond defenders for eye-catching points.
That back-and-forth pattern played out throughout the third quarter with the sides level five times up to 1-15 apiece with eight minutes remaining.
That's when Kieran's pulled decisively clear, putting another 2-4 on the board to open up a nine-point lead in stoppage time.
Carroll, their semi-final hero, came on and grabbed 1-1 though the decisive score came from Mahony when he soloed in from the left wing and slammed to the net in the 59th minute.
Matthew Cloonan pulled back a consolation goal for Athenry in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
F Mahony (1-4); G O'Shea (1-3); D Carroll (1-1); C McEvoy (0-4, 1 65, 1 free); J Mullen (0-3, 1 free); B Nevin, C Holohan, B Hickey, D Barcoe (0-1 each).
C Leen (0-7, 3 frees, 1 65); R Cahalan (0-5); C Hannon, M Cloonan (1-0 each); A Poniard (0-3); I Leen (0-1).
C Dermody; B McEvoy, L Phelan, D Barcoe; B McDermott, L Raggett, B Nevin; D Behan, J Mullen (0-3, 1f); N Spelman, F Mahony, C McEvoy; G O'Shea, C Holohan, E Cahill.
B Hickey for Spelman h/t, D Carroll for Cahill 49, R McEvoy for Holohan 57, J power for C McEvoy 62.
C Mannion; É McDonagh, M Lewis, R McGlynn; C Donoghue, R Burke, S Brady; I Leen, A McDonagh; R Cahalan, N McCarthy, C Hannon; C Leen, A Poniard, N Kelly.
R Murphy for Kelly 40, M Cloonan for McCarthy 45, M Cox for I Leen 57, J Dunleavy for McGlynn 62.
T Walsh (Waterford).
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