The Athletic Grounds in Armagh was packed to capacity last weekend and another bumper crowd is expected for Sunday’s MacRory Cup final between St Mary’s Magherafelt and Holy Trinity Cookstown.
The pinnacle of the Ulster Schools’ GAA calendar, the MacRory Cup final last took place in March of 2019 when St Michael’s Enniskillen beat Omagh CBS.
The 2020 title was shared by St Colman’s Newry and St Pat’s Maghera with the decider cancelled just days before it was scheduled to take place due to the pandemic.
Covid-19 then forced the cancellation of all competitions through the 2020/21 school year.
Mercifully, last September the Ulster Schools’ GAA schedule returned and Holy Trinity manager John McKeever says the anticipation has been building at the school ahead of their first MacRory Cup final.
“With schools’ football missing last year, it was just great to get the teams out again when they came back last September,” said McKeever.
“You feel for all the pupils who missed out last year.
“It was great to get the girls and boys teams back up and running again. We are a GAA mad school and there is a lot of excitement building up.
“There is a great buzz around the school in the run up to the final and it is a great place for us to be.”
Those sentiments were echoed by St Mary’s boss Kevin Brady, who said he felt sorry for those players who missed out on playing in finals over the last two years.
“It is good that we’ve maybe struck it lucky, but I feel sorry for the teams that had to share it and didn’t get the chance to play in the final,” said Brady.
“Our colleagues at St Pius X College Magherafelt were due to be in the 2020 MacLarnon Cup final and they had to share it - I felt sorry that they didn’t get their big day out.
“I knew we were building a good team this year and we are looking to the final. It will be good to have a big crowd in Armagh and have the MacRory final back the way we remember it.”
St Mary’s, in stark contrast to Holy Trinity, will be appearing in their fifth MacRory Cup final. Brady actually featured on the St Pat’s Maghera team which put St Mary’s to the sword in their first final appearance back in 1996.
St Mary’s won the MacRory in 2017 with a six-point win over St Colman’s, but lost out to St Ronan’s by two points a year later as they narrowly failed to win back-to-back titles.
Their challenge this year is backboned by a handful of players who won the 2020 All-Ireland Minor Championship with Derry, which was played last year.
There is also a healthy representation from Brady’s native Antrim. New Cargin boss Ronan Devlin is part of a three-man management team at St Mary’s along with Brady and Tyrone’s John McElholm.
Cargin also have three players on the squad with Conhuir Johnston, Tom Shivers and Benen Kelly all likely to start in the forward line.
Sean Byrne of Portglenone will be in opposition to his new club management of McKeever and Tyrone legend Peter Canavan.
The former All-Ireland winning captain is one of several high-profile coaches at Cookstown and Brady feels it is one of the reasons for the rise of the Tyrone college.
“We’d heard from the beginning of the year that Holy Trinity had gotten a good team together and it could be their strongest ever,” stated Brady.
“When you have that, you put all your resources into it and I’m sure they have.
“They’ve a lot of coaches with real pedigree - the likes of Kevin O’Boyle from Cargin is a maths teacher at the school.
“When you’ve a maths teacher like that to call on, it is a big help.
“They’ve obviously got the likes of John McKeever, Peter Canavan and Kieran McGeary at the school.
“We know that they’ll be very well prepared and they’ve a very strong panel."
Tyrone schools have endured something of a dry spell in the MacRory in recent times. St Pat’s Dungannon and Omagh CBS won six titles (three each) during the noughties, but both schools have been beaten in finals in the last decade.
During that period, Holy Trinity have been working their way up through the ranks and will compete in the MacRory final for the first time on Sunday.
Captain Ruairi McHugh was part of the Tyrone minor squad who lost out to Meath in last year’s All-Ireland final with Shea Quinn and Shea Lawn also expected to feature prominently in Sunday’s decider.
McKeever hopes the current squad can inspire the next generation of MacRory stars at Holy Trinity.
“I’ve been teaching at the school for 13 years, Peter (Canavan) has been teaching for 29 years,” said McKeever.
“We won a lot of Ulster titles, Markey Cups and All-Ireland vocational schools titles. We made the step up to McLarnon football and we were delighted to win it four years ago.
“We felt that we could make the move up to MacRory football and we’ve been there for the last three years.
“We’ve progressed every year. Our goal this year was to make it to a semi-final to show progress and justify moving up. We got over that hurdle and we are delighted to be in the final.
“All the clubs in the catchment area are really excited. When you are the underdog and you have success, it can inspire the entire school and the clubs around us.
“The younger pupils then look up to these players as role models and they’ll want to push on and that’s what it is all about.”
