ALL-IRELAND SCHOOLS SENIOR FOOTBALL ‘A’ FINAL PREVIEW Murphy has high hopes for squad
GAA ‘We are just so focused on the job’
ST. PETER’S College sits proudly on Summerhill, overlooking Wexford. Its positioning is such that it seems to act as protector to the town it has served for almost two centuries.
When the sun bounces off the tightly-mown green lawn, smacking the usually dull stone of the Augustus Welby Pugin-designed college chapel, the whole place radiates possibilities.
But it’s not since blazers were compulsory, not fashion statements, and boarding was more than something caretaker Jason does when some scared young lad rockets a sliothar through a window, that St. Peter’s radiated so much hope. So much confidence. So much downright belief.
Saturday in Croke Park (4 p.m. throw-in), with a national TV audience and a county cheering them on, St. Peter’s get to show how a run of true quality, of inspiring football, has manifested into what will hopefully be an All-Ireland winning side, their first since the hurlers of 1973. Make no mistake, they are not going up to compete gallantly, they are going to triumph.
A winning attitude comes from leaders. Most commonly, those leaders are on the field. When times are tough, they get everyone going; others look to them, at them, expect the extraordinary from them. But games are often lost long before that.
Before a team gets onto the field it must be in the right frame of mind, it must actually believe in itself, the sum of its parts. That comes, especially with young teams, from mentors who drip with confidence. This St. Peter’s squad could hardly have two better than Chris Murphy and Brian Malone.
‘Look, it’s great to get to Croke Park,’ Murphy said, ‘but we will be looking to give a right cut off Brendan’s and hopefully we can come out of it with the same result (as St. Mary’s) and I’ll be absolutely delighted for the lads’.
Later, maybe more bullish, Murphy added: ‘I’d expect a good footballing, open, game. When it comes down to that, anything can happen but we’ll be there or thereabouts come the end of the game, you can be sure of that’.
And to emphasise some more, speaking last Friday, Murphy concluded: ‘there’s no point trying to change the world in eight days, it’s just a matter of ticking over, keep doing what we are doing. It got us this far, so it should be good enough to get us over the line’.
Both publically and privately, Murphy clearly believes in the team he and Malone have nurtured. It’s far from bravado. Behind closed doors, the players are just as confident.
Why wouldn’t they believe? St. Peter’s have led for every second-half minute in every one of their five championship matches. They have bossed games from the front and did it superbly.
They did it again last week against St. Mary’s of Magherafelt in the All-Ireland semi-final, getting a lot of the hard work done in the opening period. ‘We knew with them having only a five-day turnaround, that we could do with getting a really fast start,’ Murphy said.
‘We did that to an extent, we had lots of possession in the first-half. Some of our shot selection, maybe we panicked a little bit when we shouldn’t have, when we got into scoring positions.
‘In fairness to the boys, they kept going right to the final whistle in the first-half and Quinn Saunders popped up and finished the goal beautifully there on the stroke of half-time.’
Not for the first time in this run, St Peter’s conceded a late goal but once again they were far enough ahead to prevent calamity.
Murphy explained: ‘The effort that the lads had put in in the entire second-half against the wind, the workrate, the tackles, the blocks, the making runs to make space, a lot of our lads were out on their feet’.
The good news for the Summerhill boys is that they emerged from the game with a clean bill of health, although Murphy and Malone still had to sweat on their players coming out of the Minor club championship unscathed last Sunday.
Regardless, things continue this week, with preparations gathering momentum. ‘Preparing for an All-Ireland final is kind of hard to contemplate, even to start organising stuff, more supporters’ buses and this and that,’ Murphy said.
‘The support network in the school is there. We’ve a couple of good lads there like Willie White and Tommy Gleeson. Obviously John Banville and Mr. O’Callaghan are super in terms of organising things for the whole event.’
On the field the hard work has been done. It’s all about ticking over for the next couple of days, getting mentally focused for a game that will probably be the biggest most of these young men will ever compete in.
It could hardly get trickier than facing a Kingdom side in the title decider. ‘We all know the Kerry style of football and Brendan’s epitomise that, they play football as much as they can,’ Murphy said.
‘Their first option is a kick pass. Whether it’s short, long, their first option is to kick the football and play to spaces. There are plenty of big open spaces in Croke Park as well. At the same time our guys really feed off a good sod, good football and good weather.’
What would it mean if everything went to plan on Saturday and it becomes one of the great days in the school’s storied history? ‘Us, as a squad and management, we are just so focused on doing the job that we need to do, we can’t really appreciate what it is now,’ Murphy explained.
‘That’s for the past pupils, the school supporters, the community, families, it’s for them to really enjoy the occasion. It’s not very often Wexford teams get to finals like this, or are in with a shout of winning them.
‘It’s probably only at the end of the year when we look back on it, or in a couple of years’ time that we really appreciate the enormity of the task.
‘Peter’s have never been to an All-Ireland football final before. With all the quality that has went through the school, that will tell you the magnitude of what we are dealing with here but we have a great bunch of guys there, they are absolutely hopping to go at this final.’