ST Anne’s Killaloe will be hoping to make history on Saturday by winning a Munster senior football title for the first time.
Coming from a traditional hurling area, St Anne’s have surprised many by getting to the final with a team that includes just six players who play regular club football.
Not surprisingly, they will carry the underdogs’ tag against Boherbue Community School from Cork, with the throw-in time scheduled for 12.30pm at Ballyagran.
Managed by teachers John Gleeson (Ballina) and Raymond Murray, who hails from Mountbellew in Galway, a final decision on the line-up will not be made until shortly before throw-in, as they await a fitness report on Liam Harte, who missed the semi-final due to injury. According to Gleeson, Harte’s chances of playing are 50/50.
Harte’s brother Colin is the team captain and he will fill the centre-back position. Others that the Killaloe side will be looking to as they seek to bring home Corn Sheáin Uí Mhaolomhnaigh are James Prentice, Ciaran Sheedy and Hugh Denning.
The players come from Ballina, a dual club in Tipperary, Smith O’Brien’s, Killaloe, Ogonnelloe and Parteen.
“This group has played football for the college from first year and a bit of time has been put into coaching and training them. We are no world-beaters but we try to make it hard defensively,” mentor John Gleeson told The Clare Champion.
He acknowledged, “Boherbue will be difficult to beat, as they come from a football background but we have played and beaten teams with football backgrounds along the way,” expressing hope that they will have a good following at the West Limerick venue on Saturday.
By sports editor Seamus Hayes
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.