BY RONAN SCOTT
r.scott@gaeliclife.com
In the aftermath of Belfast school St Mary's CBGS's defeat in the All-Ireland school's B hurling final there have been calls to restructure the provincial competition to level the playing field for Ulster teams.
St Mary's Coach Raymond Herron said that his team was at a 'massive disadvantage' because they had too much time between the Ulster school's hurling final, the Mageean Cup, and the All-Ireland series.
Herron explained that after their three point loss to Blackwater Community College, Lismore, his players complained that their opponents were much sharper because they had arrived at the final not long after they had won their Leinster title.
In contrast his team had very little competitive hurling between the Mageean Cup final before Christmas last year and the semi-final of the O'Keefe Cup.
"It is a massive disadvantage coming into the competition having played the Mageean final five months ago expecting to beat a team that are coming in fresh off the back of a provincial final win," said Herron.
Herron's personal opinion is that the hurling competition should be treated in the same manner as the Ulster College's MacRory Cup final which is played in March, not long before the start of the All-Ireland football competition.
There is a good argument for it considering a similar scheduling as, in the past three years, each MacRory Cup winner has went on to win the Hogan Cup.
While this is a personal opinion of Herron's he revealed that it is not something that he has kept under his hat.
"I have spoken about it with a few people and they agree. Logistically it is not as drastic as it would seem. Every other province runs the football alongside the hurling," he explained.
The argument to have hurling's blue riband competition run at the same time as the Hogan Cup might be expected from school that is much stronger in hurling than it is football. However, the very fact that the suggestion has originated from a school that is competitive in more than one sport, including hurling, football and soccer, adds weight to the argument.
One would have expected a school that has the demands of football and hurling to deal with may prefer the current scheduling arrangement. St Mary's won the MacLarnon Cup this year in football with much of their squad operating as dual players. He explained that the clash between hurling football would only effect a couple of schools who compete for the Mageean Cup therefore there shouldn't be too much opposition to any such proposal. However, only time will tell whether the Ulster Colleges decide to change the structure.
On the subject of the match itself, Herron said that the main reason that his school lost the final was not solely due to the scheduling of the game but that the Lismore school were the better side.
"It was a very close game but the difference was Waterford's ability to take scores. They were much more assured than ourselves. There was a spell when they hit four points in a row and that gave them the advantage. They had a free taker who didn't miss all day, he hit something like 10 or 11 frees," he said.
St Mary's managed to limit the Lismore school's key man, the captain Maurice Shanahan, to only two points from play which was one positive to take from the game. Another is that there are only three players from the starting 15 who won't be available to play next year. Their key players; Conor Rocks and Matt Devlin both have a year left at the secondary school so they will be available for next year's campaign.
