Croke Cup All-Ireland SHC PPS final: St Kieran’s College 3-19 Presentation College Athenry 2-16

St Patrick’s Day at Croke Park and St Kieran’s College have again claimed the Croke Cup.

For the third time in four seasons, and for the 26th time in all, St Kieran’s College can call themselves All-Ireland Senior A colleges hurling champions.

The flipside of that 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, four of which have come at the hands of the famous Kilkenny nursery school.

In last year’s final, Athenry led by eight points with 19 minutes remaining but were reeled in by Thurles CBS.

This time around, they led by a point with 11 minutes to go but were overwhelmed by the Leinster champions after 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.

Athenry looked the more comfortable initially, opening up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead. The impressive Ciarán Leen, his side’s top-scorer of the day, struck their opening point and Ronan Cahalan delivered two more as Michael Finn’s outfit built up steam.

But O’Shea’s eighth-minute goal, 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 successive points 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.

A back-and-forth played out throughout the third quarter with the sides level five times up to 1-15 apiece.

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 before Matthew Cloonan pulled back a late consolation goal for Athenry.

ST KIERAN’S COLLEGE: C Dermody; B McEvoy, L Phelan, D Barcoe (0-1); B McDermott, L Raggett, B Nevin (0-1); D Behan, J Mullen (0-3, 1f); N Spelman, F Mahony (1-4), C McEvoy (0-4, 1f, 1′65); G O’Shea (1-3), C Holohan (0-1), E Cahill. Subs: B Hickey (0-1) for Spelman (h-t), D Carroll (1-1) for Cahill (49 mins), R McEvoy for Holohan (57), J power for C McEvoy (62).

PRESENTATION COLLEGE ATHENRY: C Mannion; É McDonagh, M Lewis, R McGlynn; C Donoghue, R Burke, S Brady; I Leen (0-1), A McDonagh; R Cahalan (0-5), N McCarthy, C Hannon (1-0); C Leen (0-7, 3f, 1′65), A Poniard (0-3), N Kelly. Subs: R Murphy for Kelly (40 mins), M Cloonan (1-0) for McCarthy (45), M Cox for I Leen (57), J Dunleavy for McGlynn (62).

Referee: T Walsh (Waterford).