Masita GAA All-Ireland PPS Croke Cup final: St Kieran's finish strongly to take 26th title

​​Masita All-Ireland PPS Croke Cup Senior A hurling final

St Kieran's College 3-19 Presentation College Athenry 2-16

By Paul Keane at Croke Park

St Patrick's Day at Croke Park and a very familiar feeling as St Kieran's powered to a record 26th Croke Cup title success.

For the third time in four seasons, St Kieran's College can call themselves All-Ireland Senior A colleges hurling champions.

The flipside of that, unfortunately 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 and four of those coming at the hands of the famous Kilkenny nursery school.

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

They led by a point in this final with 11 minutes to go but were overwhelmed by the Leinster champions after that with 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.

In what was their fifth national decider in seven seasons, Athenry looked the more comfortable initially and opened up a 0-4 to 0-1 lead.

The impressive Ciarán Leen, who top scored for his side, struck their opening point and Ronan Cahalan delivered two more as Michael Finn's outfit built up a head of steam.

But O'Shea's eighth minute goals for the side in black and white hoops, 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 points in a row 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.

Matthew Cloonan pulled back a consolation goal for Athenry in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

St Kieran's College scorers: Fionn Mahony 1-4, Gearóid O'Shea 1-3, Dan Carroll 1-1, Conor McEvoy 0-4 (0-1 65, 0-1f), Jake Mullen 0-3 (0-1f), Ben Nevin 0-1, Conor Holohan 0-1, Brian Hickey 0-1, David Barcoe 0-1.

Presentation College Athenry scorers: Ciarán Leen 0-7 (0-3f, 0-1 65), Ronan Cahalan 0-5, Cian Hannon 1-0, Matthew Cloonan 1-0, Anthony Poniard 0-3, Iarlaith Leen 0-1.

St Kieran's College: Cian Dermody; Ben McEvoy, Larry Phelan, David Barcoe; Bill McDermott, Louis Raggett, Ben Nevin; Diarmuid Behan, Jake Mullen; Ned Spelman, Fionn Mahony, Conor McEvoy; Gearóid O'Shea, Conor Holohan, Eoghan Cahill.

Subs: Brian Hickey for Spelman h/t, Dan Carroll for Cahill 49, Rob McEvoy for Holohan 57, Joe Power for Conor McEvoy 62.

Presentation College Athenry: Cathal Mannion; Éanna McDonagh, Michael Lewis, Ronan McGlynn; Cathal Donoghue, Robert Burke, Shay Brady; Iarlaith Leen, Aodhán McDonagh; Ronan Cahalan, Niall McCarthy, Cian Hannon; Ciarán Leen, Anthony Poniard, Niall Kelly.

Subs: Ronan Murphy for Kelly 40, Matthew Cloonan for McCarthy 45, Matthew Cox for Iarlaith Leen 57, Jonathan Dunleavy for McGlynn 62.

Referee: Thomas Walsh (Waterford).