For Donagh Murphy, this was what it was all about.
“This is a day I’ll never forget,” he told CRKC Sport after the game.
“We didn’t want to feel the pain of last year again.”
St Kieran’s College had just won the Croke Cup for a record 24th time but it was their first in four years and having lost at this stage last year, this felt like redemption for the Kilkenny school.
Donagh Murphy has been one of the stars of this team for the last two years but he’s not your typical St Kieran’s College hurler.
Hailing from the Mount Leinster Rangers club in Carlow, Murphy is also a talented footballer and was captain of the Carlow minor football team last year.
But he was hurling on Saturday, and brought a great Carlow support and interest to proceedings in Croke Park. Safe to say he didn’t disappoint.
Goals won the game for the team coached by Brian Dowling, Richie Ruth and Michael Walsh, but while Ted Dunne and Anthony Ireland Wall scored crackers in their own right, Murphy’s spritzer was on another level.
Zipping onto the ball about 50 metres from goal, the corner forward showed blinding pace to leave the Pres Athenry defence trailing in his wake. So as not to be caught for over-carrying or in possession, he showed great improvisation then to flick the ball over an onrushing Galway defender.
The best was yet to come as he met it flush with a drop-shot on the way down.
You can watch it here courtesy of TG4.
What an unbelievable goal. Donagh Murphy of @MLRangers in the All-Ireland schools final for @KieransCollege 🔲pic.twitter.com/fTZo4zLQJb
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) March 20, 2023
An ounce of breeding is worth a tonne of feeding and as a grand-nephew of Tipperary legend, Murphy couldn’t escape it. The 35 minute trek from Mount Leinster into school every morning will certainly feel worthwhile now.
He wasn’t the only star on the day – the highly rated Anthony Ireland Wall scored another beauty for this competition’s most successful school.
Congrats to Anthony Ireland Wall @Danesfort_gaa who scored our first goal in the All-Ireland Final @CrokePark on St Patrick's Day ⚫️⚪️ pic.twitter.com/vWO90f6AID
— St Kieran's College (@KieransCollege) March 19, 2023
3-13 to 0-12 was the final score-line. You can’t keep them down.
