By Niall Gartland

THEY may be defending champions, but Cross and Passion manager Joe Cassidy insists they didn’t really expect to make it back to their third Mageean Cup final on the trot.

The Ballycastle-based school landed a seismic provincial and All-Ireland double in the 2023/24 season, and they put their Mageean Cup title on the line in Friday night’s showpiece against St Patrick’s, Maghera at the Dub.

There’s been a significant overturn in personnel as the majority of last season’s starting team have now wrapped up their school days, so to make it back to another final is a big achievement in the circumstances.

Their manager Cassidy elaborated: “Three years ago we were beaten in the semi-final with a really young team. A year later we got to a Mageean final and were beaten narrowly by St Killian’s, who ended up winning the All-Ireland.

“It was all pointing to last year, and we’d have been gutted if we hadn’t finished the job. We only have four starting members still playing, and three or four subs. That leaves about 20 lads who are new to the competition.”

Cross and Passion bumped into St Patrick’s, Maghera in the group stages. Their opponents surged into what looked like an unassailable lead, though Cassidy’s team did well to come back into it.

Two hard-earned knock-out wins over St Mary’s CBGS, Belfast, and St Louis, Ballymena, have gone a long way to instill confidence in the group.

“Expectation levels would have been low enough heading into the competition. Maghera blew us out of the water in the first 15 minutes of our group game.

“They led 4-6 to 0-2 after 10 minutes. We got ourselves organised and had a goal chance to go into the lead late on which would have put us a point up.

“We won our quarter-final after extra-time which was a big win for us, and then got a really solid performance against St Louis. We held on well when they came back into it, so we were absolutely delighted.

“One of the great things about the final is you get another four or five trainings under your belt. Since things really got going in October, we’ve had 19 or 20 sessions which is great for their development at this time of year.”

Cassidy leads the team on the line with Dominic Bradley, a former pupil and hurler with St Patrick’s, Maghera. He wondered whether he had the appetite for another Mageean Cup campaign, but the enthusiasm of all involved has proven contagious.

“Sometimes you nearly take things for granted. You wonder whether you can be bothered with another winter of this, but the young lads are so enthusiastic that you can’t help but jump on the bandwagon and enjoy having the craic.

“Dominic brings a level of energy and enthusiasm as well, the kids love him, and you can see the atmosphere around the school lifting as well.”