Boyle: ‘Our lads showed resilience of champions’

By Niall Gartland

ST Patrick’s, Maghera showed all their qualities of resilience to reign supreme in last Wednesday night’s Mageean Cup final, according to their manager Paul Boyle.

Just three days beforehand, the school’s defence of their MacRory Cup title came to an abrupt end with defeat at the hands of Abbey CBS, but there was no time to feel sorry for themselves with many of those players in action again in the Ulster Schools’ hurling showpiece.

To say they took their chance at redemption with both hands would be putting it mildly as they produced a stunning performance against Cross and Passion to land the title on a scoreline of 4-13 to 1-12.

Manager Boyle, who plays his hurling with Loughgiel and Antrim, expressed his pride in a group of players who have shown real grit in the face of adversity – and that’s without mentioning their top-level hurling skills.

“After Sunday’s MacRory Cup defeat, we found it quite easy to get the lads picked up again. We planned to train on the Monday, and we scrapped that.

“Instead we had a meeting and we told them, you could look back in 10 years and say we got beat in the MacRory on the Sunday, and the Mageean final on the Wednesday, what a terrible week, or we could show that we were resilient enough to come back and win the Mageean.

“The lads must have felt sorry for themselves for about an hour on Monday morning and after that they were so tuned in and motivated, which is a testament to them.”

Maghera trailed by a point at the interval but their manager knew that they didn’t need to reinvent the wheel at half time and they eventually pulled away for a resounding 10-point victory.

“We’ve worked very hard on making sure that everyone on the field is comfortable on the ball – we do a lot of small-sided games where they’re under pressure.

“We’ve seen a massive improvement on that front, even since December when it picked back up again, and we went with a game-plan of getting runners coming off the shoulder and having players in the middle who can shoot from distance. We also have quality players inside, so if the opponents press out, we can play the sliotar into them.

“Even though we were one point down at half time, we were doing the right things so that was pleasing, it was just about executing things a bit better. There wasn’t a mad war cry. Thankfully we did execute our play better and it paid off in the end.”

It was a particularly poignant occasion for the O’Kane family. The player of the match award is named in honour of the late James O’Kane, whose two sons Sean and Padraig were both part of the winning team.

Boyle said: “I was chatting to Sean and Padraig’s mum Lorraine on Friday night. She said, yes the boys won the MacRory and Hogan last year, but as a family they always eyed up the Mageean Cup.

“I didn’t know James on a personal level but when I first went into St Pat’s, the likes of Sean Marty Lockhart, Joe McCloskey, Willie McAteer and Chrissy McKaigue were all quick in telling me what James O’Kane was about.

“There was definitely a bit of an emotion in the room when our principal Katrina Crilly spoke before the final, and said that no matter what, James would be happy. Padraig and Sean’s attitude was that they weren’t going to lose, and they’re an absolute credit to their father.”