(Photo – Galway GAA)
Presentation College, Athenry were crowned Connacht Post Primary Schools Senior A Champions on Saturday after two dominant spells either side of half-time allowed them run out 2-19 to 1-8 winners over Gort Community School.
Adam Brett struck the two goals and Mark Kennedy chipped in with six points from play as the Athenry school won their fourth provincial title in five years.
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Gort will now face St. Kieran’s College, Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-final next Saturday (3rd March). Athenry are into the semi-finals and will face CBS Midleton or Kilkenny CBS on Monday, 19th March.
After their victory, we spoke to a member of the Presentation Athenry management team Michael Finn. Michael guided the school to victory along with Eddie Brady and Padraig Breheny.
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“They played really well,” said Finn afterwards. “(We’re) very happy with that. They’ve trained well all winter and have really pushed on. They were very disappointed themselves about last year, losing. And that’s really what has driven them on all year.
“They’ve been a very easy bunch to train and to work with. It’s their own work really that has got them this far. You’d be looking forward now to the next stage of it.
“They’ve played really well in both games. We’d be happy enough with them. But they’ve put the work in. They’ve put in a huge amount of work over the last couple of months. Not just with us, you’d have to give credit to the clubs they’re coming from too.
“Something I’ve noticed really that the clubs that are feeding into us are putting in a huge amount of work at that age level.
“Everything we try and do is built on a very solid defence. Very similar to the last day, we were slow to start against St. Brigid’s and got going then just before half-time and pulled away in the second half. Today was very similar.
“(We) wouldn’t be happy with the way we started the game. We were just a bit slow out of the blocks. But 10 minutes before half-time, we opened up a bit of a gap and we were able sustain that to the finish.”
Hear the full interview BELOW
