Coláiste Choilm Tullamore bid for historic place in Leinster final

COLAISTE Choilm Tullamore will bid to make history on Saturday when they take on Naas CBS in the Leinster Schools A Football semi-final in a bid to win a place in the final for the first time in their history. The game will be played in Edenderry on Saturday with a 2.30pm throw in.

It is the biggest day for Coláiste Choilm football since their last appearance in an A Football penultimate stage in 1992 when a team captained by former County Championship winning Tullamore Manager John Rouse went down by three points to St Peter's Wexford.

Coláiste Choilm have been building towards this in recent years as they progressed through the ranks. They won two South Leinster B titles in 2019 and 2020 and followed this up with a Leinster B championship title, played later in 2020 due to Covid. Many of these players backboned the Offaly U-20 team to win the All Ireland in 2021.

The School made a decision to enter the A championship last year but unfortunately there was no schools football last year due to the Pandemic.

So in September 2021 all the schools football teams were in the draws for the A championship and huge work has taken place since.

And it is not just at senior level that Colaiste Choilm are seeing progress. The First Year and Second Year Teams have been preparing for and participating in blitzes and championship games are looking forward to the business end of their competitions in the next few months.

The U-16s were in a tough group with St Mel's Longford, St Pat's Navan and Marist Athlone and were unluckily eliminated at the quarter final stage. All these teams are showing that they are well capable of mixing it at the top table of schools football.

But it is the progress of the senior team contesting the semi final on Saturday with one of the favourites, not only for Leinster but for the All Ireland Schools A championship, that has caught the local imagination. This may seem a daunting prospect but these young Coláiste Choilm footballers have confounded their doubters in each game this year and their more illustrious opponents from CBS Naas will hold no fear for them.

They have left no stone unturned in their preparation. Mr Lydon and Mr Kearney are the teachers involved and it is fantastic to have past pupils like Mark Plunkett, whose son Harry is team captain, Pádraig Gallagher, whose son Robbie is one of the forwards, Peter Kelly and Johnno Kinihan making up the backroom team, as well as Ray Murray who looks after the S and C for the players.

Having tried out a large numbers of players in League and challenge games early on in the year, Coláiste Choilm faced Moate Community School in the first round in October and were absolutely delighted to come out on the right side of a closely contested game.

Next up were former schools kingpins in St Mel’s Longford. On a freezing cold day in Pearse Park Longford, the Coláiste Choilm boys recovered from being six points down in the first half to record a fantastic two point win in the end.

That win got them out of the group as group winners but their reward was a daunting trip to Stradbally just before Christmas to meet St Peter's Wexford. This was a nailbiter right to the end with Harry Plunkett pointing a free with the last kick to bring the game to extra time and then wing back Sam Bourke sent over the winner to the delight of the Tullamore supporters

There was a return to Stradbally for the quarter Final, again against Wexford opposition, this time the Combined Wexford Schools team. In a game which was almost a carbon copy of the St Peter's game, Harry Plunkett again showed his composure to bring the game to extra time, this time with two pointed frees at the end of a rip roaring contest. The Coláiste Choilm lads were the fitter team in extra time and showed more of a will to win to prevail by the minimum.

Which brings us to Saturday and Naas CBS. Very few if anyone expected Coláiste Choilm to be here and very few expect them to defeat this Naas team who have a number of Naas Senior club players who lost the recent Leinster Final and who were very lucky to beat Tullamore Club in the first round.

Having come out of their group Naas defeated Colaiste Mhuire Mullingar in the preliminary round and then faced Marist Athlone in the quarter final. Naas came out on top by a three point margin but it was subsequently discovered they had used too many subs so the game was refixed for last weekend and on this occasion Naas had a much more convincing 10 point victory. Whether having to play three weekends running takes its toll on them remains to be seen but they will have to be ready for a Coláiste Choilm team that has shown tremendous resilience and courage in all their games.

Coláiste Choilm draw on players from many of the local clubs, Tullamore, Durrow, Shamrocks, Ballycommon, Kilclonfert, Daingean, Cappincur, K/K, Na Fíanna, Raheen and Ballinagar, and they have nothing to lose. They have done themselves, their school, their clubs and their county proud and win, lose or draw on Saturday, they will still be history makers in Coláiste Choilm.

  All involved would like to thank all the clubs and the Offaly Sports Partnership for making their facilities available to all their school teams in football and hurling. Thanks as well to Michael Duignan and Offaly County Board and to the managements of the Offaly County teams. There are players on this panel who are on Offaly minor football and hurling teams, U-20 Football and hurling teams and indeed, one player is on the Offaly Senior Hurling panel. They are all in this together, for the betterment of Offaly GAA teams and co-operation is essential, especially to avoid player burnout. This, Coláiste Choilm have always received and given and long may that continue.

They would also like to thank Cíarán Stewart and Supermacs Tullamore who sponsored Tops for the panel and also one of their parents who wishes to remain anonymous, for sponsoring shorts and socks for both Senior Football and Hurling panels.

Finally this team deserves and needs support, from the present students and parents, past students and parents ,and local club supporters and all Offaly GAA supporters. Keep an eye on the school Facebook Page and local media for venue details for Saturday.

Coláiste Choilm and Uibh Fháili abú.