St Mary's Edenderry - All Ireland Final

[True Red]

My old school qualified for the final of the premier colleges competition in the country yesterday with a good win over St Colmans of Claremorris.

They now face a Jack O'Connor trained Colaiste na Sceilige side who fairly hammered last years winners, Dungannon.

Great progress in the last few years in the school when you consider they were only playing in the 'B' competition a couple of years ago.

[Georgio1]

Huge achievement by Edenderry, and whilst looking at the scoring, the Kildare lads showed up well, this team's Offaly boys have certainly showed great character as well on the way. Having led by 7 going into the final quarter, they were whittled back to a point with 3 mins left. They stormed back to kick 3 points and though they will face a tough task in the final, this team has serious character and could do it. To anyone going to the final, keep an eye on Derek Kelly at full back. From what I have seen this guy has serious potential to go all the way.

[Lone Shark]

Very impressive results and serious credit is due to all involved. This was a quite decent Claremorris team and they had high expectations coming into this. The strength of character to rebound from their late burst of scores was also top notch.

I see Coláiste na Sceilge did a demolition job on Dungannon in the other semi. They'll have overwhelming favouritism on their shoulders in the final, but Edenderry have proved that they have a lot of ability all over the team so with a little bit of luck, who knows?

[naasmanxrhode]

Well done to my old school, absolute great achievement, should have no fears for the final.

[red exile]

well done to my old school in reaching the all ireland final .we have been knocking on the door on numerous occassions down the years and have produced some marvelous footballers in offaly kildare and meath but never so many on the same panel,so hopefully this year we get the breakthrough that is well deserved and a long time coming

[Bord na Mona man]

Well done to Edenderry.
It's great to make such a leap from being in the 'B' competition to being in an All Ireland.
Roughly how many pupils are there in the school?

[DD]

Well done to Edenderry.
It's great to make such a leap from being in the 'B' competition to being in an All Ireland.
Roughly how many pupils are there in the school?

I'd say there's around 650 students in total.
We always produced decent teams over the years but the step up in the last few years has been phenomenal. The approach of the players and the management is first class and they won't be content with just being in a an All Ireland final - it's a huge challenge to beat the lads from Kerry but they believe they can do it.
Most importantly it sets a standard for the future school teams to strive to and hopefully the benefits of this will be seen at senior level in both Edenderry and Offaly in the medium to longterm.

[Bord na Mona man]

650 pupils, so roughly 325 males in the school?
The reason I ask is that traditionally the competition was dominated by schools with 700 or 800 males pupils - St Pat's, St Mel's etc.
Coláiste na Sceilge has 550 pupils and is a mixed school, so I wonder will this year's All Ireland have the lowest combined total of male students in the two schools?

[Silken Thomas]

A fantastic achievement. I was nothing short of elated when the final whistle went.
The final will bring fresh and sterner challenges but I strongly urge as many as possible to travel for the decider.

[Bord na Mona man]

Apparently the final is fixed for Portleix.

[red exile]

that would guarantee a good crowd from offaly as it promises to be a very good game but will kerry not want it a bit closer to home