A success to cherish for Nenagh CBS

IN ALL FAIRNESS

The official history of the Dr Harty Cup was published late last year, and if the publishers had been able to wait another month or so to add the 2026 chapter, they would have had another notable success to include as St Joseph’s CBS Nenagh claimed their second title on Saturday. To take down the aristocrats, 22-times champions St Flannan’s College, in effectively their own back yard of Cusack Park, is as best a way to win the title as they come, culminating a campaign in which they defeated Ardscoil Ris, Cashel Community School, Midleton CBS and Thurles CBS, all of whom had won the “Harty” since 2018. No soft route there. Winning it for the second time in three years is a tremendous level of consistency that not only are the school doing a lot right in terms of the players that choose Nenagh CBS for their “hurling education” but also the clubs around them, as well as the Tipperary GAA Academy with most of the players have been working in since they were fourteen years of age.

Considering the old Templemore CBS in 1978 were the only Tipperary winners of the Harty Cup in a fifty year span between 1959 and 2009, for it now to have been won five times by four different schools since in 2017, and incredibly for four years in a row, is great credit to everyone involved with the development of players in the county, from primary schools to clubs, and into second level, and the county development squads. The quality of the tutelage being provided is paying off, not only in terms of success, but also the quality in which it is being achieved.

This is certainly evident in the conditioning of the players and why second level schools hurling is so popular with almost seven thousand people making their way to Ennis on a foggy Saturday lunchtime, says it all about the current standing of the competition, and the quality of the games it produces.

In many ways, despite Nenagh having to go to Ennis to play the final, Cusack Park was the perfect venue; much better than the Gaelic Grounds or Semple Stadium would have been as the size of the crowd would have been lost in those vast venues. Maybe it is something the Munster Post Primary Schools Council might consider going forward that if there is a final between schools in the North Munster counties of Tipperary, Clare and Limerick, that Cusack Park is the automatic venue; and maybe somewhere like Mallow or Pairc Ui Rinn in the case of South Munster schools, as is the case next Saturday for the Senior ‘A’ Football final between the High School in Clonmel and Tralee CBS.

What a double it would be if the two main schools’ titles in Munster would reside in Tipp but Tralee are chasing their own double, as a result that might have gone unnoticed to some last weekend was the Kerry school winning the Munster Senior ‘B’ hurling title in dominant fashion. They were disappointed not to have been admitted into the Harty Cup for this campaign, and you can see why, and it is good to see hurling having his glory days in what is a football mad county.

But back to last Saturday and this year’s Harty final lived up to its billing, incredibly competitive between two very even teams, both of whom had their periods of dominance, and in the end, Nenagh CBS proved to be deserving winners, as they created and converted more of the scoring opportunities.

Who is to say this won’t be the last time these two teams will play each other in this campaign as both head into the All-Ireland series in good shape where there is no inferiority complex anymore when coming up against the likes of St Kieran’s College who play their city rivals Kilkenny CBS in the Leinster final this Saturday, the winners of which could be Nenagh’s opponents in the All-Ireland semi-final later this month, although the Leinster champions have to play in the quarter final round this year, as Nenagh had to in 2024, as the Munster, Leinster & Connacht champions alternate who has to play an extra game on an annual basis.

The Croke Cup is the next target for Nenagh. They have won a Harty without winning an All-Ireland in 2024; they have also won an All-Ireland without winning the Harty in 2012, so doing both in the same year is something the players can really go after, as is the lure of Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day so local parades committees might want to have contingency plans made in case there is an exodus from North Tipperary to the capital on our national holiday.