Tralee CBS hope to break Hogan Cup duck
By John Harrington
Tralee CBS go hunting for the first leg of what would be a unique double when they play Coláiste Mhuire in the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Hogan Cup (Senior A Football) Final in Croke Park tomorrow.
The Kerry school will also contest the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Paddy Buggy (Senior B Hurling) Final on Saturday with a number of players set to be involved in both matches.
The school’s experience has been that the two codes complement each other nicely rather than prove a distraction.
“It's a very unique year for the school and the two codes have been very complimentary in terms of the physical stuff, the S&C stuff, it’s worked out really well,” says Tralee CBS teacher, Tim McMahon, who has coached football teams in the school for over 20 years.
“There are a good few lads from North Kerry on the football team this year and the hurling has definitely contributed to that.
“A few of the teachers in the school would be big into hurling and they saw it as something that could be driven in the school.
“We got kids in from North Kerry coming to play hurling for the school but obviously they’d be all round good sportspeople and a lot of them would play football to a high level as well, so we’ve certainly benefited from the influx of fellas from North Kerry into the school in a football sense as well.
“From our point of view anyway, both sets of managements have managed it well. They're not over-exerting them. They're playing their hurling, they're playing their football, they were very conscious of their workload.”
Tralee CBS, better known as ‘The Green’ have a great tradition of footballing excellence.
