St Kieran's to meet the untouchables head-on

By right St Kieran's Kilkenny should start any All-Ireland Colleges hurling final as favourites. Their 14 titles outnumber the rest and the pedigree has remained constant, flowing from Eddie Keher to Brian Cody and Billy Fitzpatrick to DJ Carey.

Yet, on Sunday in Thurles, that right is handed to St Colman's, Fermoy. Since taking the title last year they've been untouchable, crushing all in Munster and fearless now of even the Kilkenny tradition.

A year ago, as All-Ireland champions, St Kieran's fell unexpectedly to Dublin Colleges. The Leinster title win over Kilkenny CBS a fortnight ago brought partial recovery, but to win the All-Ireland back will clearly take something special.

"We know we're up against it here," says St Kieran's official Tom Hogan. "St Colman's have annihilated everyone in Munster this year and some of our players will need to have the game of their lives if we are to win this."

Though the nine-point win over Kilkenny CBS appeared comfortable, Hogan still feels they will have to improve on that form for Sunday: "In the end, we won convincing enough, but it took us a long time to get on top. The scoreline did flatter a little bit, but it was always hard to predict what was going to happen in those local derbies. And I don't think we were that much better than them."

One change has already been made from the last day in that forward Richie Power takes over goalkeeper duties from Jim Blanchfield. Key playmakers Michael Rice and Mark Heffernan are carrying minor injuries, yet should be fit to play.

Like the NHL final, the Kilkenny-Cork pairing promises much, even if two key player for St Colman's - Maurice O'Brien and Andrew O'Shaughnessy - are actually of Limerick breeding.

"It's certainly one of the more attractive finals," says Hogan. "It promises to be a very good hurling game, and it won't be over-physical or anything like that. It should be pure hurling. And you can't ask for a better setting than Thurles. It's the best pitch in Ireland for hurling as far as we're concerned."

Hogan, along with fellow official John Quane, has brought this team up from juvenile level. Though the team may lack the big star, he is nonetheless confident of their overall ability. "Well, I suppose we wouldn't have an obvious DJ in the making, but we'd call ourselves a balanced team."

The question remains though: What happened last year? "Well, we were simply beaten by Dublin Colleges in the semi-final at Parnell Park. We had what we thought were a good team, but we were caught. But Dublin were a very good team as well."

While St Kieran's got a straight route to the final (Ulster have no representatives at this level), St Colman's had another stop-off against Connacht champions Mercy College Woodford - whom they beat by a merciless 22-points.

"They are looking very, very impressive," admits Hogan. "But, like any team, we're not going up to lose, we're going to give it our best shot."