PATRICIAN ACADEMY, Mallow, winners of the Munster and All-Ireland Senior C titles, Cork Senior A football title (Simcox Cup) and Cork Senior B hurling title, are the April 2019 winners of the Rebel Óg monthly awards, sponsored by the Clayton Hotel, Silver Springs and Cummins Sports, award sponsors, in association with The Echo and RedFM, media partners.
The Patrician Academy Mallow claimed their first All-Ireland senior football title when they faced St Paul’s Oughterard (Galway) in a thrilling final in Limerick.
After dominating long periods of the first half the Cork side led by just three at the break (1-8 to 1-5). The Galway side was far from beaten however and hit two goals in three minutes (a penalty from Matthew Tierney and a Cathal Walsh fisted effort) to bring the gap down to just one point — but the Mallow school settled the nerves late on with points from Conor Corbett and Jack Dillon to deservedly take their first national crown.
The squad have also recently won the Simcox final the premier Cork Colleges senior school’s final where the Academy beat Rochestown College on a scoreline of 2-16 to 2-10.
On their path to the Cork Colleges B hurling final Patrician defeated Coláiste Chríost Rí in round one, then edged out Coláiste Choilm Ballincollig in Ballincollig after extra time.
The Mallow Academy side defeated Coachford in the semi-final and in fairness to Col an Phiarsaigh they put no pressure on Patrician Academy to play the hurling final until the football was over. A very sporting gesture indeed, and much appreciated by Patrician Academy Mallow.
The team only had one hurling session on the Friday afternoon before the final but the closeness of the lads as a unit was a major help. Luck is huge factor in sport and all teams need that along with a will to win. Patrician Academy had both in the hurling final and happily managed to get over the line and complete a historic quadruple for the Academy.