By Kevin Herron

St. Mary’s CBGS Mageean Cup coach Conor Hynds admits there is a lot of excitement in his sides ranks ahead of Friday evenings Danske Bank Mageean Cup final at the Dub (7.30 throw-in).

It’s been three years since the Glen Road side last contested Ulster Colleges premier senior hurling competition and on that occasion the simmarian’s got the better of St. Killians Garrontower to claim their 30th triumph.

Friday’s Final promising to be a compelling affair between two sides that have been accustomed to each other over the years with joint coaches Conor Hynds and Chris Clarke guiding their side to Gallagher Cup glory – defeating Cross and Passion along the way. Though recent encounters in the Leonard Cup and last years Forester’s semi-final went the way of the Ballycastle outfit.

Hynds believes that facing familiar opposition year in and year out is the beauty of competitions and acknowledges that his side will begin the game as slight underdogs in the eyes of many.

“There’s a lot of excitement about the boys, it’s the first year ones in a couple of years and the first final our 7th years have been in. They’re buzzing for it and looking forward to it” revealed Hynds.

“The two teams are well used to each other and the beauty of ‘A’ Hurling is that you see the boys every other year. Cross and Passion are a serious team and serious outfit, they have been for the last few years. I’ve read that this is their first final since 2014-15 which is very surprising. They’ve won the last three Foresters Cup so they’ve a good grounding and have picked up well from St Killian’s Garrontower”.

“It will be a tough ask for our boys but we’ll go out and play the game and see what happens. Ballycastle hold no fear for us and probably vice versa for them. They think they’re going to win it and I think we’re going to win it. They’re slight favourites with everybody else but I’m happy enough with that”.

Hynds doesn’t believe that either camp will attempt to play mind games in the build-up and predicts an evenly matched decider.

“If I was Ballycastle I would be telling my squad that they’re favourites and the same with me I’ll be telling our boys the same” Hynds admits.

“Everybody knows each other and there’s no real games, the players play each other on a regular basis with their clubs. A lot of the players know each other anyway so nobody will be pulling a rabbit out of the hat here. I think it’s going to be two evenly matched teams who are just going to go at it and I think it will be a great game of hurling”.

St. Mary’s are captained jointly by Caolan McKernan and Dannan McKeogh- both have been integrated into senior hurling at their respective clubs.

Sarsfields rising star McKernan insists that reaching the final has always been their goal this season and is eager for Friday to come along quickly.

“I’m looking forward to it, it’s been a big goal of the year – we said at the start of the year we wanted to get to the final, it was our target and now we just want to get it under way and win it” said McKernan.

“Between me and Dannan [McKeogh] we’ve driven it a lot this year. Last year we didn’t really get the buy-in and there was low numbers in training but this year from the very word go- we’ve had the numbers at training; 20 or 25 people every training session and you call tell this year that we’ve wanted it. That’s why we’ve got this far to the final”.

McKernan was a spectator back in 2016 and reveals it has always been a dream to step onto the pitch at the Dub Arena representing St. Mary’s in the Mageean decider and hopes that this years squad can make the school proud and repeat the heroics of 2016.

“It’ll be good to take part in the final rather than watching it” McKernan admits.

“When you were young you always looked up to the lads, it was always one of your dreams to run out at the Dub wearing the St. Mary’s jersey in a Mageean final”.

“The last St. Mary’s team to win it was a very good team to see, this year we’ll get to do it and hopefully we’ll make the school proud by going on and winning it”.

McKernan revealed there always be pre-match thoughts of success, though insists that the focus will be on making a good start and taking things from there.

“You have the thoughts going into the match but you’ve got to focus on the match starting off and we’ll take from there”.