Mature student has a double goal
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Tuesday February 09 2010
"FOR 30 minutes were alive, yes, but at the end of the day we are students against a physically bigger and stronger team," was how team manager Brian Young assessed IT's performance in Saturday's Kehoe Cup semi-final in Kinnegad.
At 45 Brian spends his academic hours on the GAA degree course and his free time in grooming the college hurling team for the Ryan Cup.
"But that said there was no excuse for the way some of our lads reacted – they just gave up the ghost. The two goals killed but then I though we'd get a response in the second half" adding: "hurling is about attitude and it's not right that's what happens, you bet beat out the gate."
He was pleased with IT's performance for 25 minutes but conceded that Westmeath were the stronger team, "but I expected a lot more from our lads, but then our target is to win the Ryan Cup and graduate to the Fitzgibbon Cup, but the revs will have to come up a lot before we meet Queens in Belfast (Thursday week) and that won't be easy."
DCU (who defeated Carlow in the semifinal) qualified for the upper tier as winner of the league Division 2 and now the only route open to IT is to do well in the Ryan Cup which he feels is possibly given they are in the top three teams in Division 2. "If you want to attract the best players (into the college) the Fitzgibbon Cup is where you want to play. If you want good minors out of counties like Kilkenny and Tipp then it's the Fitzgibbon Cup we need to be targeting," adding that WIT and other colleges are attracting those players because of playing in the higher competition.
