Preview: Naas CBS one step away from Croker but huge Kingdom challenge lies in wait

Naas CBS V Pobailscoil Chorca Duibhne- All Ireland Senior A Football Championship Semi-Final- Saturday afternoon in Malllow Co.Cork at 2.00pm.

All roads lead to Mallow on Saturday afternoon as Naas CBS hope to become the first Kildare School to make an All-Ireland Football Final as they take on the formidable might of Pobailscoil Chorca Duibhne of Dingle.

Naas are in their second successive semi-final but they will be looking for a better result after going down to Rice College of Westport in last year’s last four encounter.

This weekend the opponents are Pobailscoil Chorca Duibhne and they have plenty of pedigree in the competition having won back to back Hogan Cup’s in 2014 and 2015 so they will be eager to get back to Croke Park.

Naas sealed their place in Saturday’s game when they won their second successive Br.Bosco Cup in defeating Wicklow Schools last week on a 2-12 to 1-9 scoreline.

Manager Ronan Joyce was left almost speechless after the game but was ultimately absolutely thrilled with the victory.

“I can’t believe it, it’s unbelievable and we made hard work of it but it’s all about getting the result at the end of the day as you come to finals to get silverware and I’m delighted for the lads as they have put in savage work”.

“It’s been seven months of effort with training three or four times a week so when you work hard it pays off occasionally and it definitely did here”.

“To think two years ago we weren’t even in the A Competition and now we have won back to back Leinster’s but it just proves the talent that’s in that group and I’m just over the moon for them as they have put in great work”.

It was a game where Naas looked set for a routine looking victory as they led by four points entering stoppage time but a series of mistakes and a freak enough goal led Wicklow Schools to forcing extra-time.

“In a Leinster Final you have to play to the final whistle as there is going to be no inch given before the end and our backs were to the wall when the ball hit the crossbar and they got a late goal”.

“You have to play to the end and we pulled up a small bit short but the lads were super in extra-time to dig out the win”, Joyce admitted.

Naas’s character was questioned as Wicklow had all the momentum entering the added time but once again CBS showed that they had bucket spades of bottle with Alex Beirne and Harry Carroll getting goals.

The victors played fantastic football in that twenty minutes and if they can repeat that on Saturday they are in with a great chance.

“We showed the work we put in all year but in extra-time its mostly about character and how much can you get out of yourselves and the lads dug really deep and thankfully it came off”.

“We had to calm things down because the shape goes out of a game before extra-time because everyone was attacking and defending so we just told them to settle down and use the width of the pitch because I thought we turned over a lot of ball from being narrow and taking the ball into contact so we just got them to do what they do best and move the ball quicker”.