I didn’t bump it, buddy.
My mistake, mate. Apologies, you’ve wound me up something terrible.
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Fintans is a bit of a kip by the looks of it. Looks fairly small and antiquated.
How much would it cost to go to St Michael’s a year I wonder. They have some recent production line of rugby talent. Have no recollection of them a force at any point until recently
@Tim_Riggins ???
Aren’t they a sister school of Blackrock
Not sure but wouldn’t have thought so
4.5/5.5k iirc. Still a few quid cheaper than KH 
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They are both run by the Holy Ghost Fathers .
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Yeah I just Googled it there when you said it. Used to be feeder school for blackrock but fully independent since 70s. Interested to know how they have become force they are now
Bargain !! 
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Money. Lashing out cash on full time rugby coaching staff, costs about 6k a year to send a kid there.
My beloved Gonzaga are playing on Friday against Castleknock.
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Definitely a factor but id have thought most of the bigger schools would have full time coaches. Still need to get the players in the door.
They had one of nominees for Junior world player of year last season in Deegan, the best Irish underage forward iv seen as captain James Ryan and they have the U20 irish captain again this year a lad called jack Kelly who is going to be a superstar.
Maybe just coincidence but they have loads of lads in leinster squad and academy as well now. Must have 10 at Leinster and a few more scattered around like Kelleher in connacht. All u 25. Couldn’t tell you one other player from there before this crop tbh.
Aren’t half the chaps who’ve broken into the Leinster team Michaels boys?
Yep. That’s my point. They are all young lads. Luke mcgrath, Ross Byrne, o loughlin, leavy all playing loads.
Michaels is around 5k
What about St Fintan’s Tim? Who are these upstarts?
Michaels is around 5k. 4-6k is what most day schools cost these days.
Full time coaches isn’t the reason imo. The majority of their coaches are still teachers and past pupils in college, but it is true that they’ve hired a number of teachers with rugby pedigrees. I don’t have problem with this, more power to schools for hiring staff who will fit into the culture they try to engender.
The real reason for their success is a bottom up approach from the lower years. A mistake a lot of schools still make is focusing resources all at the Senior Cup Team. Everyone does this, it only really works when you have lots of one off talent or simply have bigger numbers than the rest (Blackrock).
They focus on skillfull rugby and playing the game the same way throughout the school. Greg McWilliams drove this. I used to love laughing at them for their pretensions of grandeur when they hadn’t won a thing but all credit to them for their success.
Though it’s only really been one Cup win since they started changing what they did. 2007 was an old Michaels effort at winning (one off talent, a poach or two and lots of money thrown at the coaching of the SCT) which finally paid off for them. Still though, they’re competitive nearly every year and are producing an insane amount of players.
I asked Fagan a while ago on here and have read a bit on them recently. They seem to be mostly Suttonians players who have played together for years and have a bit about them. It isn’t unusual for a non traditional school to pop up but staying factor is not long. I remember 10 years ago hearing that St Pats Navan were going to be a coming force but they didn’t exactly happen. What’s different though is that the Leinster Branch are being more aggressive now in promoting talanted sides like this up a level for a year to the League.
That said the League doesn’t appear to be strong at all this year and it’s been very strong for the last 10 years.
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Sutton Ian’s made a big effort because a. Their club is on its last legs and b. None of the lads who go to Belvo come back to the club and c. It’s over the back wall