A year after the Railway Girls u16s won the Jacqui Potter cup at Grange road the boys were attempting to bring the title back to Park Avenue for the first time.

Their last appearance was 15 years ago when Three Rock Rover and a 12 year old Luke Madeley denied them, and prior to that in 1996 Railway also took on TRR with a young Kenny Carroll in the ranks but again found TRR too strong with Charlie Carroll and his TRR teams mates winning the u16 cup for the second time. Fast forward to 2026 and Railway had Kenny Carroll masterminding the tactics and Zac Carroll hoping to follow his dad’s footsteps and win the Leinster u16 cup.

After defeating Three Rock, Portrane and Bray enroute to the final the Railway boys were to take on Kilkenny appearing in the final for the first time and after winning the u14 title last year were looking for back to back St Patrick day titles.

The game started well for Railway who were in the ascendency in the first quarter without being able to break the deadlock. In the second quarter a surging run from Railway captain Charlie Trotter found Zac Carroll in the circle and he managed to evade the Kilkenny Goalkeeper and put Railway 1-0 up. Despite winning several short corners Railway could not add to the lead and Kilkenny were still dangerous on the counter attack also winning a couple of PCs. Then just before half-time a Marcus Carter intercept found Charlie Trotter who picked the perfect pass for James Gallagher who crashed the ball past the Kilkenny keeper to put the Sandymount lads 2-0 at half time.

Quarter 3 started off in a positive manner as a Railway PC was stopped by a Kilkenny foot on the line but when the subsequent penalty stroke was pushed wide it gave Kilkenny a let off. This was short lived as a crash ball in from Charlie Trotter (with his 3rd assist !) found a sublime reverse stick deflection from Zac Carroll into the Kilkenny goal evading everyone and making it 3-0.

Instead of finishing the match as a contest Kilkenny started to push forward in more numbers and put the Railway lads under pressure several short corners and open play shots tested Cole Hogan in the Railway goal, and from one of the short corners second phase KK pulled a goal back.

As the match entered the final quarter the match become more open and as Railway failed to add number 4 it gave Kilkenny more encouragement and Jack Delany and Hugo Thornton had to be resolute in defence as they came under significant pressure, and with 6 minutes to do another second phase PC saw Kilkenny make it 3-2 and gave themselves real hope of another great Kilkenny comeback.

Both sides had chances in the final stages with Railway conceding a penalty corner in the last minute just to add to the drama but they held on much to the relief of their parents and supporters.

It was a fantastic occasion for the boys and the club with the live streaming for Leinster Hockey+ including match commentary from EuroHockey TV Nick Irvine and Leinster Hockey’s Ronan Walsh really adding to the coverage of the day
https://plus.leinsterhockey.ie/events/znnsjysa

A big thanks for Leinster Hockey for all their efforts organising these tournaments and in particular the finals day.

Steve Hiles, Head of Junior Hockey at Railway thanked Kenny C, Liam McCarthy and other coaches this year like Charlie Jordan and Jack Flanagan who have worked with the lads this year and coaches down the years particularly Jayson Kenny who took many of the lads when they were u8 and u10s. Their school coaches and primary school coaches at St Matthews, St Andrews JS, Shellybanks ETNS, Rathgar JS and Booterstown NS for getting these lads into hockey and starting them on their way. It was also great to see some of our u14 boys experience top quality u16 hockey and such an important part of their hockey development too as most clubs will agree with.

Railway Squad:
Charlie Trotter (Captain), Jack Delany (VC), Cole Hogan (GK), Marcus Carter, Hugo Thornton, Stephen O’Leary, James Gallagher, Matthew Selby, Aran Bradshaw, Jack McCabe, Edward O’Shea, Lucas Perkman, Oliver Mason, Zac Carroll. Not available Feilim Bourke.
Coach Kenny Carroll, Assistant Coach Liam McCarthy