Schools finals to fill Croke Park St Patrick's Day slot

The Hogan Cup and Croke Cup finals will be played at Croke Park on St Patrick's Day this year.

Naas CBS will face St Brendan's of Killarney in the Hogan Cup, the All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Senior A decider, at 2pm, followed by Limerick's Ardscoil Rís and St Kieran’s College of Kilkenny in the hurling equivalent at 4pm.

Both games will be live on TG4.

The schools finals were usually held in the last week of March or first week of April but will now be played earlier after the All-Ireland club finals were moved forward from their traditional 17 March date as part of a transition towards to a calendar season.

The club finals had themselves replaced the Railway Cup as the matches associated with Ireland's patron saint's day.