For Athleague manager David Kelly, this county final victory had him ‘elated for the lads, for my family and for this club’. ‘It all came together for us on the day. We hurled with style and could have won by more,’ said the man who led them to success. Kelly, in paying tribute to his backroom team Kevin McGeeney and Sean O’Brien, declared that ‘countless people have put in countless hours – too many to name – but we’re all very thankful’. ‘More than anyone, I want to acknowledge the huge role of all the panel and particularly our captain John Connolly who was immense for us all year.’ Kelly was deeply aggrieved at the Connacht Council dictating that his team had to play a Connacht Championship match the following day, saying that it was ‘not fair and lacked any commonsense.’ Captain John Connolly – after a very short and very sweet speech – told the People that ‘this bunch of lads don’t need leading; they have an insatiable hunger for winning and that came through on the day. It’s just a major honour for me to be their captain. We know we won’t be hurling forever, and we let one or two slip through our fingers, so we want to win every match we can.’ Goal-scoring hero Shane McGeeney was typically modest about his own contribution, revealing that he just ‘happened to be in the right place both times… the ball just got caught in the sun’. He acknowledged that he had something of a reputation for ‘being a poacher… and it’s not a tag I want to lose too soon’. For defender David Delaney the victory ‘sets up the chance for a three-in-a-row, which is what we’ll be targeting now’. The inter-county player had kind words for the defeated Pearses team however. ‘It’s a sickener to lose two-in-a-row and nobody would begrudge them when it (winning a final) does happen; they play lovely hurling but we have a serious hunger and got that bit of luck too.’
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