Team manager David McConn was one of the last people into the dressing room area after a long round of media interviews on TV, radio and the national press, but he was ecstatic when he spoke to the local media. ‘These are magic, magic moments. It’s a wonderful day for everyone connected with Roscommon hurling. I want to compliment the GAA at national level for playing this match in Croke Park today. We have won a national title at Croke Park and on live TV too. This will help every hurler in Roscommon – the under 12s, the U14s, the U16s and minors. This is a huge win for Roscommon hurling, it’s as simple as that,’ he said. ‘We need to raise the profile of Roscommon hurling badly. We have suffered in the PR stakes for many years and we have to put that right as soon as possible and this will be a help.’ David McConn also paid tribute to the Roscommon Co Football Board for their help. ‘Michael Maguire and Seamus Maher and the people on the Roscommon Football board have been a huge help to us and anything we wanted we got it from them, so I want to record my thanks to them for their help.’ He said that the first half just didn’t go to plan for Roscommon, ‘After five minutes we threw away the script, we were missing chances, but thank God they were too. We were delighted that half time came because we had a lot of re-organising to do,’ he said. ‘However I want to pay a huge debt of gratitude to my management team. They spotted a few things that I didn’t and we had a chat about it at half time. We knew that we needed a goal to win a tight game and we set about doing that in the second half. We wanted to get the ball quicker into the forward line and it worked out well.’ In fact David said that while the first half tactics did not quite work out, the second half tactics certainly did. ‘It worked out exactly as we had planned and the second half tactical plan worked out like a dream. We funnelled back Shane Sweeney and changed the attack around and Gary’s goal came at just the right time. From there to the finish it was all about self-belief and we had that today,’ he said. ‘ This is just magical – in the space of a week we have won an All Ireland U21 title at the magnificent hurling stadium that is Semple Stadium and then only a week later here we are on the hallowed turf of Croke Park, winning and All Ireland senior title. It’s like we won the Lotto. I’m only coming to terms with it.’ On his management of the team he said, ‘It all started on December 17th last and I can tell you we tore up many a script since then, but it has all come good, but there are so many people involved here. It’s not just David McConn or the management team, it’s about the hurling people of Roscommon, the hurling clubs and most importantly the players, who have been brilliant.’ ‘This is only a start. We still have our hardest work to do. We have the Christy Ring and Division 2 of the league to look forward to, but that’s for another day. Let’s celebrate this one first. I’m so proud,’ he concluded before disappearing into the dressing rooms to huge cheers.
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