No happier man than Sean O’Brien
THERE was no happier man than Sean O’Brien in Joule Park, Aughrim, last Sunday afternoon after he had watched his young soldiers put on a show in the second half of the entertaining Minor final against Luke O’Tooles.
The Baltinglass legend must have boasted the broadest smile in the history of facial expressions and the emotion in this voice and on his face spoke volumes in terms of what this victory meant to him, his players and his community.
“Thanks be to God it’s all over! We lost a bit of a bite but these guys are an unbelievable, wonderful bunch of men as you can see. They’re just so dedicated,” said Sean O’Brien on the pitch in Joule Park, Aughrim.
“People will say that this was a great performance but when you have 25 guys coming to the field to train – and wanting to train and play football – it’s easy to have our work-rate and commitment. We went in at half-time very happy with the performance but we knew we had to get in really tight against them, stop the short kick-outs and stop them running the ball and in fairness to our lads, they really worked hard – every single one of them; it was an unbelievable performance.
“Thank you very much to everybody for supporting us and giving us 100% all year. We did three nights a week and we did 75 training sessions and 15 games and that just shows you what a dedicated and wonderful bunch of people they are. To everybody, thank you very much.
“Jack Hanlon is an unbelievable player. He is so young but his dedication to the game (is fantastic). He’s playing unbelievable football. He came back from an injury and thanks to be to God he came right – his groin was a problem – but he really worked very, very hard and we’ve been minding him for the last two weeks. Against Avondale, we thought we were going to be under serious pressure but in fairness to him, he came back having worked very hard and thanks be to God we got the result we wanted today.
“We had to close up on their backs because we had let them away and gave them a chance to move the ball up the field so easily and they were going to destroy us. We had to win every ball and every dirty ball in the middle of the field and in fairness to the lads, they did it. Look it, we could have got a lot more scores but we have the right one coming home and that’s the most important thing and we’ll dance to the crossroads and every part of Baltinglass tonight!
“Someone said to me about playing for Baltinglass and I saw Tommy Murphy up there – the legend Tommy Murphy – and I looked up to him all my life. To be involved for three years now and we won the double last year and we’ve won again this year – what a year. It just means so much. Someone asked would I park the All-Ireland medal - I would! To win this final today I certainly would because that’s just how dedicated and wonderful a bunch of players they are,” he added.