Inside Seans aim to go one better in SFC final

STEPHEN Fisher believes Sean O’Mahony’s are ready to prove their final few doubters wrong once and for all on Sunday.

Finals and trophies have been coming thick and fast down the Point Road over the past two years, and Fisher has news for anyone who thinks the fairytale is winding up.

‘The word about was after the first championship that the O’Mahony’s have had their spin now and that’s it, but it just keeps coming. There’s great belief in this club and a great mix of youth and experience, it’s been just brilliant.

‘After last year we just wanted to prove that it wasn’t a fluke. We’ve shown how good we are and instead of being a team that people don’t really mind playing, we’re a team nobody wants to play and we’re confident we can beat anybody.

However, even Fisher admits to having to give himself a gentle pinch from time to time.

‘Yeah, it’s amazing for the club. We never thought we’d get into the first final, never mind three years in a row,’ he conceded. ‘It’s amazing how such a young group can keep it going like this and we’re nearly waiting ourselves for a slump. But it hasn’t come and that’s because of the belief we have. We’re confident we can win every game and keep it going.’

Looking back on the campaign, Fisher felt drawing the Pat’s was a great way to focus minds in the O’Mahony’s camp and gone from strength to strength since the group stages.

‘We respect every team we play and I was happy enough to see the Pat’s in our group because we had something to prove from last year. They were the better team in the final and we wanted to prove we weren’t as bad as we showed. We were really up for it and from the first minute we showed what we can do.’

Like most successful teams the injection of a bit of youth into an experienced team has been one of the secrets to O’Mahony’s success and Fisher feels the young guns are making the difference this term.

‘It’s great to see Ben [McLaughlin] performing so well. I don’t know if it’s age or what, but I’m getting moved out the field and it’s like looking at myself in there few years ago! But it’s great when you’re out the field and you don’t even have to look up because you know Ben or Stephen [Kilcoyne] will make the run and it’s so exciting to watch the two of them. They’re brilliant and they’d take on any corner back in the county.’

For Fisher personally, making Sunday’s decider in full fettle is a huge relief as injuries interrupted his campaign. ‘I can’t seem to get a good run at it, but they’re small injuries and I can keep going with most of them. Luckily the last one came during the break and I’m back now and feeling great and ready to win a Joe Ward. ‘When we won the intermediate I missed one of the games against the Joe’s and it’s the worst thing you can do to sit watching when you could be helping the team out. Luckily I only missed one game this year.’ Fisher also missed the League game against Sunday’s opponents St Mary’s but he knows exactly what to expect. ‘I watched them the other night against Dreadnots and we definitely won’t be taking them for granted. They’ve a bit of experience there like ourselves and if they’re let play football they can be very good. ‘They’re a very skilful team, they’re like ourselves, they just want to go out and play football. So I’d say it will be very evenly matched and there’ll be a lot of football played, but I hope if we play to our best we can win the game.’ O’Mahony’s certainly won’t be changing their gameplan for the Mary’s and while Fisher is wary of the Ardee men, he is feeling confident. ‘As the saying goes don’t change a winning style. Why change it? We let other teams change to try and beat us. We respect our opponents and we’ll set up to break down what they have, but I think if we play like we can we don’t need to change much. ‘I didn’t feel the same aura last year. That was the Pat’s, they’ve won it so many times and for us there was maybe a case of well we’ve done well to get this far. ‘But this year we’ve belief and confidence that we can go all the way and that it will be our year, and I think it will be.’