SHC: Gallagher lauds ‘a great bunch of men'

It was an understandably overjoyed Eamonn Gallagher who spoke to the assembled media after he had guided Castletown-Geoghegan to a memorable Slevin’s Coaches SHC triumph in TEG Cusack Park last Sunday afternoon.

The former St Brigid’s star forward opined: “It is great when you see a bunch of lads deliver what you know they have. You saw there today what they are capable of.

“They hunted in packs; the passion and skill levels out there; the balls that Liam Varley caught in the last ten minutes. You’d have to be very happy with all that today. They are a great bunch of men.”

It was widely acknowledged after the game that Gallagher got the big match-ups right. “It is a good while ago since I managed Raharney and there are different personnel playing now, but it’s easy to know who the big danger men are,” the manager remarked.

“I thought we did a good job from that perspective. But we still had to hurl ourselves to a man. The subs that came on did well. It’s a full panel job and I felt that we had a stronger panel than Raharney.”

The men in black and amber led by nine points at the interval but there was still work to be done. The winning bainisteoir acknowledged this: “We kept the scoreboard ticking over in the second half and we didn’t panic. We knew they would come back at us.

“Only 12 months ago, they were well in arrears and they won by eight points (against Clonkill).

“They got a goal there at the end which put the frighteners on us, but the boys held firm. I looked up and saw there was about a minute left, and it was a minute too long!”