Tailteann Cup final: ‘The lads showed great character’
Gerry Buckley reports
“We’ve grown as a group over the last eight weeks,” Jack Cooney emphasised in his post-match media duties in Croke Park yesterday afternoon, the first-ever Tailteann Cup-winning manager honing in on the unseen value of the new tier-two All-Ireland senior football competition to go alongside the spanking new trophy presented some 30 minutes earlier by Larry McCarthy to Westmeath’s outstanding skipper Kevin Maguire.
However, with 13 minutes of normal time remaining and pre-match favourites Cavan ahead by three points, by Cooney's own admission he was concerned.
“I was worried to be honest,” he said, “as we probably went through a phase where we had three or four chances to kick scores and we didn’t take them. Sometimes that can put you back on your heels a little bit and you don’t recover, and then a goal goes in like Cavan got, and you can think it’s not going to be your day.
“But the lads showed great character. They showed it here in this game, but they also really showed it over the weeks and months, and even years. I actually thought that when our own goal went in, the yelp that went up, you’d swear there were 80,000 Westmeath people out there! It certainly felt like that,” he added.
Cooney was particularly proud too of now-veteran substitute Kieran Martin whose superb 67th-minute solo goal ultimately separated the teams. “You know something, we’ve been delivering messages since the day we came in that everything is taken from the training ground and based on what we do there,” the Coralstown/Kinnegad man stated.
“Kieran has trained phenomenally well over the last number of weeks. He lost a good friend last week in Maryland, Eoinie Farrell. We spoke about that during the week, as we did with Enda Mulvihill passing away the previous week. Dessie (Dolan) was close to Enda. They’re not forgotten.
“I think things like that tighten a group and we went out and trained for Kieran that night. He was phenomenal in training that night and you could see he brought that spirit with him onto the pitch today,” he stated.
There was a heart-stopping moment for Cooney and his entourage two minutes into the four minutes of allotted injury-time when Cavan sub Conor Madden bore down on goal, but a last-ditch block by Westmeath captain Kevin Maguire saved the day.
In this regard, the winning bainisteoir opined: “What an inspirational captain Kevin is. I’m delighted for him because he’s the most unassuming, humble guy you’ll ever meet and he’s driving it on every week. I’m delighted he got to lift the silverware.”
Cooney continued: “It’s been a great experience, our sixth championship game today. We had an extra eight weeks of training with the lads since losing to Kildare and today caps it off. We have a nice blend of youth and experience, and next year in Division 3 gives us a chance to develop other players.
“I learned a lot as a selector under Páidí (Ó Sé) and Luke (Dempsey) before him and it was great that players from those teams, Cathal (Mullin), JK (John Keane) and Dessie (Dolan) are back with us doing phenomenal work. They are three smashing fellows as is everybody involved in the backroom team.”
An understandably beaming Cooney departed the press area “very much looking forward” to the homecoming in Mullingar and the guaranteed team holiday part-funded by the GAA.