St Joseph’s captain Jordan McDonnell is presented with the Hugh Daniels Cup by Kieran Clarke of Clarke’s Bar (sponsors) and Westmeath GAA chairman Paddy Wallace after the Westmeath Junior 1 football final.

‘We couldn’t go home without winning’ - Billy Kelly

Kieran Galvin

Published: Fri 30 Oct 2026, 3:16 PM

Last updated: Fri 30 Oct 2026, 3:20 PM

St Joseph’s coach/selector Billy Kelly hailed the club’s players “as a great bunch of lads” after last Sunday’s long-awaited Westmeath JFC final victory.

The Streamstown-based outfit banished the demons of two consecutive final losses by overcoming the second team of senior champions The Downs at TEG Cusack Park.

“Look, we have a great bunch of lads. They stuck at it,” said Kelly after the 3-12 to 0-15 win.

Kelly is part of the management team along with Gerry Gleeson (the official manager) and Joe Boyle, with Billy quipping that “we’re all bainisteoirs”. Alan McCormack, Eddie Scally and Eoin McCormack are also part of the backroom team.

“We were only five points up at half-time and we were against the wind in the second half. But we came out in the second half with the right attitude and created a few goal chances. We stuck to our task and we got over the line,” Kelly reflected.

Whatever about the St Joseph’s players and management team, there must have been fears among supporters that missed chances in the first half would come back to haunt them when The Downs would be backed by the breeze in the second stanza.

Yet Kelly wasn’t overly worried. “Not really, because during the course of the year we’ve played several games against the wind in the second half and for some reason, we seem to do better against the wind than with it. I don’t know why,” he said.

“We just like hardship,” he added with a smile.

Kelly agreed that the goals scored by Ros Elliffe (two) and Dean Slevin were absolutely crucial, but he was quick to emphasise the collective dimension. “There was a whole team effort there today and fair dues to every single one of them,” he said.

St Joseph’s have played some excellent football in this year’s championship and lifting the Hugh Daniels Cup for the first time since 2004 is just reward for their efforts.

“We believed in ourselves. We came out today and we had only one thing on our minds and that was to win that game. We had to do it. We couldn’t go home without winning,” Kelly remarked.

Billy agreed that St Joseph’s will face a considerable step-up in pedigree when competing in next year’s intermediate championship, but he feels the team has the sort of experience needed to thrive at that level.

And he believes that contesting the last three junior finals will really stand to the panel. “After losing two finals and now winning a final, I’m very confident we’ll be able to keep the thing going,” he said.

As for the celebrations in Streamstown, Horseleap and surrounding areas, Billy said, with a degree of understatement, that “there will be a pint or two drank tonight”.

And when the celebrations subside somewhat, St Joseph’s will travel to a Meath venue to face Curraha in their Leinster club JFC quarter-final on Saturday, November 14.