Moroney savours success

HE WAS fresh from commentating on history, his beloved Aherlow’s first title, but Eddie Moroney still had plenty to say after this Tipperary county senior football final yesterday.

“From the word go we battled away,” said the man made famous by a commentary on another county final, Aherlow’s U-21A win over Nenagh Éire Óg in 1992.

“That save in the first-half by Shane Leonard was crucial.

“We lost a lot of ball throughout the field, but we won the battle.

“I was worried for the first 20 minutes, a ten-minute period they were getting the breaks, but we got back into it. I said to myself, if they come out of the blocks for the second half, if they tear into them in the dressing-room and tell them to dog it, we’ll be okay.

“They came out fighting, twas like being in the Coliseum, they were like warriors, like gladiators, they took over, no going back.’’

For manager Thomas Peters, long-time football mentor in the Glen, this was a fitting climax to many years of effort.

“We’ve been very focused all year, we said we were going to give it everything. We changed the team a bit, brought in a lot of young players, and they did the job today. We kept them relaxed, there was never any mention of the three finals we lost; we kept it positive, and they reacted brilliantly to that.

“We had a great mix of youth and experience, that’s what counted today. Dinny O’Shea is there, going on 36 years of age, he’s playing for Aherlow for about 20 years, and for him to win his first county senior title today, it’s something else.

“Brilliant, for the whole club.”

Especially brilliant for the aforementioned Dinny. “For a while there we lost heart, we thought it might never come after all the heartbreak down the years, but as I said to Seán Peters coming off the field, maybe if we’d won the first one (1997) we wouldn’t have appreciated it like we do now, after all the knocks.

‘‘We’ll enjoy this week first, but we’ll go out and play every match on its own merits, like we always do.”