Whelan: You haven’t seen the best of St Vincent’s

WITH 25 county titles, four Leinster crowns and an All-Ireland from 1976, it was hard to argue with captain Mossie Quinn’s assertion that St Vincent’s are back where they belong.

Earlier this autumn they claimed their first Dublin crown in 23 years and ended a provincial drought of the same duration with their emphatic defeat of a disappointing Tyrrellspass in Cusack Park.

Mickey Whelan was on board back in the 1980s and survived the lean years to be on the line wearing the bainisteoir’s bib yesterday with Quinn making a point of thanking the 69-year old for everything he had put in to the club and this team.

It was only a visit to his house by Kevin Heffernan last winter that persuaded him to stay at the wheel. Vindication must have been sweet.

“I’m just after leaving Heffernan there now,” said Whelan pitchside shortly after the seven-point stroll. “I’m delighted to be a part of this but I feel it would have happened anyway. The team was ready to make its move forward.”

It was clear to everyone who witnessed their destruction of Portlaoise that the side had broken new ground and they confirmed with an opening quarter where they blew Tyrrellspass away.

Choppier waters await but Whelan believes they have more in the tank.

“You can’t have seen the best of them, no. Now I’m not saying we’ll see the best of them this year but there is so many of them 18, 19, 20 years of age. There’s a couple at 24 or 25 and then there is Paddy (Gilroy).

“I’m delighted for the young fellas. They are growing in stature the whole time. What pleased me most about that was that you couldn’t name a player who had a bad game there today. They played to the finish for every single ball.”

Probably the key ingredient to their success was that hunger evident on every line of the pitch. The finger can be pointed at Tyrrellsspass for their incessant hand passing out of defence but the Vins forwards weren’t in Mullingar yesterday just to chase scores. Their pressure was constant.

“We shut them down in their defence. They found it very difficult to get out and create the extra man. On the day we were the better team.”

Leinster has been a useful preparatory school for this young team of champions but they face an examination of frightening proportions in January when they will in all likelihood travel to Ulster to take on the reigning All-Ireland masters. Crossmaglen’s mission to crown themselves the greatest club side of all time has mown through many a handy side this year but you sense that a man as old and wise as Mickey Whelan will relish the challenge.

“They are playing the English side in the quarter-final so that is a foregone conclusion and, if we go out of it, it would be great to go out against the All-Ireland champions. But we’re not going up there to go out. We’ll give it our best shot.”

For now, talk of Cross and All-Irelands can wait. The Leinster celebrations will segue into the Christmas festivities this week in Marino. No-one can say they don’t deserve the revelry.

“We’ve haven’t even thought as far ahead as Cross, to be honest,” said Quinn. “I didn’t even know the draw. It was a case of just getting over today. Had we looked that far ahead we probably wouldn’t have had it to look forward to.

“It’s Crossmaglen. What can you say? They are a phenomenal team but that is for another day.”