Every player stepped up to the mark, we didn’t rely on returning county stars

Tomás Quinn praised his St Vincent’s team for avoiding the pitfall of relying on their returning county players Diarmuid Connolly and Ger Brennan.

The former Dublin forward put in his third consecutive man of the match performance and credited the team as a unit for seeing off Portlaoise.

Although Connolly and Brennan were welcomed back from suspension with open arms, Quinn said their availability wasn’t greeted with jubilation inside the camp: “I think maybe from the outside it seems more of a boost than it is from us as a team,” he said.

“I’ve said it already in the build-up — the big challenge for us this year as a club team is getting up to a standard where the lads only have to come in and make us a little bit better, when we’re not relying on them.

“Dermo and Ger played their part, but I think so did everyone else. We’re not relying on them, we’re not looking at them every few minutes saying, ‘Come on, do something for us’, you know, so that had to be the way.

“If we were looking at them I don’t think we would have won today. Other guys stepped up and even the lads that came in, Kevin Bonnie came in and made a huge difference. Tiernan Diamond came in and made a huge difference, so I think it just proves the whole value of the squad.”

Quinn took delight in the manner in which Vincent’s absorbed Portlaoise’s three goals. “We’ve let teams back into it or we’ve given them head starts. It was probably a bit sloppy from our point of view, maybe mentally switched off after getting the two goals and they are a good team in fairness to them.

“They showed incredible resolve all year and we knew it was going to come down to the last 10 minutes. We trusted ourselves all year to make the big plays in the last 10 minutes. The guys who have the ball are going to do the right thing and I think that probably was the difference.”

Obviously, the significance of Kevin Heffernan’s death earlier this year will be placed on this latest triumph for the Marino club.

“If you were more spiritual than me you might believe it’s something to do with that,” remarked Quinn.

“I suppose it’s just a nice side mark to the year that’s gone on. Everyone in the club knows what Kevin did for the club. He’s had an effect on every team that’s played and the style we play and I suppose we try and play and we try and honour other great Vincent’s people that have gone before us and worn the jersey.

St Vincent’s manager Tommy Conroy paid tribute to Quinn: “He was very tightly marked today but did very well. Diarmuid Connolly was tightly marked and that’s to be expected. And it’s up to other player then to step up. But you can’t keep Mossy quiet for 60 minutes and the last point we got, we got him open, it was that insurance point that we needed.”