Shane O'Neill: ‘No questioning Na Piarsaigh now with three Munsters in five years’

Na Piarsaigh boss Shane O’Neill described yesterday’s victory in the Munster Club final as a “fantastic feeling,” one he could barely articulate.

“I’m kind of stuck for words at the moment. Again, we put in a second-half performance - you’d nearly want your second halves in the first-half but Ballygunner, being the club that they are, we actually spoke about it…

“They have serious tradition so we knew what they were going to bring to the party and even when we looked to have a bit of momentum after half-time, they came back again and got a couple of scores, trying to put a bit of doubt in our minds. But then our guys pushed on again. You can’t beat experience – over the last five years to win three Munster Clubs is just a phenomenal achievement.”

O’Neill complimented his players on their fitness - and Darragh Droog, their trainer: “The boys look after themselves in fairness and Darragh Droog has done a magnificent job with strength and conditioning. But overall we asked them last year to be the best they can be, which is a bit of a cliché but they demanded so much more from themselves and each other because they had won the two Munster Clubs. We felt, again, we probably didn’t get the credit we deserved. I don’t think there can be any questioning the club now with three counties and three Munsters in five years.”

He added he hoped his side would improve their record outside of Munster: “We’ll enjoy the next few days anyway. We obviously made some mistakes because we lost both All-Ireland semi-finals. We’ll have a look at that. I was involved in one of them myself as a player.

“We’ll have to see amongst the players what they thought could be improved on coming up to the All-Ireland series. It is difficult because you’ve got December and January and half of February to train for.

“If you kept going – and I know they’re looking at doing it next year – you’d have a certain momentum. It’s like a whole new season again. We’ve the experience of losing two All-Ireland semi-finals more than anything. We haven’t go over that line so that’s a target for these guys to go for, now.”

They decided not to chance Kevin Downes because of a blow last week - (“He got a bang on the head last week so we did the usual tests and he wasn’t right,”) but O’Neill was delighted to welcome back David Breen. “It was. He made an impact. He’s a big boy and we felt Peter (Casey) wasn’t in the game because the quality of ball going into him was poor. David went in there broke it open and then Peter came alive inside.

“It was a fair bit ahead of schedule. He only got the pins out (of wrist) on Wednesday but that’s David for you. He’s been a leader of this team since 2011. I played beside him in 2011 and he just gets the job done.

“His work rate is phenomenal. He won three line balls in a row from sheer work rate. That’s what he brings to it.”