'I'm sure my dad would be very proud looking down' — Pádraig Óg keeps Ó Sé medal tally ticking

The Ventry man will be back in HQ next week for Dingle's final. 

NEXT GENERATION: Pádraig Ó Sé of An Ghaeltacht celebrates after his side's victory. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The Ó Sé All-Ireland medal haul was 24 coming up the road to Croke Park yesterday. Pádraig Óg now has his own piece to put down on the extended family table.

The eight Celtic Crosses of his late dad, Páidí, added to the 16-medal collection of his first cousins Darragh (six), Tomás (five), and Marc (five), delivers a total of 24.

Pádraig Óg now stands somewhat on par with them in being able to bring his own All-Ireland medal to the equation.

“No, nowhere near it,” he shoots back.

“I'm sure my dad would be very proud looking down, and I'm sure he'd have really soaked up the atmosphere that was in Dublin, and tonight as well, he'd be loving it. But obviously, yeah, it's special to bring one back.” 

The half-back will return up the road this Sunday to follow Dingle in the senior decider. Going back up with a medal in the pocket will make it “much easier”, he quipped, to watch the neighbours and nearest rivals.

“To win this is absolutely unbelievable for our club. It is the first line of conversation wherever you go, and obviously this year, with two teams five miles apart [on All-Ireland runs], you couldn't go anywhere around the peninsula without football being the first talking point and the games coming up.

“When you see people travelling home from the States and coming back from Australia, these places, to be here today, it's unreal.

“I think this will inspire Dingle to go for it. We went to school with them, we played with them in the Pobalscoil, and they're sending their text message, wishing you the very best of luck. We've paved the way for them to go for it now.” 

The argument put to Glenullin manager Michael O’Kane was that his team hadn’t gone for it. They operated with an incredibly deep-lying defensive block. They applied staggeringly little pressure on the Gaeltacht ball-carrier outside the 40-metre arc.

All first-half stats flying about the place had An Ghaeltacht on at least 75% in the possession stakes.

O’Kane staunchly defended his team’s approach.

“Stats don't win games. Possession doesn't win you a lot of games in football. We've lived off scraps in other games and we've come through.

“They had more possession, but we had more shots, we had more goal chances. Our shooting didn't function today; that's why we lost the game. I know I might sound a wee bit pissed off about that but possession doesn't win you games.

“I'm so annoyed with ourselves that we just didn't do ourselves justice. That's something we talked about all year, about doing ourselves justice and having no regrets, and unfortunately we have so many regrets stepping out of here today.”