Dick O’Keeffe: 'We feel that we left that game behind us. We’re gutted'

Fourmilewater manager Dick O' Keeffe dejected after the game. Pic: Ryan Byrne

Having come within four minutes of a monumental shock, Fourmilewater manager Dick O’Keeffe couldn’t help but feel his side left a first-ever county title behind them.

The West Waterford side led Ballygunner by three points with seven minutes remaining and were still a point ahead entering the final minute of normal time, but couldn’t hold out against the All-Ireland champions’ late onslaught.

“We pushed them right to the limit,” said O’Keeffe with a mixture of pride and dejection.

“We knew that if we could get our tackling game going, our pure intensity and our fitness would drive us through.

“We had a couple of wides at the wrong times in the game, especially there in the second half when we had them on the rack. If we had tagged on a couple of those scores late on, it would’ve been a different story coming down the home stretch.

“When we left them within three points, it was always going to be difficult.

“They’re a very disciplined team, they’re very hard-working, they’re well organised, they’re not All-Ireland champions for nothing, but we feel that we left that game behind us. We’re gutted to lose it.

“The lads put in some massive effort all year, over and beyond anything that was expected of them, so really proud of them.” 

They performed over and beyond external expectations, driven by a focus on what they could do, rather than what they could change to limit Ballygunner.

“We knew that we had to get in close to them, not give them any room,” said O’Keeffe. “Every time the ball hit the ground, we had to come out. Our turnover-tackle (stat) was something like 26-10 in the first half.

“We were right there. We were doing everything that we wanted to do and we were limiting their shots to frees.

“They changed a couple of things around just before half-time; they moved an extra man into the middle of the field and they got some joy from that.

“Going out at the start of the second half, we put them under all sorts of pressure. We had their management struggling to make changes on the field. They didn’t know what they were going to do, which is what we wanted. We wanted them to be thinking about us.

“A lot of teams take on Ballygunner and they change their game structure completely, but at no stage were we going to do that. We knew we had the game that could trouble Ballygunner and we didn’t get drawn into match-ups or any of that stuff on the field.

“Unfortunately, we had a little bit of a lull period in the middle of the second half which cost us dearly.

“We’ll learn a lot from this. We’ve got a very young team. Nobody likes losing, but it’s not all doom and gloom. You can take positives from everything and the way we played in that game was a big positive.”