Loughmore/Castleiney coach praises ‘brilliant bunch’ after county final win
Greg Ramsbottom says Loughmore/Castleiney will ‘give it a lash’ in Munster Club Football Championship
Loughmore/Castleiney manager and coach Greg Ramsbottom was delighted with his team's “unbelievable win” over Clonmel Commercials in Sunday’s County Senior Football Championship final.
“After the Kilsheelan game (when his team were 12 points down in the semi-final) I spoke about that spirit in the group and their never say die attitude. Today they really dug in when the chips came against them during the second half and they played to the occasion.
“We said going out that county final days are special, and there was a bounce in them today. We led at half-time but we knew Clonmel are a great team and would come back at us, and they really did in that second half.
“We had a goal chance we didn’t take, and I thought we might have lost our chance there, but we settled again and once we went two points up I knew we wouldn’t be beaten. They are just battlers, a brilliant bunch of men, they never give up. The Connollys, the McGraths, they just battled right to the end. Ciaran Connolly in particular, I don’t know how many balls he went back for and won in our own defence and carried them up the field.
“We have a great bench as well, we were keen to get them in if it was needed but there was nobody playing poorly enough to take them out. When Ed Meagher went off injured we had a great substitute in getting John Meagher in, but after that, there was no need to be whipping lads off for the sake of it. We got two important two-pointers when needed in the first half and that gave us that cushion, that gap at half-time.
“We were also winning their kickout, which was a huge thing, we won about 60% of their kickouts in the first half. We did a lot of work on their kickouts and knew that was an important part of their game. They flipped that in the second half and got them (their kickouts) in order.
“We’re back in the Munster championship, we’re delighted. Obviously we lost the hurling so that gave us a chance to focus on the one thing, and that was brilliant.
“It gave us extra sessions, we had extra nights when we needed, so that was important.
“There’s great community spirit in Loughmore and Castleiney, you can see that in the people who come to the training sessions, we even have people from Silvermines watching us training, such is the belief they have in the team.
“I was asked to take them on at the start of the year and I said no because you would only have a limited time with football, I wasn’t too keen about it. Eamon Connolly contacted me and asked me to come down for a cup of tea and a chat.
“I knew when I set foot in the place that there’s just something about this place, there’s a country feeling to it, and there are just good people around it. I kind of knew I was doing the right thing from that moment on. When I went home I rang them back and said I would do it.
“I was involved with a team in Laois so I had to juggle the two as best I could, and thankfully they were on opposite weekends. You just know by the people sometimes, they’re special (in Loughmore)”.
The manager revealed that Ed Meagher’s shoulder injury could rule him out of the Munster Club Football Championship quarter-final against Nemo Rangers or St. Finbarr’s at a Cork venue on Sunday November 8.
“We’re going down to Cork for the Munster championship and we’ll be the firm underdogs again, St Finbarr’s or Nemo I’m sure will be favourites.
“We’ll do our homework and prepare as best we can and give it a lash,” he added.