Delighted captain Connor looking forward to Leinster adventure with Caragh

Think I spotted a bit of a tear running down the face of Joe Moore at the final whistle, while Alan Dunney was 'giving it wellie' as he made the presentation to his club captain Kevin O'Connor.

The joy was unconfined, with players being back-slapped here, there and everywhere.

The weather ensured it was not a final of quality, far from it, and in fairness that was hardly the fault of the players such were the poor conditions.

Moments after captain Kevin Connor made an acceptance speech that went on, well it went on, and why not, we spoke to Caragh captain who has enjoyed an incredible 18 months or so, centre back Ryan Burke.

“Anyone who came to the game today could be looking for their money back such were the poor conditions” the centre back said, adding “it was a real tough game, tough to look at it no doubt, but we came out the better side of it, so absolutely delighted and thrilled.”

The captain said that it is probably the story of our year, hanging on by our finger nails but “Josh Gannon stepped up there with a brilliant 50m free, just to give us the two point gap.”

Burke, who had the task of marking Leixlip's top score getter, Jack Barrett, said “Jack is a top class player, I have played against him before, I know his game, we had a great battle.”

No doubt the celebrations will go on for a few days but the team captain was looking forward to playing in Leinster.

“We are after coming through Kildare and who knows there could be a Leinster trophy on the line, but we know what it means to the small village of Caragh, but we are building and as Kevin (Connor) said in his speech 35 players have come through the senior team in the last five years, we are building something in Caragh and we are all proud of.”

Meanwhile Caragh manager, Michael Browne, in this his first season in management, the former Sarsfields player, in a hoarse voice no doubt from shouting instructions from the line said “delighted, really delighted, conditions didn't help but look we dogged it out and got through in the end.

The manager admitted that there was only one shot selection “and that was under the stand, everywhere else you couldn't take a shot the wind was taking it and even from the far side you kicked the ball it was pushing it to the ground.”

Asked what he said to his players at half time when they were leading by two points the manager replied “I said exactly the same as I said to them at half-time in the semi-final, we need to win the second half and if we don't win the second half we won't win the game but they stuck to the plan, got the scores, a small tally of scores but enough on the day.”