‘We knew Maynooth were going to bring everything’ says Naas captain Conan Boran

It’s an incredible achievement for this club, a great achievement for us. We don't take it lightly. It's as sweet as the first one we had in 2019. I came on to the panel in 2016 and lost three county finals. We don't take these for granted. We know this is our window and it won't last forever. We're going to enjoy it as much as we can,” the words of Man of the Match Simon Leacy after Naas won the Kildare SHC final against Maynooth.

“We don't win these finals by much. We knew Maynooth. You know a lot of them from the county team. They're proud men. They're going to throw absolutely everything they have at us. It was good to be pushed up in the collar there. We need that. Fair play to Maynooth. They came with everything.”

Maynooth came out of the blocks firing with five points in as many minutes in this game. The Naas midfielder added, “I was getting a bit nervous there for a second. All we could do was try. They brought the tempo, to be fair to them.

"We had to try to get up to that at half-time. We just tried to stay as calm as we could. Just said it was nil-all coming out. Dowlo (Cathal Dowling) got a goal there and We built momentum from there.”

The eventual champions trailed 0-7 to 0-5 at the interval but Leacy said calm was needed before they kicked on in the second half.

He added, “We went in and a few lads were on edge. But then management were like, we're only two points down in the county final. You're not going to win county finals by 20 points. It was good to be in a game. Fair play to them.”

An almighty scrap broke out as the sides jogged towards the dressing rooms. It began with Jack Sheridan on the ground after a clash with Martin Quilty, was followed by a sprint in from Naas’ John McKeown (who was red carded for his role) in turfing Quilty to the floor and turned into an all out wrestling match.

And just when things seemed to be cooling, selectors from Naas and Maynooth could be seen forehead to forehead exchanging their opinions.

However, the Naas star was already in and ready for further instruction.

He laughed, “I actually missed that. I went into the dressing room. I don't know what happened. I'd say I was better off just being inside. I thought everyone was behind me. I don't know what happened. I won't speak on that.”

Concluding on his Man of the Match performance, Leacy said: I don't think I've scored nearly anything the whole championship. I saved it for the last minute. Sometimes they go over. Some shots weren't getting off. Someone else has to stand up. That's just the way the game is.”

Naas captain Conan Boran added his thoughts on the early Maynooth burst. He said: “We knew Maynooth were going to bring everything they had. It was just about weathering the storm and we knew it would eventually come good. We've been doing seriously hard work there the last few months to prepare for today, so it was great to be over the line in the end.

“We knew we'd eventually get to grips with the game, to the physicality. They brought serious physicality, so it's just about moving the ball and keeping the legs moving.”

He continued, “We knew we'd get the chance with the wind behind our back. We were just about managing that first half, staying in the game, and we knew we'd unleash after halftime.”

Boran was of course the man to lift the trophy honouring his club’s 14th title win, which puts them outright second in the overall Kildare SHC charts.

He smiled: “Not every day you get to lift a county title, so it's something to stick my nose up to. I'm delighted to do it on behalf of the group, and like I'm saying, there's other leaders there inside the squad that are leading day in, day out in training, so it's great.”

Naas progress into Leinster with huge ambitions of provincial history. Their captain added, “I'm really looking forward to it. This was the day we'd pencilled in at the start of the year, get over the line here, and see what doors we can open up the next two weeks.”