"They wanted to hold onto the Jack Delaney Cup and that’s what they did.” - Martin Murphy

Gracefield native Martin Murphy has had incredible success in the Laois Senior club championship since 2016, as he’s managed four of the last seven winning teams between Stradbally (one) and Portarlington (three). Murphy spoke to the media immediately after their victory over O’Dempsey’s and was over the moon with his team’s performance.

“Savage. The bottom line is we came here today with one thing in mind and that was to go away with this one championship. We weren’t talking about three in a row. We said this is the one. This is the one we have to win and there’s no talking about three in a row until we have actually won this one.

“We were really focused in the last ten days or twelve days of training. It was a pleasure to work with the lads. We looked at what the set-up might be to beat this O’Dempsey’s team having played them earlier in the championship.

Murphy and the rest of his management team neutralised an in-form O’Dempsey’s outfit, with Portarlinton’s manager making a few big calls before throw-in.

“I think we got our tactics right today with David Murphy at full-forward. Robbie (Pigott) was at full-back for the injured Diarmuid Bennett, and I think the rest is history.

“Our defence is a mean defence. We worked very hard over the last two weeks, and in fact over the last two and a half years, on our defence. I’d say that’s as good a defensive display as we showed in Croke Park last December against Kilmacud Crokes.

“Today, I think maybe O’Dempsey’s underestimated us a little bit. Didn’t expect that sort of performance to come out of us having looked at us through the last two or three games.

“Credit to our boys, they stood up today. They wanted to hold onto the Jack Delaney Cup and that’s what they did.”

Murphy’s Portarlington had been criticised for some of their displays throughout this year, but they peaked at just the right time here to seal the three in a row.

“People said that we regressed through the championship this year and that we had gone back from where we last year. I think, in fairness, what happened to us this year was we lost a lot of players during the summer that went to America. We had lads that went to Thailand on holidays. They came back, they weren’t in the same shape.

“Looking back over the course of the championship, we had some serious talking over the last fortnight as to where we were mentally. We weren’t bringing any intensity into our games. We were just going through the motions. We were just playing football believing that because we’re county champions, that we can go out here and win this at our ease.

“We nearly tripped ourselves up playing with that sort of mindset. We went into the game today and it was all guns firing.”

Murphy will join the Offaly Senior inter-county football set-up soon as a member of the backroom team, but he has already clarified that he will remain as Portarlington manager for their Leinster journey.