"We put our best performance in again today" - Laois senior football final man of the match Adam Ryan

Portarlington have had several consistent performers in their three successful club championship campaigns over the years, and one of them is most certainly Adam Ryan. The Portarlington wing-forward returned to his home club in 2018 after previously having transferred to Dublin outfit St Jude’s due to work commitments. Ryan also confirmed after the game that due to work commitments in Sligo he would not be a Portarlington Player in 2023. 

Ryan’s return has been massive, and he was once again instrumental in a Portarlington victory here. Despite missing the semi-final, Ryan went straight back into the starting team and helped himself to three points from play in an awesome display.

He spoke to the Leinster Express/Laois Live after the match, with Ryan quick to highlight how there was no talk of

three in a row’s in the lead-up towards this final.

“It’s sweet enough now. As we said before going out onto the field, we were going for one in a row today. We didn’t care who we were playing. We weren’t thinking of Leinster. We weren’t thinking of three in a row. It was one game at a time. That was the whole mantra for this year and luckily, we saved our best for last today.”

Portarlington’s form had been pointed out as worrisome by some and the consensus around the county was that O’Dempsey’s could take a real swing at them. However, Ryan felt that they peaked at the right time once again.

“The same thing happened last year. We got over the quarter-final and the semi-final just about last year. We put our best performance in against Portlaoise and it was the same thing this year. Same thing with Ballyroan (Abbey), and Portlaoise put it up to us again. We saved our best performance for today. Now we’re looking forward to Leinster, but honestly it wasn’t a

thought in our mind at all. Today was about focus and playing O’Dempsey’s, and we put our best performance in again today.

The three in a row will be celebrated for a long time now in Portarlington, but they still have a Leinster campaign to look forward to. While Ryan wasn’t looking too far ahead to that first round match in three weeks against the Wexford time, he did admit that they were primed for another run in the provincial championships.

“God willing now, we’ll give it another rattle again. We had experience in Croke Park last year. We’d like to get there again. Whoever we’re playing, I don’t know if it’s two weeks or three weeks. I don’t know who we’re playing. Honestly, I haven’t thought about it. Whoever we face, we’re battle-hardened and we’re good to go.”