Goal was always going to be the key score, says Rhode captain

IN such a tight game, a goal was always going to be the key score, Rhode captain Niall McNamee said after Sunday's county final victory over Tullamore, and he was delighted that it was his side that got it.

The 36 year old, who captained the club to the title for a fourth time on Sunday, savoured the victory in the immediate aftermath of the game. He was delighted with the way the team performed and was looking forward to having another crack at the Leinster Club championship.

Victory on Sunday gave him his 12th Offaly senior medal and he said the victory ranked highly in that impressive list.

“Oh the best one yet,” he said initially before adding, “well I don't know, we'll reflect on it. They all have their special place, they all have something at different stages, but the fact of where we came from after last year, I won't oversell it, but we lost a couple of people this year as well and it's tough. It's great for their families. It was a big downer here last year, it was a really sad time and there was a cloud over the village so to win it back this year was special.”

He said the game was as tough and as hard as they expected. “It was one of those games, they are very organised and get a lot of men back. They have three inter county defenders in their backs, Paul McConway, Deccy Hogan and John Moloney. They know their business, they are very organised and you are not going to get anything too easy. We were expecting a tight game and points were going to be hard to come by.

“We knew if we could get a goal at any stage it might open the floodgates a little bit and might give us the opportunity to get ahead as they don't give away much back there. That was the key score. It was point for point at that stage and nothing much happening and the goal kickstarted us. In fairness they came back very strong and kicked three scores in a row but we saw it out at the end,” the corner forward added.

Those three Tullamore scores had brought Tullamore level again but Niall kicked the winning score afterwards from a mark after a great pass in from Anton Sullivan.

“Yeah it was a great ball in. You are wary in these positions as they were dropping the centre back back in, you were limited with space and if you did win a ball if it wasn't a mark or a bounce, you were going to have two or three lads around you when you land, you are always trying to think how you are going to get an easy kick away. Then with the wind, if that was a normal day that ball wouldn't have reached me but the wind just carried it that bit further, just had to make sure I got out in front for it,” he explained.

Rhode may have enjoyed a lot of success over the last quarter of a century but there was still a lot to savour about this victory.

“It's a sweet one,” said the captain. “I know we have been around a long, long time and playing a lot, and you hear it a lot, but still in the back of your head you hear people saying there mightn't be much of a kick left, but I go to training every night and I see what's available, what's around and what we have, there's just no end to these boys.”

Asked what it was about this group and what kept them going, he said “it's just part of who they are. To an extent we take it too seriously in lots of ways but it's just a huge part of who we are. I think this is our 20th final in about 20 years, including replays, we don't know anything else really and it just feeds in. You look at Keith Murphy, corner back, it's his first real county final. I know he played last year but really solid in the group this year. Then if anyone said you'd win a county final without Eoin Rigney and without Niall Darby, two inter county defenders, they'll be huge for us again next year, so we still have a lot coming.”

Did the underdogs tag suit you?

“We didn't real talk about it. I said during the week that it is what it is but at the same time, we have been massive favourites for finals some years and you don't win them. So it is what it is, you don't really take it, you just go out and play the game on your own merits in front of you and see what happens. Sometimes divine intervention kicks in along the way and you get scores maybe that you shouldn't have got and get a result going your way.”

While he was winning his 12th medal, his brother Alan was collecting his 13th Offaly senior medal. “We won't catch him,” said Niall. “Some of us have 12 but we won't catch him if he doesn't stop shortly but we mightn't win them without him either, that's the thing. He won the kick out for the goal, sent a high ball in, Ruairi couldn't mark it, which was probably a good thing as he had to kind of go for the goal then. The man lives and breathes it, it's just unbelieveable what he does to his body to try and keep it in shape. That man lives in gym, uses icebaths and does whatever he has to do to keep in shape. He is experienced enough now to time it, to know when to exactly peak in the year. The problem is he loves it too much.”

Now Rhode have a Leinster Championship to look forward to at the beginning of November but he said winning Offaly first was always the most important thing initially.

“This has always been the big one. The hardest part of going well in Leinster is winning your own championship and that is the target initially and once you win that you focus on that and we absolutely love it. The whole village goes on tour for the day wherever we are going and the whole place packs up and moves out and it's an absolutely brilliant competition.

“We have six weeks now as for the first time in a long time we got a bye in the first round which gives us six weeks, which is unbelieveable in terms of preparation. We missed it two years ago because of Covid so lads will be really looking forward. It's great to have a few weeks break to enjoy this as other years when we won the championship we were straight back in on Tuesday night because we were playing in Leinster in two weeks,” he added.