Joey Holden happy to restore pride in the jersey for resurgent Shamrocks

He’s as unassuming as you’ll get but there’s no doubting just how important Joey Holden is to the Shamrocks’ cause.

The 35-year-old has had a fantastic championship campaign minding the edge of the square and coincidence or not, he wasn’t around when the club lost out two years ago in the final.

It was all change this year however and Holden was happy to tick a few goals along the way.

“Last year we didn’t perform too well and we weren’t happy with ourselves as a group so we set out a few goals at the start of the year.
“Winning the county final wasn’t one of them being honest as it was just about us putting in a better league performance and building for the championship so to get here is unbelievable.

“I’m delighted for the panel and the people that we represent and you can see them all around us here, so we are over the moon.”

While the Shamrocks squandered a number of scoreable opportunities in the first half, the full-back was still confident with a big wind aiding them for the second 30 minutes.

“We missed chances in the first half but we were getting them so that was a positive and then even when I ran out in the second half I could feel the breeze blowing into my face so you could tell it was strong and we knew then that we couldn’t hold back and we had to drive it on,” he said.

“We got the goal then which was a bit lucky but we still got it and that gave us the platform to kick on.

“I don’t even know what happened as I just saw Eoin (Cody) putting it in the net so it’ll be interesting to look back on it but it gave us the lead which was crucial.

“I couldn’t fault the workrate of all the lads but that comes from the panel as a whole with the whole squad driving us on all year and it’s not just about the 15 players that started as everyone put the shoulder to the wheel,” he continued.

Holden, along with his teammates, felt they haven’t done the club justice since the last win in 2022 and with Henry Shefflin returning as manager, improvement soon followed.

“We’ve felt there was more in us over the last few years and that’s not how we like to represent Ballyhale and our friends and family.

“We worked on that and we didn’t do it the right way all the time but we took in a lot of learnings from the league defeats to Glenmore and O’Loughlins and then we restored a bit of pride there today.

“Henry (Shefflin) is one of us, he is one of our own and he knows how we tick and what our culture is and we really bought into that as when Henry speaks you listen and what more can you say.