McGrath: we fought hard for it
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Wednesday March 10 2010
GARY McGrath was a relieved manager at the end of a dramatic Munster final, and admitted that he would probably have settled for a draw and replay when Macroom struck for their goal.
"A bit lucky," McGrath puffed "but we'll take that any day of the week.
"We fought hard for it today, especially when they got the goal. Usually teams heads can drop and you play out for a draw but the lads pushed on. They weren't happy with it and they pushed on and I think we showed the character that's in the side. But we were lucky to win it. On another day you'd have taken the draw," he said.
On that dramatic end McGrath said: "I think the two of them (Moriarty and Lucey) were going for points. When it hit the crossbar and came back to Padriag (Lucey) and he punched it you'd have said that was the right option.
"We must have hit the posts four or five times and on another day that would have gone over. Macroom battled and battled and came back into it and I suppose both teams would have been happy with a draw there at the end."
It was just one of several scares the Sem line had to deal with but McGrath's confidence never faltered.
"Straight away (after half time) they got a goal and you thought 'Oh my God' because we had worked so hard in the first half but we couldn't get scores. You'd be thinking maybe this wasn't going to be our day but next thing we hit a purple patch (in the third quarter) and we kicked some great scores, kicked something like six scores into the breeze.
"I think we dominated midfield in the second half, Shaun Keane and Gary O'Leary were immense there in the second half, and we got the bit of luck there at the end and that's what counts.
"There was no major panic. We knew we hadn't play that well but we had had a lot of ball but we just hadn't converted the scores. We said going out that we had speed in the forwards if we could get the ball in quickly. And we said that against the breeze it should open up for them. That was kind of the gameplan in the second half, to play with about four forwards to give the lads space and thankfully it worked.
"It was a brilliant example of colleges football. Neutrals go to see colleges football because it's great football. There's no negativity in it, both teams go out to attack it at all costs and this was just another example of the high standard of colleges football."
- Paul Brennan
