It's a family affair for Rangers

Three sets of brothers started on Sunday for Mount Leinster Rangers in their Senior County Final win over St Mullins. Conaill and Fiachra Fitzpatrick. Donagh and Ruairi Murphy. The two Nolan siblings have been there and have done it all. Not so for Conaill Fitzpatrick and Ruairi Murphy who were looking for a first senior medal.

With county titles and a Joe McDonagh Cup winning medal, the older Fiachra Fitzpatrick is nicely filling the trophy cabinet. It would be Conaill’s moment on Sunday.

“It means everything. All the hard work you put in. There were high expectations on me. All the work he (Fiachra) does. It is outrageous. All you can do is try your best. Work hard. Train hard,” said Conaill who revealed he had one of those horrible moments which he had to recover from a misplaced pass which gave Paul Doyle a chance of a point which he took.

“I was worried. I hit the ball away coming out of the backs. They got it back. Yes, I was worried but all you can do is work it out. Grind it out. We worked hard.” At that stage winning by six points was a pipe-dream. He would have taken a one-point victory at that stage.

“That would have been the target. It wouldn’t have mattered as long as we got over the line.” Brothers, Donagh and Ruairi Murphy, started on Sunday. Donagh was on the winning team two years ago but had to settle for second best in 2024. This year, Ruairi was promoted late in the season from the intermediate side. It was a dream come through for the family when both were selected.

“This means everything. After last year we were heartbroken. We lost a strong lead in the game and bottled it at the end. Today was just brilliant. It means everything,” said Donagh, who scored four points in the first half.

In the second half it was all about grinding it out.

“Four points or no points it was a case of getting there any way you can. I put in more tackles in the second half than I did the first anyway. I contributed in that way so I am delighted. We are just as happy for us to stop scores as we are to getting scores ourselves. It means so much. It could be a score for us or if we stop them getting a score, it means the same thing.” And was he surprised that his teenage brother got the nod at the weekend?

“I couldn’t have seen it. I thought he would have served a year or two in the intermediate but he has proved me wrong. He has come up this year and has done very well. It is special.”