'We didn’t bottle this one' - Amond's delight at landing Carlow title

The years are flying by. Has the Old Leighlin captain really been in the squad for over ten years now? Apparently so. Aaron Amond is not the only one who looks young but has been around for quite some time now.

“This is very special. We came on to the panel in 2014 and we lost 14 and we lost in 2015. This bunch of players have gone through a lot. A few relegation finals. We were told we bottle everything. We didn’t bottle this one. This one means a lot,” he says as he confirms that a dream of a life-time has been achieved.

It wasn’t a classic final. Amond admits that.

“Look, it wasn’t pretty. We know ourselves we didn’t play our best football. I. am sure Rathvilly will feel the same thing. County finals are for getting over the line. We crawled over the line but we got there and that is all that matters,” says the captain who says the last move was contrived to ensure the winning score attempt would fall to someone who had the best chance of pulling it off.

“I don’t think Cathal was going to give it to anyone else. We know who the shooters are. We have many shooters. The wind was going that way. Cathal was there. I was on the other side of the pitch going shoot, shoot in my head. There was no-one in the Old Leighlin team that I would rather than Cathal Coughlan,” stated Amond.

Tadgh Roche is another one of those players who, at a guess, seems to have only come into the Old Leighlin side in recent years. Apparently not?

“It is my eighth year. It was back in 2018. It has been a long time coming,” the right-half back pointed out.

“The work that goes on behind closed doors in Old Leighlin is something else. The works that lads like Davy Bambrick and Seamus Kinsella who haven’t missed a session all year. They really drive us on,” Roche added.

The wing-back knew his side could never relax. Even when they were six clear.

“We knew from experience with Rathvilly that they would not go down without a fight. The chances were that they would get a purple patch. We knew we would have to respond.” Wing back, Jamie Doyle, is one of the most recent additions to the team. Not the youngest but when you look at Amond, Coughlan, Bambrick and Kinsella, he is still only a chap.

“This is my fifth year. We have had a number of disappointments in the last few years. Days like today makes you realise why you do it all,” says Doyle speaking like a veteran.

He said the players could not be wracked by a lack of confidence. It was something which was worked on.

“You will have nerves going into a county final. Belief was a big thing this year. Brian Lonergan had come in and was pushing that belief into us. We were good enough other years but hadn’t performed,” said Doyle.

He accepted that errors had to be kept to the minimum.

“Every game you make mistakes and some teams are better at punishing those mistakes. Especially Rathvilly today. They punished us when we made those mistakes and managed to bring the score back in.” And would he have settled for a draw when Gavin knocked over the equaliser?

“We were out there to win. You didn’t know what was going to happen. Lads pushed forward and we got the reward.”