'We were favourites but we knew every game was going to be a battle'

JFC final reaction

Knockbride captain Paddy Rogers felt the emergence of a handful of quality young players, augmenting the squad which was already in place, made the difference for Knockbride as they went from nearly men to county junior champions.

“I can’t even describe it. It’s hard to put into words. We’ve been knocking on the door a long, long time and finally we got across the line,” the midfielder said.

“We knew that they were going to be tricky to break down. They’re an experienced outfit, they have played in an Intermediate final. Enda Henry and all these boys are around playing football a long, long time.

“We knew they were going to be hard to break down but we knew if we stuck with them and tried to build up a bit of a lead, that we’d be able to keep it and thankfully we did that.

“I started playing senior football eight years ago and we won Division 3 seven years ago and if you had told me that I was going to win a Division 2 league before I’d win a Junior Championship I’d have laughed at you. Maybe we were a bit naïve in that, we were young at the time but we’re all after hitting 24, 25, 26 with a new batch of young lads after coming in, Lorcan Reilly and those boys, and it drove the thing on.

“It was probably what we needed, another batch of young lads to drive the thing on, and thankfully we got across the line today.”

This championship was all about winning, he said.

“It wasn’t pretty probably for the most part in the championship but we knew every game was going to be a battle. Every team that was coming out against us had absolutely nothing to lose, we were labelled as these big dogs, we were labelled as the Dublin of the Junior Championship, but we knew every game was going to be a battle.

“It was all about just getting through it and we got through it today.”

Next up, when the celebrations die down, is the Ulster Club Championship.

“Ah we will, we’ll give it a good rattle now when we’re after getting this far,” Rogers said.

Reilly looks to the future

Man of the Match Lorcan Reilly, who is still just 19, looked to the future when he spoke to the Anglo-Celt after the game.

“It’s unbelievable, we are waiting a long time for this. We were bottom of the junior for a long time so this is unbelievable, unbelievable,” he said.

“We have kind of made a habit of starting poorly in games this year and I kind of knew we’d come back in the second half, come out strong in the third quarter which we did and we finished off well, that was the main thing.”

Winning the title is a weight off Knockbride’s shoulders and now they can drive on.

“It is and we’ll keep pushing, this is not the end of this. We’ll come back and hopefully we’ll be near this again in Intermediate next year.”

Being strong favourites from the outset adds its own pressures, he agreed.

“It sure does, yeah. Aidan said during the week that we had 75 sessions this year so a massive amount of work. Gym, running, trainings, it’s unbelievable. The boys put in some effort this year so it’s a credit to them.

“Ah yeah, we’ll push on in Ulster but we’ll enjoy this first.”