Sweet success for Loughmore's Meagher
“It is a sweet one,” admitted John Meagher after Loughmore/Castleiney got over the line on Sunday to complete a senior hurling and football double.
“We like to keep it interesting,” he added with his involvement in the concession of the 55th minute goal which gave life to Thurles Sarsfields to get back level before John McGrath’s late match-winning free.
“We don’t like to win by more than one or two points, so we were giving some of the supporters a heart-attack towards the end,” Meagher added.
“I don’t know how to describe it; I have never felt like that after a game before. You feel like everything is worthwhile now when you get to the promised land.”
Many other teams would have folded with the manner of the goal conceded to Darragh Stakelum but when the pressure is on is when Loughmore/Castleiney come into their own.
“The big thing with this team is we just don’t panic and even at that stage there was no panic,” he revealed.
“We like to think if we are with a team with a few minutes to go we have a good chance of seeing it out because there is serious character there. It probably wasn’t the best play of the day, but we never panicked, and we still knew we could grind it out.”
To go from the low of 2020 to the high of 2021 is a remarkable recovery but Meagher admitted it wasn’t spoken of a lot.
“To come back from the disappointment of last year shows tremendous character with the group,” Meagher added.
“We didn’t speak that much about last year, there was no other option only to get up and go again. It is what has been bred into us and was the only thing we were ever going to.
“You also need a lot of luck to get over the line and we were probably lacking that bit of luck last year and got it this year. Over the course of a career and a few years, things balance themselves out.
“There will always be disappointing days, but you would just be hoping there are a few good days thrown in and this is definitely one of them.”
When the celebrations die down later this week, their focus will shift to the Munster Club Championships, starting with a football quarter final against Éire Óg of Ennis next Sunday.
“If a win like that doesn’t give you energy, I don’t know what will,” Meagher said.
“People like to talk about all these games in a row, but we are doing very limited training during the week and playing big games every weekend so what else would you want. People like to write and talk about all the games, but it is just fantastic and we will play until next year if we can.”