Jubilant as they were afterwards, the Kerry management were seeking assurances nobody took offence to their exuberance on the sideline before the final whistle. If it looked like there was triumphalism on their part as they cheered and hugged their substitutes, it wasn’t intended. Anybody who knows Kerry’s story would appreciate their unbridled delight.
Putting right what had gone wrong for them in the past two All-Ireland finals. Being able to take off Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh before the final whistle was a luxury and both co-managers Darragh Long and Declan Quill encouraged the supporters to raise their voices for their star veteran as she approached the sideline. “I’ll always remember Geraldine O’Shea saying, ‘If you can look up the clock and there’s five minutes left and you’re home and hosed, that’s a beautiful place to be,” smiled Quill.
“We haven’t been in that situation really all year. When we could take Louise off to get the standing ovation she so richly deserves after 16, 17 years playing with Kerry, I think that’s the really special thing to do. “For all of management to come down and hug at the end, as the whistle was going, that was really, really nice.
I just hope we weren’t disrespectful – I don’t think we were. People know that we’ve come from a low, low base. Conducted ourselves well over the last number of years.
” Long added that the day will be a benefit for Galway in the future. “If anything, for Daniel (Moynihan), he’ll take inspiration from what we’ve done. What he’s done with that group, going from the disappointment of the league to an All-Ireland final is huge.
That’s testament to him and his group of girls. “We had lovely words with him before the game and after the game. He knows there was absolutely zero disrespect there, that this just meant a whole lot to us.
It was a dream scenario to be in that position a couple of minutes out.” The day had started for Quill with a message of encouragement from the county’s senior men’s manager. “Obviously played under Jack (O’Connor) with Kerry, he trained us to get to a county final with my club Kerins O’Rahillys in 2008.
It was a lovely message to get from Jack.” This looked and felt like the culmination of three brilliant seasons that ultimately fell down in two finals before redemption came calling here. “The thing about this team and for the last three years they have played in every single game they could possibly play in,” highlighted Quill.
“That’s an amazing stat for any team. They’ve got to all the finals in the leagues, Munster finals, All-Ireland finals for the last three years.” Long took great pride in the team producing a sizzling display in the final when their character had been queried after losing back-to-back deciders, to Meath in 2022 and Dublin last year.
“Dublin come out like a bat out of hell and blew us out of the water. The second half was better from us but we knew we were a whole lot better than that and I suppose a lot of people questioned us in the last couple of weeks about ‘are this group mentally tough, are we resilient, are we this, are we that?’ I think they got their answer there today. “There is resilience and mental toughness in this group in abundance.
To leave our best performance to the final day and the big day, to do it so convincingly, is just super satisfying.” A question about All-Stars prompted Quill to demand an award for one defender. “I don't want to single out anybody but if Ciara Murphy doesn't get an All-Star this year, I'll have to do something at the banquet.
“Ciara, the Gooch's niece as she is known in a lot of places, we have put her on all the best players in Ireland this year. She hasn't even been nominated for an All-Star the last two years, she is a special player in our group. If Ciara Murphy doesn't get nominated or get an All-Star this year, I'll be very surprised.
“But look, it is a team game. If you look at Hannah O'Donoghue, Lorraine Scanlon, they had to swallow not starting. But they knew they had a job to do when they came on.
They weren't happy not starting, and you can use that in two different ways, and you could see from what the girls did when they came on how they used it. “They put in two phenomenal performances when they came on. It is a team game, a panel game.
35 girls there training non-stop. 20 can play, and that is the hardest thing about management, picking the team. Leaving girls out is really, really hard.
”.
