Na Fianna had 'huge belief' they could it around against Loughrea
Celebrates Fianna Shc Colin His After Victory Final Ireland Over By All Of Photo Loughrea Currie Na Moran/sportsfile Semi Brendan Side's
Na Fianna had let themselves down come the interval whistle. Redemption needed to travel a very quick road. They had half an hour, or thereabouts, to make amends. They did, just.
Colin Currie was the perfect microcosm of their sharp contrast. Floundered in the first half, flourished at the finish.
Currie struck two first-half points, both from the placed-ball. He was, in the round, bested by former Galway defender Paul Hoban. On to the second period and Currie raised eight white flags, including the score to put his team in front for the very first time on 57 minutes. He was also involved in their stoppage-time winner.
“We probably let ourselves down a bit [in the first half]. You don’t want to do that in such big games. The way we played, it wasn’t good enough,” said the corner-forward.
“We knew we had the second half to turn it around. That’s what this team has been all about, staying in games. We have a lot of talented players throughout the squad, but that determination to stay in the game is probably our most important trait. We have players to score from anywhere. It’s just staying in the game, staying determined, winning ground ball, just keep focusing on that and it’ll turn around.”
That staying power was given a greater chance of rising to the surface by the size of the interval gap. The gap was four. It should have been more. Currie and his teammates knew they’d been left in a fixture more than they should.
“We were fairly disappointed with how we played. They were much better than us all over the pitch. There wasn't enough fight, even off the ball, tracking runners, it just wasn't good enough.
“But at the same time, we were only down four points and there was huge belief that we could turn that around. We just needed to focus on tackling, tracking runners, just doing the basics much better. We felt like we weren't in a bad position, even though we had played pretty poorly in the first half.
“I think some of their wides were probably what kept us in it. It was definitely easier to score into that town goal in the second half. Being four down at half-time wasn't the worst position to be in for how badly we played.
“We really turned it around in the second half from a physical standpoint and that’s where the scoring opportunities came from.”
The opportunity now in front of them is to become only the second Dublin club, after Cuala, to lift the Tommy Moore Cup.
“It's unbelievable, especially after leaving it so late and being behind for so long. It probably hasn't sunk in just yet, but we're just delighted. It's such a good achievement for the whole club.”