Clanmaurice captain Patrice Diggin: We lit up Croke Park in the second half

The Clanmaurice adventure appeared over but they won a free sixty five metres out and on the side line with the Rovers fans irate at the awarding of it.

Up stepped Diggin and despite barracking from the crowd, she split the post to force extra time. Clanmaurice closed out the game and went on to win the All-Ireland Intermediate club for the first time.

Then in this year’s semi final two weeks ago, Clanmaurice led by six points with less than five minutes to go but St Bridget’s leveled with two quick fire goals.

But from the puck out from that second goal, Amy O’Sullivan collected and found Diggin, who fired over the lead point before repeating the feat from the St Bridget’s puck-out. The skipper had done it again.

So what did climbing the Hogan Stand and lifting the trophy mean to Patrice Diggin on Sunday ? ” Unreal” she said.

“There are probably no words to describe the feeling of winning out there today. I am delighted and just relieved that we got over the line.”

Despite being eighteen points in front late on, the Clanmaurice players were still working as hard as they were in the opening quarter. Is that what Diggin meant when she described the bond in the team in the buildup?

“We probably felt we didn’t do ourselves justice last year in Croke Park as well. We were poor on the day and we knew that and still got over the line so I suppose Eddie asked us to light up Croke Park and we probably did that in the second half and got over the line.”

Despite leading by six points at half time, Diggin explained why Clanmaurice went for the juggler in the third quarter.

“I suppose in the last three games we played up until today that is when we left teams back into it," she added.

"It was that first few minutes after half time and we were adamant that we were going to be the team that were going to dominate that ten minutes. We targeted that ten minutes after half time and it took them to score a goal in the first half to wake us up out of lull.

"We were not going to let that happen again and we were going to drive on and that management were pushing that message at half time to drive it on and really show what Clanmaurice were about.”

Many in the Kingdom felt in the build up that a win would mean the end of Clanmaurice as they would being senior next year and Diggin discounts any doubts of what the team felt. Once a club wins the Intermediate Club, they have to move up to senior grade and the Clanmaurice captain confirmed that they will and, in fact, they want to.

“I think one of the biggest goals we had going out today was to win so as we could go senior. Pete Young said it either before the match or at half time that we wanted to go senior. All week anyone who asked how we felt if we won today again and I actually told them that I wanted us to go up to senior to see what Clanmaurice really are.

"We played senior club De Le Salle in a challenge game and we beat them by five points without three or four key players. I know it was only a challenge game but we put it up to them. We did the same to Newcastle West in Limerick so that is one of our main goals to test ourselves against the best and see where we are.

"We could go out and get hammered next year or we could win our first game. So we will just play senior Munster and say play Clonlara if they win Clare. It will show where exactly we are and I just hope this group stays together so as we can give it our best and if it’s not good enough, so be it”