‘Players have been unbelievable’ — Bruen

As the Castlerea players broke away from their huddle at the end of the match, a quick glance at the faces of their disappointed supporters coming towards them told them all they needed to know about the enormity of their performance in Portlaoise on Saturday last.

Pride was the pervading emotion. A group of players and their management team had lifted the spirits of a town and, even in defeat, the warmth being directed towards the vanquished hadn’t lost any of its glow.

Manager Dara Bruen stopped to gather his thoughts. Like he has done all season, his thoughts quickly turned towards his players.

“The players have been unbelievable again. I don’t know what the score was when the second goal went in, but did anyone doubt that they’d keep going? I certainly didn’t.

“We created the chance at the end and we had the guts to take on the shot. It just went the wrong side of the post. They’re the tight margins — the further on you go, the better the opposition becomes. If you make mistakes, you’ll get punished. But you could not say enough about that group of players, they have been absolutely super,” he explained.

The Castlerea boss admitted that everything didn’t work out according to plan, but that the analysis over the coming weeks would make the team better.

“We’ll look at ourselves, we’ll go through the game. There are a couple of things where we felt that we didn’t do as well as we would have liked, particularly early on in the game.

“All year long, some of the stuff that we’ve had in training have been unreal. There are 32 or 33 guys fighting there for 15 jerseys. To have that in Castlerea is massive.

“When the dust settles, we’ll take a lot of pride from that performance. It will stand us in good stead going forward into the senior championship.

“But the journey has been just unbelievable. It has been so refreshing and enjoyable. It has been good for the soul, not just for us. The town is buzzing. There are people here today who haven’t been at a game in 30 or 40 years.

“People are at a stage in their life where, maybe, things aren’t going that well. People are struggling a small bit, and this has given something for people to latch onto. To be part of that has been great. It has driven us on too,” he acknowledged.

But back to the players, and Bruen was quick to highlight their discipline over the festive season when it would have been easier to let the hair down after a long, hard 12 months.

“That’s all on the players. It’s huge from them. That’s nothing to do with the management team. It’s them, managing their own time. The biggest thing is you have a group of 24-year-olds and 25-year-olds who have friends that are only home for the Christmas, so it’s not easy for the players not to be out with them, or be out on New Year’s Eve. But they made that decision. I couldn’t speak highly enough about how they’ve handled themselves,” he noted.

Cill na Martra manager, John Evans, pointed out that he would be heading into his fifth final in Croke Park next weekend where he has won the previous four, including two national league titles with Roscommon. He was also full of praise for the calibre of a Castlerea performance that may have surprised many, but not him.

“Two clubs, with two different styles, went at it. There were some great displays. Castlerea played well above what we had seen from them before today. They played wonderful football, very composed and very controlled. That style was different from our point of view because we hadn’t met a team that were so good defensively.

“You know what was being said about Castlerea — that they were a lucky team. That was really unfair and I had to try and instill into my lads that this was a good Castlerea team. It was very difficult to do that. Mentally, it is very difficult to change guys’ perception of what is being said. And by God, they knew at half time that were in a game.

“We had to lift our game, and we did. But Castlerea lifted their game as well,” he acknowledged.