Whelan 'delighted to be part of it'

Mickey Whelan takes a bite from a KitKat just as we approach him for a word, and if anyone deserves a break like this - ending the long wait for the Leinster club title - it's the modest and affable St Vincent's manager.

Whelan was determined to step down when the club lost the county final last year, but it now seems the hand of fate, as much as his old friend Kevin Heffernan, made him stay on.

"Yeah, of course I'm delighted to be a part of it," says Whelan. "But I believe it would have happened anyway. The team was ready to make its move forward.I think on the day we were the better team. Goals always do it, once they come at the right time, and you take them well, and you don't concede anything too soon afterwards. And we did all that.

"But I'm just delighted for this team. They're growing in stature the whole time, and I was just delighted by the performance, by everyone. Not one of those players played badly. They rose to the occasion, as they have done all year, improving with each game. They're getting experience under their belt as well, played some flowing football, and finished well."

Yet it was the lesser lights such as Kevin Golden who ultimately made the difference:

"Kevin was marvellous with his forward play, and Micheál O'Shea was also marvellous at midfield. So was High Coghlan before he went off injured. I'm delighted too for Pat Gilroy. It's what he does for the other players, moving them into position. He's involved in everything, and I'm delighted that at the autumn of his career he's still winning medals."

Of course they're not done just yet - and in fact Whelan reckons the best of this St Vincent's team is to come: "Well I don't think we can have seen the best of them yet. I'm not saying you'll see the best of them this year, but there's so many of that team 19, 20 or 21.

"Of course it does look like Crossmaglen next

. . . but that's for another day. If we are going to go out this year it will be great to go out to the All-Ireland champions, but we're not going up there to go out."

For Tyrrellspass manager Pat Flanagan there were no complaints, with the possible exception of Gavin Hoey's disallowed goal shortly before half-time: "No, no arguments whatsoever. I thought coming in here we could have done a lot better, but the pace of the game for the first 20 minutes really caught us by surprise. Having said that we didn't come out of the traps properly at all. Maybe we were a little bit in awe.

"But all credit to St Vincent's, the better team and deserved winners. The goals were the only difference, although we've come under that pressure in the past. We had that goal disallowed, and I really feel that made a big difference. If we had got that it would have given us the confidence that we needed to go forward.

"But I think we were fighting an uphill battle all day with those decisions. From where I was I can't say, but I've no doubt that goal would have changed our game completely. We were on the back foot, needed something to give us a lift, and when that didn't go in, it drove us further down.

"But no real regrets. We got to a Leinster semi-final last year, and the final this year. We wouldn't have been favourites to come out of Westmeath this year, so hopefully if we stick together we can go that step further next year."