Glen manager Malachy O'Rourke celebrates with his players at Croke Park. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
By Cian O'Connell
A lifetime spent in football - training and preparing teams at every level of the game - has taught Malachy O'Rourke many lessons.
So, at the end of a chaotic match when Glen finished strongly to overcome St Brigid's style and spirit, O'Rourke simply reflected on the sheer, hard work carried out by Watty Grahams stalwarts.
O'Rourke was asked about winning an All-Ireland, but the former Fermanagh and Monaghan boss was quick to praise others.
"It doesn’t really come down to that for me, I’ve only ever been in two All-Ireland finals, that was last year and this year," O'Rourke remarked. Pleasure for O'Rourke is in the journey.
"Look, the joy I get out of it – as I said before, my life is not going to change that much whether I win an All-Ireland or not.
"The joy I get out of it is seeing the boys growing as a group of players and having that hunger and will to improve, to get better and test themselves at the highest level in club football.
"For the whole club and community, in fairness to the club they wouldn’t have had silverware for a long time, but they weren’t resting on their laurels, they put in great facilities so that when these lads came through the facilities and infrastructure was there, and everybody was able to push on together.
"It would be remiss of me to sit here and start looking for glory because as you know there has been massive work done in the club at underage level, the amount of work that was done, that has had a massive impact on what happened today."
Glen crafted footballers, a culture established. Senior silverware was eventually attained on the Derry, Ulster,
and national stage.
"It was a strange game," O'Rourke acknowledged. "I said to someone else, we nearly saved our worst until last. We just couldn't get going at all. Even what Conor (Glass) said there, three or four down with however left, he thought it was gone.
"It was a greater testament to him that he didn't give up and was able to make those big plays. That is pure leadership.
"That is what we prided ourselves on. We just keep working, working for each other. Try to make good decisions. It wasn't looking good, but character shone through."
In high stakes matches, late drama frequently occurs. "We kept going until the end and got our reward," O'Rourke says.
"It is one thing we have referenced, for whatever reason, the All-Ireland finals there, Kilcoo and Kilmacud two years ago was a dramatic finish. Last year was a dramatic finish.
"So, there's always that possibility of it being a dramatic finish and we just had to cling onto that hope and that's the way it turned out."
At the end of both halves Glen pounced to score vital goals. "It was funny, we were disappointed with the way we were playing and the goal we got in the lead up to half time was a crucial score because it got us level at half time," O'Rourke commented.
"It was a good enough position to be in because we knew that we hadn't played well and we were still right in the game and we felt that there was a lot more in us.
"Obviously, their goal early on in the second half gave us a mountain to climb again and we had plenty of possession, we just weren't making best use of it.
"But the longer the game went on, it was getting a bit more frustrating, but we always said that we'd go right to the end and we got our reward for it today.
"We knew that the Kilmacud game had a lot of tension on it, that we had to get really focused on St Brigid's and they came in in a great way, and they're a quality team as they showed out there.
"Possibly we were a bit nervous, you can mask it all the way you want, but after losing one All-Ireland you don't want to lose a second one.
"There possibly was a bit of nerves there as well, so we're just delighted to get over the line."
