O'Mullan happy to silence Shamrocks' critics
Loughgiel Shamrocks manager PJ O'Mullan was happy his side proved their doubters wrong by capturing the club's first AIB All-Ireland Club SHC title since 1983.
Shamrocks, who ran out comfortable 4-13 to 0-17 winners over Coolderry in yesterday's final, had been written off by a large part of the GAA media.
Indeed, all six journalists who made their predictions on the game in the official match programme went against the eventual winners.
O'Mullan was delighted that his side rubbished those pre-match predictions with a terrific workmanlike performance.
"It's a super day for our club. It was well documented that we had been here previously and that we had won an All-Ireland in 1983," he said afterwards.
"We are a massively proud, traditional hurling club. We love it and this just adds a bit more spice to our club now.
"We have a new generation of hurlers now and this generation were fit to come, get the job done today and emulate the heroes of 1983."
The Loughgiel boss raved in particular about the performance of man-of-the-matchLiam Watson, who bagged a tremendous 3-7 tally - just one point short of the entire Coolderry tally.
"I think everyone in Ireland knows about Liam. The press gets plenty off him and you see what he is like.
"He doesn't mince his words and one thing I can tell you, and I've always said it, is that he is the best trainer in Ireland.
"He is up there with Henry Shefflin, John Gardner and Donal Og Cusack. This man is possessed when he trains.
"He is a super trainer and a super worker, a good team man and the fact that he put everything he had into the campaign this year means we're getting the fruits of it."
Watson's impressive haul matched the 16 points he scored in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Limerick's Na Piarsaigh.
It was no surprise to his manager that the 29-year-old was again in superb form in the Patrick's Day decider at Croke Park.
"The second goal was brilliant and the first goal we told him to go for, we had already planned that any 21-yard frees he'd go for, we know what he is capable of," added O'Mullan.
"We were five in front at the time and it would have been easy to tap over a point, but when you are that good and you are that close we see no reason not to have a go.
"The skill he showed for the next goal to bring the ball down was tremendous.
"In the second half they came out all guns blazing, Coolderry are a good team and we're not going to dominate for 60 minutes.
"It's very rare that a team would do that so we're just happy with our performance, we hurled when we had to."
