IHC final: ‘We’re a tight-knit bunch’, says Plunkett’s boss McKenna

Eight years after managing the club to its only county senior final appearance, Ciaran McKenna was fittingly back in the St Oliver Plunkett’s bainisteoir bib for last Saturday’s very impressive victory in the Slevin’s Coaches intermediate hurling final against Ringtown.

After the match, the winning manager stated: “I’m very proud of getting the club back up to senior ‘B’. It’s not quite the level we want to be, we’ve higher aims than this, but this is the first step. I’m so proud of the lads.

“I’ve been training some of those lads since 2000, as (captain) Davy (Gavin) said (in his post-match acceptance speech), and I was playing with some of them for another ten years before that.

“We’re a tight-knit bunch and I’m just delighted for those lads to get across the line today because the effort they have put in for the last year, and particularly the last few months, has just been outstanding.”

In truth, the Mullingar men were far superior to their opponents on the day. In this regard, McKenna opined: “We knew we had the forwards to do the business and we put a lot of focus on not letting Ringtown out with the ball, to turn it over and see what we could do after that.

“Our backs did very well in harrying their attackers but our forwards did two jobs, by scoring and also ensuring that nobody got a free strike out the pitch. To be honest, we hounded them into the ground with our work rate. That was the plan and that’s what the lads did.”

He was delighted with the current mix of old and young in the side. He continued: “The young lads did very well and there’s a couple of other young lads to come in, while the likes of Ciaran Curley still has a few more years left in him. We have that good mix of youth and experience.”

Looking ahead, McKenna concluded: “We know that senior ‘B’ is probably another six or seven points step-up and we have to get up to that mark. Mullingar is a big town and there is a lot going on in it, but we really are building.

“Membership-wise, we have probably doubled or trebled in the last seven or eight years. Our underage is really, really strong, and numbers-wise and standard-wise it is fantastic.

“There are a lot of guys doing huge work at underage. That process has to keep going for the next ten years. We’re going in the right direction.”