A proud day for Mullingar hurling as Plunkett’s prevail

Mullingar side St Oliver Plunkett’s capped a fine season by winning the Westmeath Senior ‘B’ hurling title on Saturday, overcoming Ringtown in fine style.

Captain David Gavin said it was a proud day for the club.

“We lost a senior final against Castletown Geoghegan and it’s a long way back after that. We had to rebuild and some of us that were here that day are still involved.

“It’s hugely proud; we want Mullingar to be in senior hurling, that’s our goal,” he beamed.

“We want to stay there and push it on.”

He said they had to regroup after a difficult 2022 season and praised the role of manager Ciaran McKenna.

“We had a very unlucky year last year with lots of injuries. Things just didn’t go our way. But Ciaran McKenna, our manager, is amazing.

The positivity he brings, just to make us believe we can recover from that and win this. It’s a big turnaround, but we put in the work and that’s where it got us,” he said.

There were some fine performances which drove the Mullingar side on to victory.

“We didn’t have a semi-final and we were concerned we might come in here flat. We talked about that. Paddy Lynam is an extraordinary player.

“He’s very consistent; it’s generally a nine or 10 with him (in terms of performance), it’s never a five.

“Thankfully he’s on our team,” said Gavin.

“A lot of us are dual players.

We put in a huge effort and we were well conditioned which was crucial.

“Greg Gavin is the best player we ever had and Macca (Steve McManus) is great, too.

“I hope they stay around and give it one more year at senior level.”