No coincidence Leitrim end up on the right side of close games - Garrity

They may have caused palpitations among their supporters but Leitrim’s hard won experience in tight games proved crucial down the finishing stretch of last Sunday’s TG4 LGFA All-Ireland IFC Final according to manager Jonny Garrity.

Speaking with the Observer outside the team’s dressing rooms after the final, Jonny admitted that the victory had yet to sink in: “It hasn’t sunk in and I don’t expect it will for some time, it is surreal but it is just rewards for the way the girls have approached every game and every training session and put everything into it and I’m delighted for them.”

Cruising to victory, Leitrim once again put their supporters through the wringer as Tyrone launched a ferocious late fightback in the same way Wexford did in the semi-final as Jonny joked his team wanted to ensure fans got their money’s worth!

“People have paid for tickets, their hard earned money so we have to make it worthwhile for them! No, I would really appreciate it if the girls had a comfortable victory here but it seems as if almost every match was heart stopping at times and it took everything we had. 

“It went down to the wire but it is no coincidence that we’ve been on the right side of so many close battles, the mindset of the girls and the heart they’ve shown. Ultimately we’ve done it the hard way but it is so, so satisfying.”

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The Tyrone native is normally one to deflect personal praise but he was quick to throw plaudits the way of his management team, a much smaller outfit that would grace many men’s inter-county set-ups: “Everyone of us is double or triple jobbing but it is selecting the people with the right mindset to be in a high performance environment and trying to couple that up with people who are really good at doing several things. 

“It is not easy but we have a fantastic group of people there. Denise Stenson doing performance nutrition and lifestyle, Fergal Shannon doing strength & conditioning and fitness work, we’ve got Michael Lee doing rehab and prehab. We have Dermot Feely as an assistant manager also working with the goalkeepers and I’m doing a fair bit of coaching myself.

“So it has taken a fair bit of all of us, it has taken everything that we’ve got but everybody is so committed to it and everybody wanted it. There were no shortcuts taken, everything put everything in their power into being as good as we could be and that is the result.”

Earlier as he spoke in the post match press conference, Jonny stressed that Leitrim went in know they had to produce something special to see off a team of Tyrone’s calibre: “We had to produce something special to beat a team of that quality and having done so once already in the group stage, we knew they were going to come back with even more.

“We had to dig right down into our reserves as players, as people and we did all that and when all is said and done, the girls were exceptional on the day and I think they more than earned their victory.”

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Jonny also felt that Leitrim showed great resilience in overcoming some early missed goal chances: “When you create chances against teams like Tyrone, teams with the ability of Tyrone, you have to take them and perhaps we were guilty of not taking them earlier in the match when we had two early goal chances and maybe another before halftime. 

“Such is the way with this team, they find a way and keep battling - we’ve got it drilled into the girls, if things aren’t going our way, it doesn’t matter because the tide will turn. If something unforeseen happens, it doesn’t matter because we will find a way around it, they will learn on the go and find a way to make it count and win. They have done that over and over and today was a perfect example of that.”