Frustration of 2022 drove Mohill to victory believes O'Hara

To say that redemption was on the mind of Mohill’s players may be just over-selling it a little bit but Eamonn O’Hara pointed to the frustration of last year’s loss to St Mary’s Kiltoghert as one of the deciding factors in last Sunday’s Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC Final.

“This time last year, there was probably a lot of frustration and anger with the Mohill people as to why we didn’t win,” reflected the former Sligo star, “You can talk about being the best team in the county and have the noise around that but you have to do it on the day. Last year we didn’t do it and this year, we did - the boys went out and put their shoulder to the wheel and I just give them huge credit.”

Defeat last year led to a lot of criticism but it also led Eamonn to having a good look at both his team and himself and the rigorous assessment that followed paid off last Sunday: “It was very disappointing last year because I thought we were in a really good place. But some of the attention to detail when I reflect on it probably wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be. 

Getting written off was motivation for Mohill says O'Hara

“You’d love to implement a County set-up into a club but you have to realise what the players are playing with and some club players just cannot take that intensity so you have to find a balance. But this year, with the way the League went, we lost a number of games by a point, we found ourselves in a relegation battle with Ballinamore technically speaking to make sure we didn’t go down.

“We did an awful lot of analysis on ourselves, a lot of video work. The amount of video work we did really helped the lads, they got better insights into where the mistakes were, not that it fixed them but it definitely helped improve them and just the extra week we had because we weren’t in the League Final, it just went from there. I’m just absolutely over the moon.”

Some of that assessment included rethinking the role of man of the match Ronan Kennedy: “Ronan last year was probably coming in as a 20 minute impact sub and I sort of looked at that as well. I I said it to him straight out, I need you to be a starter, I need you to be a finisher, you need to get that fitness up.

“He is training to be a solicitor up in Dublin and he managed himself exceptionally well and he reaped the rewards. He did everything right and I was just delighted for him - he ran the show at times and that pass he put in for Keith was just sublime. Delighted for him but delighted for everyone.”

After struggling in the first half, a few positional switches and a change in tempo saw Mohill take over in the second half and even the wides helped the new champions pin the Carrick men in their own half: “We didn’t control the first half, in fairness Carrick showed a lot more energy and probably had their match ups a little bit better than we had. 

“We got a fortuitous enough goal and Papa (Padraig Tighe) pulled off a few saves but Carrick could have been out of sight. Having said that, our goal was to stay in the game, create an intensity that we created in that game in Mohill because we knew coming down the stretch, if we created that intensity, Carrick might struggle.

“We made a couple of changes, Conor came in at halftime, we got a little bit more possession around midfield, Chick came into it an awful lot more. We butchered one really good goal chance but having said that, we dominated with repeat sets of attacks which is what we wanted.

“It forced Carrick into playing an unorthodox way of faster play and it suited us down to the ground. Small moments make a difference and in fairness to Carrick, they came back and equalised it. Then it was a case of our lads digging really deep and kicking two great scores and thankfully that’s what happened.”

Mohill celebrate wildly as they regain the Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC title after epic battle with St Mary's Kiltoghert - GALLERY

Mohill celebrations were long and loud in Avant Money Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada as the four in a row Connacht Gold Leitrim SFC finalists got their hands back on the Fenagh Cup after an epic 2-10 to 0-14 victory over defending champions St Mary's Kiltoghert on Sunday. Observer photographer Willie Donnellan was a busy man with the camera chronicling the celebrations ..... see who you can spot here!

Mohill now have a very long break before a Connacht Semi-Final meeting with either the Roscommon or Sligo champions but for now, Eamonn will celebrate Sunday’s triumph: “I don’t even know who we’re playing. We have a good bit of time to prepare, get the bodies right, get the likes of Fiachra McGuinness back, he pulled a hamstring last week. 

“It is always going to be a big challenge but listen, we’ll enjoy tonight, I’m going to enjoy every minute of this with the lads because they were outstanding.”