IT WAS AN emotional post-match press conference after Dublin were dethroned, as four-in-a-row winning manager Mick Bohan battled back tears behind the microphone.
Meath’s fairytale first year back in the senior ranks hit stratospheric levels in Croke Park this afternoon as they produced a remarkable two-point win to lift the Brendan Martin Cup for the very first time.
In doing so, the Royals ended Dublin’s Drive for Five and inflicted a first championship defeat on Bohan’s side in this, his second term at the helm.
Until today, the Sky Blues had a 100% record in championship fare under his watch, enjoying a run of 25 straight wins dating back to the 2016 All-Ireland final.
But Meath well and truly brought it to Dublin in Croke Park this afternoon, and were deserving 1-11 to 0-12 winners.
“Look, we’re hugely disappointed,” Bohan said afterwards. “At the end of the day, devastation is for different things in life. I have to take my hat off to Meath, I thought they were outstanding. I don’t know if I saw that coming, maybe we didn’t.
“I couldn’t get over their intensity, maybe it’s the first time we’ve seen it up front. They certainly weren’t overawed by the occasion and that’s a testament to them and to the work that’s been done with them.
“It seemed to be a ferocious battle, you guys would be better equipped to judge that because there’s more emotion involved in it for us. But we have no qualms.
“From my end, I’m terribly lucky to have been involved with our group and the quality of people we deal with. That obviously doesn’t change regardless of whether we win or lose.
“As you guys know, this sport is so much more than a game and we’re obviously hugely proud to represent the city in this capacity. Certainly over the last period of time that I’ve been involved, I think they’ve done a phenomenal job representing their city.”
Clearly emotional at that point, his eyes glazed over as he continued, with plenty of pauses taken:
“I can say this to you hand on heart… that whatever we as a management team have given them, they’ve given us way more.
“I look to five years ago and on the back of three All-Ireland defeats… and I suppose today was the end of a road for probably half a dozen of that group. You would have obviously written the script differently from our end but again, I hand the thing back over to Meath, that’s the way it’s supposed to be done.
“You’re supposed to go out into that arena and you’re supposed to empty your souls on the pitch, that’s why we value it so highly. I hope the people that came today got the spectacle that they deserve and I certainly think it was a marvellous front for ladies football.”
Delving deeper into the game itself, Bohan went on to rue the fact that his side failed to unlock Meath and “didn’t execute up front the way we normally do,” though always reserving praise for Meath’s system.
“We thought we were well equipped coming into the game but obviously I got some things wrong,” he said.
“We have to hand it to them, the structure that they had in defence, it’s quite difficult to break down, they were so well organised. Look, I don’t know what the stats on turnovers were at the end of the 60-odd minutes but they were high at half-time.
“We were making errors that we normally didn’t. Those off-loads, we just weren’t getting them to the hands like we normally do. In saying that, we had three great goal chances in the first-half, probably an off-load needed on two of them that would have put it into the back of the net and one of them was a phenomenal save from the goalkeeper.
“I suppose ultimately there were a couple of systems that, unless you’ve come up against them before they were quite unusual. They were playing a double centre-back, they filtered their players back aggressively, and I mean aggressively from the point of view of the ferocity that they got back.
“And the conditioning of them… I couldn’t get over their conditioning. I thought we were in really good shape but it got to a stage where they were matching us hell for leather in every single contest on the field. So fair play to them.”
Humble in victory, gracious in defeat; that showed both in this press conference and on the pitch afterwards.
With mention of the unsuccessful Drive for Five in a question, Bohan noted:
“I am saying this to you all honestly, we weren’t going for five-in-a-row. Each of these All-Irelands are independent of each other. Ultimately, I obviously let that seep into the group, because that’s not the message that we wanted.
“I hand this over. And I think it’s a fabulous message in sport. They have got a group of people together who went after the thing with such energy and passion and they deserve that victory today. It’s a great message, and that’s the message that should go out to kids.
“If you commit yourself to a cause, you get organised and you are willing to do the little bit extra, well the competition is there for anyone.”
“Again, we have lost a game today,” he concluded. “That’s what has happened. We have been lucky enough to be on the right side of it and to have experienced the happy days.
“We will take this one on the chin. I will say it again. I am so lucky to have been given the opportunity to work with the quality of people that I have dealt with over the last five years.”
