THE DAYS AND weeks after Mullinalaghta’s Leinster final victory over Kilmacud Crokes “was all very surreal”, admits captain Shane Mulligan.
As well as various interviews across radio, print and online, there was an appearance on the Late Late Show, while congratulatory letters arrived in the post from President Michael D Higgins and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
“We had a good laugh about it,” says Mulligan. “When we got home to Mullinalaghta, the phones were hopping in the days after. The President wrote to us, Leo Varadkar wrote to us. Next thing the Late Late were on and wanted us to come on.
“The team WhatsApp was hopping. It was good sport and a great way to celebrate it. It was heavy going for a while. You were here, there and everywhere after that. Getting to schools and medal presentations, stuff like that, so lads were happy to get back to training.
“Once you got through Christmas it all died down so January was back to training and focus the minds.
“There’s a nice bit of work done. It’s trying to get the balance right because the weather has changed, the pitches have got heavy. You’re trying to stay fresh without doing too much.
“It’s a real good feeling around training and it’s great to be there in the last four.
“Thankfully, it’s all settled down now a little bit. It’s back to the grindstone and preparing for Saturday.”
Nothing like the oncoming threat of Dr Crokes’ star-studded attack to direct their attention back to the football field.
The three-in-a-row Longford champions have been sharing their manager Mickey Graham with Cavan after this unexpected run to the All-Ireland club semi-finals, but Mulligan reckons it’s gone off without a hitch.
“We haven’t seen him since the Leinster final,” he laughs. “We’ve a cardboard cut out that we stand out in the middle of the pitch. We spin it around every so often.
“Ah no, the whole pressure is probably on Mickey but to be fair he’s doing a great juggling act. Obviously, Division 1 is up and running but we’ve been getting the work done as well.
“You’d probably have to ask his wife has she seen Mickey more than ask us. It’s probably (all travel) from Breffni Park to The Laurels.”
Mullinalaghta are free of any injury worries ahead of the clash against the Kerry kingpins at Semple Stadium.
They’re well aware of the challenge that awaits them, but the nature of their provincial final win against Kilmacud Crokes filled the group with confidence.
“We felt that there was enough talent in our dressing room to trouble Kilmacud,” remarks the wing-back.
“Thankfully, the game panned out as we wanted, we wanted to be in the mix with 10 or 15 minutes to go, because we felt we would have enough hunger and talent to get scores that would matter and that’s the way it panned out.
“Of course you got that vibe in the build-up that you were huge underdogs, and there wasn’t a whole pile of hope being given to you but thankfully it worked out for us.
“I guess we’ve gained a bit more publicity and things like that. It’s been well documented, Mullinalaghta and the size of the parish, the population, the dressing room and the size of the panel. We’ve been dealing with that the last three years.
“We don’t find ourselves in a situation we haven’t found ourselves in before. We’re going in as underdogs but that’s probably a tag we’ve had for 99% of the matches we went into. We’ll be approaching it the same way, looking after our own things we can control and see where it takes us.
“There’s no underestimating the talent that’s in that Dr Crokes team. Without having to overly study them because you’ve been watching them for the last number of years.
“They’ve been on this road before and a lot of them have been in with the Kerry set-up so you’ve seen them there. There’s no weak link in that Dr Crokes team.
“We’ll be trying to get the match-ups as best we can without taking away from our own game,” added Mulligan.
“We’re going to be going to try and deliver our own performance and be as competitive as we can and see where it takes us.”
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