The Fr Larry Murray Trophy will reside in Longford for the next 12 months after just the fifth provincial success in their history and manager Enda McGahern is still soaking in a sweet success.
Beating the Dubs twice throughout their campaign makes it all the rarer and McGahern is beaming with pride that his troops “pulled it out of the bag” having had to play catch-up throughout.
“It was just fantastic. We pulled it out of the bag when we were down in the first half by four points and we were trailing as well at the end of normal time,” McGahern told Independent.ie.
“To win it the way we did in extra-time made it extra sweet and it felt like the whole county of Longford was on the pitch afterwards. It was just great scenes of celebration with family and friends and clubmates.”
McGahern, a systems engineer with American multinational cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, was getting back into the swing of things at work today after Monday turned into a memorable whirlwind.
The team bus arrived back to Longford just before midnight but that didn’t prevent a band helping them parade down the Main Street in front of their many supporters before they retreated to a function in the Longford Arms Hotel.
The cup was brought by the squad to a variety of schools and clubs yesterday, as it will be over the coming days and weeks, and there will be no sense of keeping their feet on the ground for a while yet.
“It’s very important to enjoy it and we’re definitely letting them enjoy it and bring the cup around to their schools and their clubs. We certainly won’t hold them back on that front,” McGahern said.
Longford hadn’t landed a Leinster MFC title in 14 years and the likes of Conor Clarke and Paddy Collum, both involved back then, shared their wisdom with the current crop – clearly to great effect.
“We tapped into the guys who won it in 2010. Before the year started, we got them in to speak to the lads and share their experiences that they had. We didn’t set out to win a Leinster championship I suppose,” he said.
“But the goal was just to try and perform in every game that we played and where that would lead us would remain to be seen.
“They would have spoken to them about their experiences and tried to give them the belief that they could win a Leinster championship if they put their mind down to it.”
McGahern, who played club football with Colmcille but is now involved with underage coaching in Fr Manning Gaels, hopes that the next generation will be inspired by the minors’ exploits.
“It’ll give a great boost to the current development squads at U-14, 15 and 16, they would have got a great lift from it. The U-16s have the Fr Manning Cup this weekend,” he added.
“This year’s minors won that last year and look where they are now. It gives everyone the belief that anything is possible if they work hard enough at it.
“Long term, hopefully these lads will progress to U-20s and into the senior team in a few years’ time. To have continued development of those lads through the system would be the goal.”
McGahern took over this crop as U-14s towards the end of the summer in 2021 and it has been a “really satisfying to see them develop as footballers and as personalities”, and they are far from finished yet.
They play the Ulster runners-up (Derry and Armagh meet this Sunday) in an All-Ireland quarter-final on the weekend of June 8/9 and McGahern is keen to make hay while a rare bit of sun shines on Longford.
“When the dust settles in the next day or two, we’ll turn our attention to that game and preparing for whoever it is and we’ll see how we get on,” McGahern said.
“We’ve a bit of momentum now and we’ll try and capitalise on it. It’ll be a tough one but we’re ready for the challenge and we’ll give it a good rattle.”
