The centre back was one of his side’s star players, calmness personified at the heart of the defence.
“Unbelievable. The hurt we felt two years ago, it’s hard to explain what we felt. To come back here two years later and go over the line like we did, it’s just unbelievable. I can’t thank all the backroom team, all the players enough for that they’ve done for us. Everyone involved,” he said.
“Everyone’s so composed on the ball. We were so confident on the ball. Everyone! We’re confident on the man you’re giving the ball to.
“You always try and do the right thing. Even if you might get turned over once or twice, you stay doing the right thing. And that showed there today. We were so composed on the ball.”
The purity and intelligence of Offaly’s hurling told against physically stronger opponents, a throwback to great Offaly teams of the past, as they won 2-20 to 2-14 with the majority of the 25,825 crowd following Leo O’Connor’s side.
On a beautiful summer’s evening they created a carnival atmosphere, rushing on the pitch at the end after Offaly hit the last three points to make victory safe.
“Everyone’s the best of friends,” said Kavanagh. “Everyone gets on. It doesn’t matter who you sit beside in training, you have a great chat.
“We’ve a huge amount of leaders in this group. Someone different always steps up every day and that showed again today.
“If we had to stay on a losing streak, it would have been worse and worse. But to get over the line today is indescribable. What the Offaly crowd have done for us. Drove us on every step of the way. And when were under pressure again.
“Tipp came out the first 10 minutes of the first half. The Offaly crowd got behind us again. We can’t thank them enough for what they’ve done.
“We just hope a lot of them will be there in weeks’ time up in Croke Park for the Joe McDonagh. Because that’s a huge game for Offaly hurling.
“We say time and time again that they are our 16th man. They showed again today that. They were unbelievable. We can’t describe on the field what they do for us.
“The last five minutes, they just drove us on. They drove us over the line. And we can’t do this without them.”
