McGinley’s pride after Errigal’s second-half response

Enda McGinley, who was emotional, expressed pride in the way his Errigal Ciaran team fought back from a terrible opening period to put Cuala under serious pressure in Sunday’s All-Ireland Senior Club Football Final.

Cuala’s early-scoring blitz left them 3-9 to 0-5 ahead at the interval with McGinley admitting his team were in a “horrible place” at half-time.

However, Peter Harte’s stirring second-half revival gave the Ballygawley men remarkable, three-point deficit-free play before the Dubliners scored the final whistle for a 3-14 to 1-16 victory.

“If you’ve played football long enough, you’ll be in that position at half-time in a game where the wheels have come off the wagon. The Errigal Ciaran manager claimed that his players were facing the club’s “darkest hour” at half-time and that nothing had changed since it had been planned.

The boys had a choice: “The boys had to choose to just crack and feel sorry for themselves,” and the second half might have turned particularly ugly.

I thought they had to put out a burning pride in the second half because they had 30 minutes to play, and they could have believed they had much more to show than they did in the first half, he said.

Darragh Canavan, who was injured in the opening 20 minutes of Errigal Ciaran’s first half, was also taken for a hospital check after the game, which resulted in him being taken after his brother Ruairi, who had already gone with him for a rest.

The first half, according to McGinley, will be a very difficult pill to swallow, “especially considering that he had to accept full responsibility for the team’s uncharacteristic lack of energy in the opening period, where they appeared dry after Dr. Crokes had needed extra-time to beat them eight days ago.”

The first half will be with me forever. I had such a bad feeling for the boys. They didn’t deserve that so again, as manager, that’s on me.

“I’m just gutted that whatever the approach was, it just didn’t take care of the exertions of last weekend.

It wasn’t as though we were completely set or fully settled, and the sheer emotion within the club and the ability to allow that to grow and become felt were really difficult to strike during the week.

McGinley questioned whether his strategy, which allowed the players to experience the emotion felt at the club as a result of the Croke Park occasion, had had a negative impact.

The Errigal Ciaran boss pointed to the different reactions of last weekend’s winning semi-finalists.

” Cuala’s reaction after their semi-final was remarkable because it was a shrug of the shoulders, shake hands with their opponents, shake hands with their team-mates and dander off the pitch, “McGinley explained.

“Newbridge was a very different experience for our club,” the club said.

“We were met by supporters and there were tears from the supporters throughout the week,” the statement read. Maybe that was too much. It was a special experience that will stick with me forever, I don’t know.

According to McGinley, who is a physiotherapist, Darragh Canavan would need to go off right away after Eoin O’Callaghan hit him with an accidental knee.

“I was aware that he was gone right away,” I said. I know enough about head injuries unfortunately. At that stage, the only thing you care about is the lad”.

The manager of Errigal Ciaran said the problem with Ruairi Canavan becoming “dazed” immediately became apparent after the game.

“I reached out to him at the last whistle, and it was only then that I realized he was a little snobber.”