‘To be a champion you have to protect your title’ - Ballina Stephenites players react to winning thirty-eighth Mayo senior county title

Padraig O’Hora

We’re delighted to go back to back. We promised ourselves at the start of the year that we’d protect it with everything we have and we’ve done that.

For me personally, I had grown up that way, that to be a champion you have to protect your title and just because you’ve won it doesn’t mean you own it. We’ve won it and we’ve got on and protected. There’s a sense of pride in it and we’re really proud of the team and we’re just delighted to do that.

Luke Doherty

It hasn’t sunk in yet. Being out last year and now coming here and getting it done, it’s unbelievable. It’s a big game, a big day out, it never gets easier so you have to just stick to the processes that you’re used to and get stuck in when you can and do your best when you can. We’ll keep coming back and see how we’re doing and see how we go. They are a great team and a great group of lads.

Sam Callinan

We had a meeting at the start of this year where we were laying out our goals and a big thing you’re concentrating on is legacy. When you’re going out with this badge on our chest, we know the history of the club, the story of the club. I think that win puts us as the second-most county titles of any club in Ireland (behind Crossmaglen Rangers), we know the history is there. Two-in-a-row, it’s not easy done. We didn’t want to be a flash in the pan. I think we went out there, siege mentality, target on our back, and I think we just coped fantastically with that. Here we are, second county title, looking to build on that now again.

The first ten minutes we went out, we said we’d concentrate on our 50/50s, the contact, the breaking ball, keeping a cool head and if we could go on and win the first ten minutes that would be paramount in building a lead and winning the game. At the end of the day, it’s moments of brilliance from fantastic players. That goal from Evan, an absolutely amazing bit of skill, that gives us a platform then, that puts us a few points up, and we can build from there. After that, we’ll be relying on our training and what we practice. I think we executed really well.