"All the more special when you're doing it with family"
“It’s the most successful year this club has ever had,” he said. “We’re all just delighted to be part of it now. We’ve got a good group of lads who came together there at the right time and we’re just buzzing now.”
The victory was made all the more special for Oran by lining out with his brothers, Cillian, Conall and Fionn. “It’s special now, special. I suppose we’ve played plenty of football with each other out in the back yard and growing up and whatever. It’s nice to see the fruits of that now today... It’s a bit of a common theme throughout the group - there’s a lot of sets of brothers and sets of cousins that we have. I suppose it makes it all the more special when you’re doing it with family. It’s a very special day for sure.”
Grangenolvin held an 11-point lead at half time, but a strong wing turning in favour of the Fighting Cocks was bound to cause problems.
“We felt we left a couple behind us there in the first half,” Bergin said. “We knew they’d come back because they’ve got plenty of spirit; they just showed that in the previous two rounds. They had great support there today as well. I suppose we had to weather the storm and thank God we did. We got a couple of scores there at a few key times and we managed to keep them at bay, a little bit anyway.”
Barely a year into the job, winning the Leinster title is quite an early anniversary gift for Grange manager David Conway. But the boss admits it almost got away from them in the second half.
“Extremely proud of the lads,” he said. “After about six or seven minutes in the second half (Fighting Cocks) probably became the favourites with the way the elements were and with the scoreline. So, for our lads to have to tough it out and dog it out was exceptionally proud of them.
“It was just about actually getting possession for a few minutes and taking the sting out of their momentum and kind of making them realise, ‘Oh Jesus, we’re actually still five or six points behind.’
“There was a few superb blocks out of some of the Cocks lads... but we just needed to kill their momentum in that moment and we didn’t unfortunately and that’s how they got the scores and just all the momentum seemed to be especially with them as a result.”
Grange have a short break now over Christmas with an All-Ireland semi-final to look forward to and prepare for.
“It is a problem, in ways, but it’s a good problem,” Conway said. “Christmas will be a good craic alright but at the same time to have an All-Ireland Semi-Final on the weekend of the 4th of January, I think, it all finishes off pretty quick.
“So yeah, as I say it’s a good problem, we’ll try and strike the balance right.”
