Naas boss McMahon dismisses talk of 'five in a row and all this stuff'
Philly McMahon knows all about serial winning teams of course but he is impressed with how his Naas charges are blocking out any talk of five-in-a-rows etc.
“The lads are brilliant at it. They’re language is very good, their focus is (good), and their intentions are good, it completely takes them away from any noise outside of the group,” he told the Kildare Nationalist.
“They just need to stay connected with each other, that’s the key. For the next few weeks there will be a lot of people talking about winning and winning and winning. These lads will be talking about performing, performing, performing.” They certainly performed last Sunday, and that was driven partly by the respect they had for a Celbridge side who pushed them so close in the last two finals.
“That really drove us on in training over the last two weeks and level of preparation, we know now, was very good because of the performance we had so I’m happy for the lads. It’s not easy, there’s a lot of noise, outside noise that’s hard to block out, five in a row and all this stuff. All the lads were focused on was getting a performance.” None performed better than Paddy McDermott, many observers’ choice for man-of-the-match and McMahon feels the wing back is driven by a disappointing year with the county.
“He’s been brilliant, all this championship. He’s probably been a bit hurt, I imagine, with the potential he has, not playing as much as he possibly could with Kildare, so we’re reaping the rewards of that hurt and long may it last.” Experience was key, and calmness, according to the former Dublin defender.
“There was always a calmness to it. We said at half-time we’d keep going, play after play, see how the scoreline reflects the shape of the opposition and eventually Celbridge started coming out and we started putting the ball over the bar and we got that separation and improved considerably towards the end of the game.” With James Burke injured this year, Naas might look a little weaker around the middle, but the manager felt they were strong there on Sunday.
“Collectively in the middle third I thought we were very good today and Paulie (McDermott) driving forward and Fintan (Quinn) being a big target man was massive for us because their keeper (Shane McNamara) is a brilliant keeper as regards kickouts and the range he has on them. Them boys need to be on it today and they stood up.” Looking ahead to the final, McMahon reported Eoin Doyle’s injury, that forced an early retirement as a “dead glute, of all places,” while Dermot Hanafin was left out as a precaution in order to give a bruised ankle a better chance of being ready for the final.
