Ronan keen for Athy to make the most of their opportunity

As Athy prepare for their first Leinster Championship semi-final since 2011, joint-manager Conor Ronan reflected back on the year, saying that it could hardly have gone much better so far.

“When we took the job the goal was to win the county title and when you do that you go on to Leinster. Obviously, we’re delighted, it couldn’t have went much better than it has to date. It’s been very good but it’s just a credit to the football ability that’s in that group and we knew we knew that we started,” said Ronan, whose team are now just 60 minutes away from a Leinster final at Croke Park.

Alongside fellow joint manager Ross Bell and the other members of the management team, James Eaton and Paddy Dunne, Ronan has delivered a message that the squad have taken on board but he insists that it is the players who should take the credit.

“That doesn’t have to be driven too much by the managers, that’s the players driving because we know in our club that opportunities like this haven’t come around too often. The lads themselves realise that and they want to make the most of it, perform and hopefully get the results we want.

“Between myself and Ross we’ve worked with a lot of the last through the second team in the club across the last number of years. James has only finished playing with them and then Paddy is another club man. In fairness to the lads, they realised the ability that is in the group and they have taken everything on board and we’re delighted with it, but that all comes with winning matches and it’s very easy to get your message across when you’re winning,” said Ronan.

Back in 2011, Athy seemed to have the world at their feet. With a very young squad performing to a high level into the last four in Leinster, few would have imagined it would take this long to get back to this stage of the competition that is fuelling a desire to make the most of the opportunity at hand.

“In 2011, the team was so young, probably didn’t know what to expect or what was winning. There might have been an element of thinking that it was always going to that way but it could never work like that, you never know what is coming in the future. That’s the thing with this group, it might not be the same come next January or February so while things are really good it’s important to get the most out of it and max the potential that is there.

There’s no doubt that Saturday’s visitors to Cedral St Conleths Park, Portarlington, have the advantage when it comes to Leinster Championship experience. This is their fourth Leinster campaign in five years and third semi-final during that time. They have yet to manage to get over the line and reach the final but Ronan is under no illusions about how good they are.

“Portarlington have been knocking on the door in Leinster over the last few years. A bit like Naas in Kildare, they’ve had that monopoly in Laois for the last number of years. They are a very good team with a lot of good performers, they put in a very good display the last day up in Louth against Naomh Máirtín and they even won away in the previous round. They know what it it like to go on the road and play in the Leinster club. It’s going to be a massive challenge but a challenge we are looking forward to.

“We’ve watched a bit of them. They are a fit team, a physical team but they are well able to play football as well. We’ll play our game as we can and hopefully it will be a good game of football but a lot of that at this time of the year can be dependent on conditions, we don’t know what way it will be,” he said.

Television coverage of their Leinster Championship wins over Baltinglass and Summerhill have brought national attention on the talents of youngsters like Ronan Kelly and Colm Moran but Ronan is very keen to stress the message that Athy are all about the collective rather than any individual.

“That’s the message we have been drilling in since the start of the year. It’s the sum of the parts. There’s no one or two players who we want to put their hands up, it’s really a collective effort and it has to be. It’s not even the 15, it’s the full 36 with lads coming on during matches and making an impact and then there’s the other lads that aren’t getting on that are really driving standards in training even though they aren’t featuring as much as they want to,” said Ronan.

AIB Leinster Senior Football Championship Semi-Finals – Saturday 29 November 

Tullamore (Offaly) v Ballyboden/St Enda's (Dublin) 

Glenisk O’Connor Park, 1.30pm 

Athy v Portarlington (Laois) 

Cedral St Conleth's Newbridge, 2pm