Satisfaction for Colm O’Rourke

Colm O’Rourke won two Meath SFC titles with Skryne late in his playing days and after many years mining at the coalface as a manager he now has another two to celebrate after guiding Simonstown to back-to-back Keegan Cups following Sunday’s win over Summerhill.

The grin on the three-time Allstars face as he stood back from the maddening crowd and took in the presentation of the Keegan Cup was as wide as any that crossed his face after winning two All-Irelands with Meath.
He tasted Meath SFC success as a 35 and a 36-year-old with Skryne and now at 60 he still gets as much, if not more, satisfaction in being crowned a champion.
“It is a bit like buses here now. We were waiting a long time for one and now we have two in-a-row,” beamed O’Rourke following Sunday’s final whistle.
“We set out this year to win it back and the big thing is that we’ve gone unbeaten through the Championship as well. To win a Championship with eight games, won them all, we’re delighted with that. 
“Last year, we struggled through the early rounds and then got going. This year we had more serious intent. We were better this year than last year. 
“The lads have been very disciplined, very focused and dedicated, very keen to win another one, right from the beginning. I thought from the end of last year maybe they’d be happy with one. Instead of that they were actually hungrier to win again.”
The manner of the victory didn’t concern O’Rourke. Sunday’s final was a damb squib and failed to reach the heights of excitement many in the 5,000 crowd expected, but O’Rourke couldn’t care less.
“In a way I suppose it was a poor final, but we seemed to be in control for most of it. Summerhill did have a period in the second-half where they had a lot of wides and they could have got closer to us, but I thought we always seemed to have the upperhand on them,” he said.
“In fact I thought at half-time we probably should have been further in front.
“We had a lot of excitement this year and we played in a lot of great games. The game against Dunboyne was a classic, the game against Wolfe Tones was a good quality game, so to win a boring final is great and we will take that any day.”
Just why both teams failed to play to the levels they are capable of remains a mystery, but O’Rourke believes that Simonstown did play a lot of good football, but the final pass or the ultimate execution just wasn’t where it should have been.
The Simonstown manager did agree that the game was still in the melting pot until the second goal arrived, but he always felt his side were in control of the contest.
“Our lads undercooked a lot of ball. We set up a lot of great moves, but we didn’t seem to be able to finish them off. We still played with a bit of flair in that first-half, we had a lot of pace and I thought overall we controlled the game,” said O’Rourke.
“The second goal really was the turning point, it was over nearly after that unless they got a goal, but they never really looked like getting a goal.
“We had decided to put a lot of pressure on their kickout because we though we might snaffle one, we did and it proved to be a very important one.”
On reflection O’Rourke can look back at some solid displays from his players. He revealed afterwards that Brían Conlon had been sick all week and probably should not have started, but he praised the strength of the panel, especially the impact of Conor Nash and his own son Shane, who enjoyed a brilliant game in what might just be one of last Meath SFC outings.
“Maybe Brían Conlon shouldn’t have started because he was quite ill, but we wanted to have him out there. When he had to go off it was great to have quality subs to come on.
“Conor Nash went back and did a great job on Barry Dardis to snuff out the threat and he pushed forward himself. There’s not too many Conor Nashs.
“I think he’s gone now for us, I didn’t even discuss anything with him. All we wanted was today out of him and we got it. He’s a superb player and he’s a great fella for the team and the club and we’re delighted to have it.
“I thought Shane had a brilliant game and his mother thought he had brilliant game which is even more important. 
“He is hampered badly he doesn’t train much and he is in a lot of pain with his hips and is on anti-imflammatories before and after games in order to play. 
“He’ll not play much more, it’s a big day for him we might not see him next year if he decides that’s enough. 
“He does phenomenal work on his own through gym work, the pool, it’s every day for him otherwise he wouldn’t be able to play at all. He’s had three operations, two on one hip, and one on the other, at this stage he’s probably near the other end of his run.”
While Colm O’Rourke thinks his son’s playing days might be nearing an end there is no doubting he’ll be hoping to have him on board for the forthcoming Leinster Club SFC campaign and the Simonstown manager believes his side will be more tuned in this year for a proper tilt at provincial success.
“I think we’ll take a bit more interest in it. Second time around I suppose there is a different feel to the whole thing and maybe now we’ll take it a bit more seriously than we did last year. 
“We came up against Rhode last year so it was a hard opening game for us maybe if we had a game earlier we might have been able to manage them a bit better.”