AUSTIN STACKS manager Stephen Stack was very impressed with the composure and physicality of his side in their victory over Dr Crokes in the Castleisland Mart Senior Club Championship Final on Saturday in Fitzgerald Stadium.
“I’m just really proud of the lads I thought they battled and battled and they were brave,” said a very pleased Stephen Stack, just after witnessing Kieran Donaghy and Wayne Guthrie lift the cup for The Rock.
“They put tackles in and they turned over the ball, they were physical. Absolutely everything we asked them to do today they did in spades,” said Stack.
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“We just wanted to win a club championship, we had not won it in a long time. The fact it was Crokes added that little bit of motivation for us and again it was on in Killarney which was an extra disadvantage there. We’ve talked about it all year – the one thing we wanted is that if we got into a tight situation we would try to show as much composure as we possibly could and I think we did that,” said Stack.
“We finished the game strong mentally and physically and I think we made a lot of very good decisions late in the game that got us over the line,” he said.
Giving a thunderous display against Crokes, one player that rolled back the years was Daniel Bohan.
“Himself [Bohan] and Jack Morgan were absolutely tremendous for us today, the timing of their runs, we knew we had pace in the half back line. We played ‘Bo’ today as a sweeper, we wouldn’t do that everyday but it worked for us today. We felt we needed to try and prevent Crokes from goal opportunities and I think largely we did that today. I thought there was a very good shape to what we were doing and I think we counter attacked very well,” he continued.
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Focus now turns to Austin Stacks’ county championship quarter-final against Kenmare District in Fitzgerald Stadium in two weeks time.
“It will be a very different game. We played Templenoe who account for maybe half of that Kenmare District team. We played them down in Templenoe last weekend and I have to say if there was anything that brought us up to pace today it was that game, because it was an absolute cracker. It was a great game. I’m conscious that we had our full team that day and that was half the Kenmare District team,” he said.
In that Division 1 County League game, Austin Stacks just squeezed passed Templenoe by a point 4-10 to 3-12.
“I said to the lads last night, if we win tomorrow, do we think we are going to win the county championship? The answer is absolutely not and if we lose do we think we’re going to lose it [county championship]? Of course the answer is not as well. Kieran [Donaghy] repeated that out on the pitch and I think that is an important point.”
“This game is over now, we’ll celebrate tonight and back again working tomorrow. Then we’ll be facing in towards Kenmare District in three weeks time and that is the complete focus of our attention going forward,” said the Rockies boss.