Work-rate and support play key to Douglas victory over Midleton

THERE was a natural elation in the Douglas dressingroom following their impressive 2-24 to 1-23 win over champions Midleton at Páirc Uí Rinn on Friday.

For selector Mark O’Callaghan the hard work on the training ground paid off against a highly-talented Midleton side.

“When you are playing the champions you got to have a game-plan, but to be honest our main focus was all about ourselves and on the night everything we did clicked.

For many years Douglas have been labelled the nearly-team and after having good success at minor and U21 people were expecting them to make a big breakthrough.

“I think this is a tough championship and there can only be one winner. The calibre in the majority of squads is good and I think for us to eventually reach that Holy Grail we need to be bringing our A game no matter who the opposition are.

“Sadly for us, that hasn’t been the case in recent years but you look at Midleton and Blackrock they have had some barren spells as success doesn’t come easy at this level.

“I honestly believe the management and players believe we are on the right track and hopefully with a bit of luck we can fulfill our dream.”

Shane Kingston had a superb game finishing with a game-high 1-12 and despite Alan Cadogan being restricted to one point over the hour O’Callaghan believes he had a fine outing as well.

“In the opinion of many people Alan had a low-key game, but from our perspective, we thought he was superb as we look at the big picture and the amount of tackles and turnovers he produced certainly helped us big time on the night. 

The work ethic of the forwards was exceptional and O’Callaghan is adamant this is the key for his team to compete with the elite at this level.

“Winning is all about teamwork and that’s our mantra for this campaign and maybe the next day you might see roles reversed between Shane and Alan.”

Cillian O’Callaghan was also outstanding, but now Douglas will be setting their sights on next week’s clash against Kanturk, with Newtownshandrum also in the group.

“The Midleton chapter is closed and now we have to make sure we get a similar performance against Kanturk; hopefully that will suffice, but nothing comes easy against any side in this championship.”