Joe Ryan had faith that Kilbrittain's character would shine through

Kilbrittain manager Joe Ryan’s calmness under pressure has been a major asset for the club throughout their campaign and he wasn’t going to change his habits after a first half that could have gone better.

In any case, the fact that the West Cork side trailed by just a point at the break – having been down by five and having a let-off when Easkey looked to have scored a goal only for play to be called back for a free – was something that could be viewed positively.

“Well, I think if you look at it so factually, right, that we had plenty of chances in the first 30 minutes,” Ryan said.

“We hit some bad wides and we had one goal chance and another half-goal chance. They hit two wides, I think, and they got the goal that should have been a goal, so we were lucky with that.

“The five or six minutes before half time, we pegged it back, so, there was a bit of momentum there, something to go on at half-time. Bertie Butler coming out to mark Fionn Connolly at midfield made a difference.

“And, look, it's easy to say it was right to be calm when we won by a point. If we lost by a point, then I should have gone mad at them!”

Kilbrittain had drawn level early in the second half when Easkey lost their primary attacking threat Andrew Kilcullen to a red card, though it time to make the numerical advantage count.

“We were in trouble when they went down to 14,” Ryan said, “because we were playing a sweeper and then we were playing two at the back, basically, and we were just playing too much ball.

“We were just playing too much ball around the half-back line instead of just hitting a direct goal.”

It was the ideal scenario in which to bring on the veteran Tom Harrington.

“That's Tom,” Ryan said, “you couldn't think of a better man in that situation - you're only looking for excuses to bring him on.

“Communication-wise, he made positional switches there that I probably wouldn't see. Tom is probably the reason why we won the game.”

Another big reason was the performance of Ronan Crowley, who finished with four points from play and won man of the match.

“I'm so happy for him,” Ryan said.

“Ronan's a young player, 21 last weekend, and, of all the players on the team in that age-group, Ronan was really close to Oisín Gillain.

“Just to have the steel and the resilience to put it off – he had two off his left, two off his right.

“In the Davidstown game, it wasn't going for him, but he just worked so hard. He actually had the most touches in that game but it didn't end up in scores for him – tonight it did.

“I don't know if, at 21, I'd have the mental capacity to have the resilience that he had.”

It was a resilience present throughout the team, who responded to the challenge laid down by Ryan and his management.

“So they have jerseys with ‘All-Ireland Junior Hurling Club Final 2025’ on them,” he said.

“We did a jersey day there last Sunday, and I brought my dad's Cork jersey from when he played minor and Aaron Holland had one of his father Micheál’s.

“We told the lads, ‘Those jerseys, they're never going to leave your family, they'll outlive us all - so, they can either be All-Ireland final jerseys or they be All-Ireland-winning jerseys.’

“Really, you’d be amazed at how little I speak to them, because it's just taken on a life of its own at this stage. It's just been amazing.”