Garrity appreciates Final loss a ‘sore one’ for Tyrone Ladies

FINTONA native Jonny Garrity said that he had a ‘job to do’ with Leitrim in spite of mixed emotions after plotting the downfall of his native County in Sunday’s Ladies All-Ireland Final at Croke Park.

Garrity has done brilliantly with the Connacht minnows who didn’t even field a Senior Ladies team in the Championship as recently as 2017, and no doubt the success against the Red Hands was a milestone moment for GAA in the County.

While he had stated in the run-up to the decider that he could ill-afford any split loyalties, Jonny admitted that it has been something of a surreal afternoon, especially given his clear respect for his Tyrone managerial counterpart

“Sean O’Kane is a man I have a lot of respect for. He is somebody who has been an exceptional manager over such a long period of time and he’s an inspiration to me as a manager who isn’t around as long.

“I know it’s a sore one to take and these are my county people in Tyrone so to see them hurting isn’t particularity nice but in saying that I had a job to do and I have such a special bond with the players and the people of Leitrim and to bring home the Mary Quinn Cup to them is a special thing.”

>body2text<Garrity was bullish about Leitrim’s prospects heading into the match but knew they would have to hit peak performance levels to shock Tyrone.

“The quality was always there but the structures had to match that. The County Board have been unbelievable and done everything that we wanted and more.

“They share in our ambitions and have completely backed us. We had to produce something special to beat a team of that quality. After beating them in the group stage we knew they were going to be looking to bite back even more.

“So we had to dig right down into our reserves as players and people, and that’s what we did. The girls were exceptional on the day and more than earned their victory.”

Leitrim could have scored two goals inside the opening five minutes but even after coughing up such opportunities Garrity said that they always held the faith that they could deliver.

When you create chances against teams with the ability of Tyrone you have to take them. Perhaps we were guilty of not taking them early in the match.

“We had two early goal chances which we didn’t take but such is the way with this team they keep battling and find a way.

We have it drilled into the girls that if things aren’t going our way it doesn’t matter because the tide will turn.

“We know the girls will learn as they go along and find a way to win. They have done that over and over and today was a perfect example of that.”

While Garrity will no doubt be lauded in Leitrim for leading them to such an astonishing triumph he was keen to divert all the credit to the players on the pitch.

“This is about the players more so than management. We facilitate the girls and try to give them the platform to go and show everybody what they are about.

“I know we are a lowly Division Four team but even coming out of that campaign my message to the girls was that we had to show everybody else what we can do and show our brand of football, our energy, our never say die attitude.

They have done that now and everyone in Leitrim has been washed along with their support. The wider audience can see that now as well. I know from the outside looking in people will view this as an upset but for me that’s not the case.”