“I’m just so proud of these players”

By Alan Rodgers

Picture by Michael Cullen

THERE were joyous celebrations at Croke Park as the Tyrone hurlers captured the Nickey Rackard Cup thanks to a brilliant 1-17 to 0-19 win over Roscommon.

Victory in the final means that the Red Hands have now completed both the league and championship double. They can now look forward to action in the Christy Ring Cup and Division Two of the National League in 2023.

This was a brilliant display from Tyrone, who led from start to finiosh. A goal from Sean Og Grogan midway through the first half really got them going and they led at one stage by 11 points. But Roscommon pegged them back and just five points separated the teams early in the second half.

But the Red Hands were not to be denied and they rallied in impressive fashion. There were strong performances throughout the field, includin Conor McElhatton in goals, Dean Rafferty, Ruairi Slane and Chris Kearns in the defence, Tiarnan Morgan and Bryan McGurk at midfield and in attack team captain, Conor Grogan, Damian Casey, Sean Og Grogan and CJ McGourty were all to the fore.

Afterwards, the team manager, Michael McShane praised the efforts of the players.

“But I’m just so proud of the players, not just because we won, but for the manner in which we won, the style of hurling that we played and the victory we got. Just over the moon.

“We lost to Roscommon two weeks ago by 12 points down in Hyde Park. That was a sore one. But I’ll tell you what – it was the best thing that ever happened to us because we learned so much from it, about ourselves and obviously about Roscommon.

“For the past two weeks, every man in the panel, every man in the management team has put their shoulder to the wheel to correct it and we got it right and thank God got over the line.”