MFC Final: Unlike his counterpart, Laois manager Sean Dempsey was content in the immediate aftermath of yesterday's minor final.
Although they had a chance to win it at the death, Laois were staring down the barrel of a gun for the last four minutes. One-point defeats are always the hardest to take.
"A great game of football," said Dempsey. "Great young fellas playing football the way it should be played: fast, open, tough. Ask for nothing, no favours, and don't take anything. Brilliant, I thought it was brilliant."
However, Dublin manager Ciaran O'Hare quietly spoke of the disappointment he felt with his side's failure to reach their full potential in the opening half.
"We were lucky to be still in it at half-time," he said. "We didn't win any breaking ball around the middle of the field, it was 17-3 on that score at half-time.
"We played very well in the first 15 minutes of the second half, what with being two points up on two occasions. We just couldn't get that third point ahead, fourth point ahead, you know? So Laois came back at us. In fairness they're a very good side. There was no favourites coming into this game, two very good minor sides, and we proved that with some very good football out there by both sides."
A few slight alterations from Dempsey's original selection outfoxed his opponents. The midfield battles have been dominated by Dublin all year but Brendan Quigley was in control in the aerial contests while Craig Rogers cleaned up on the deck.
"They are two different types of players - one's a big strong man (Quigley) who gets up and wins the ball in the air a lot, the other man takes the ball on the ground (Rogers), that's his game," said Dempsey.
The Dublin duo of John Coughlan and Brendan Phelan will be eager to remedy this blow to their egos.
Donie Brennan, who normally plays on the wing or in the corner, was put in on full back Kian Cleere to test the pace of the Dublin captain. Cleere was never embarrassed but he struggled to contain the live-wire forward all afternoon.
"We just put him in there because Donie is a tidy little footballer, young Cleere is a great full back and he hadn't marked a small fella all year," said Dempsey. "We just said we would try something different.
"At the end of the day in football you have to try and unhinge the opposition's full-back line, whether you get in behind them or something. Donie played well, young Cleere played well, that was the nature of the game."
That about sums it up. No dominant force was evident, no sustained period where one side really lauded it over the other. Just a fast-paced contest where Dublin managed to get the scores at vital stages to keep their challenge afloat. But their inability to deal with the sprightly Laois attack - where Brennan, the two Colm Kellys and Chris Bergin all excelled - left them clinging on at the finish.
Both sides had the opportunity to win it but a Coughlan effort was off the mark while with the last kick of the game Bergin's sideline attempt fell just short.
"Chris can do it, he has done it before for us, but it is very difficult at that stage of a match for a young fella to put the ball over the bar from there, but he will get an opportunity again," said Dempsey.
