Shane, you must be very pleased with that performance.

Yeah, delighted.

I suppose, as I was saying, you probably...

Coming into the first round, you don't really know exactly where you're at.

The last Clare Cup game was five or six weeks ago, so you can play a good couple of challenges, but you don't know exactly where you're at.

We're playing probably the uniformed team in the county against the middle.

We were delighted to have a fully fit squad, first time in a long time, and delighted to get a performance like that to start off and get a win, which is huge in this championship.

Often there it was 2-3 v 1 on a turnover with the Milsack.

Shane, you must be very pleased with that performance.

Yeah, delighted.

I suppose, as I was saying, you probably...

Coming into the first round, you don't really know exactly where you're at.

We didn't play the last Clare Cup games five or six weeks ago, so you can play a good couple of challenges, but you don't know exactly where you're at.

We're playing probably the uniformed team in the county against the middle, so we were delighted to have a fully fit squad, first time in a long time, and delighted to get a performance like that to start off and get a win, which is huge in this championship.

Often there it was two, three v one on a turnover with the Mills like.

Yeah, we played a challenge game two or three weeks ago against up in Galway and the kind of thing that came out of it was six forwards, the work rate wasn't where it needed to be.

[clears throat]

... "We go against the breeze.

You can have it.

You better make use of it." [clears throat] I think that there was a t- a trust in their structure that you can only get in terms of work rate, that their half back line, if where we are, like where we're lucky enough to be upper tier hog and you see every bit of space in the thing, like that you mightn't see in the telly.

The trust they have in their structure is based on the trust they have in their forward line and midfielders to work ferociously hard and put pressure on it.

So to be fair to Jason Rabbitte, the first four balls that went into him, he wins the four of them, or he wins threes, four are annihilated, and Mike Casey's on a yellow.

But as that game progresses then and Mike Casey gets moved off, Sean Finn is there.

[laughs]

Talk to me about Derek Fahey because his development over the last few seasons has been, I think this year in particular, he's been really instrumental in going into this final.

been brilliant Paul and I just again Derek anyone that knows Derek he's a quiet guy by his nature but I've just seen him grow on confidence with Galway even the way he makes himself available for that second ball from a puck out or you know the way he confides in himself to leave the goal sometimes and take that cross field ball the way he's talking to lads the way he's puck outs and obviously his shot stopping has gone to another level this year as well so you know he was brilliant the last day in every aspect of his game in particular that save in the second half as well when which could have been a game changer, could have brought it back to three points at the time, but fantastic save and just his ability to push it out to the side rather than just save it and rebound straight out and on rushing forward.

So, you know, I just dropped him a text after the semi-final just, you know, and said delighted for him personally and wished him well and told him to enjoy the build-up of it as well.

And that's important because, you know, since 2018 you're you'd be good man with the stats now but I was editing last night and we went through it you have five lads involved from the 2018 final so this is a new group like so obviously the two Manions Conor Whelan if dahi burke and connor cooney connor cooney who has been immense i was actually looking at your bench as well that your bench has scored 629 and that connor connor cooney has scored 412 and that's like his impact off the bench has been unreal this year and i know he was a guy that maybe was humming and hawing about going back this year paul and he played to my hall i'm sure he had a good chat with him and told me you know you need you need a Conor Cooney in there Paul like you need an experienced guy like that with all the younger lads you have just to say this is what's going to happen this is the way it's going to be or fight word in a lads year maybe just from I don't know Conor personally so I don't always see that kind of a character but even for a younger guy to see a Conor Cooney there a guy who's done it all all-star all Ireland's and you know club level what he's done as well consistency in his performances this year as well so he's been an immense like he's been a great leader but go back to Derek again look he's just I think he's taking his game to another level he was brilliant for us when the need was most in the fits as well you know in particularly up in up in we played him up in the Galway in the Connacht Centre of Excellence the final two years going to DCU he was excellent and when the need was most this year you know in the semi-final as well in the NUIG which is a tough game for the Galway lads, I suppose, when you're playing NUIG because you're playing against, you know, the majority of them are your county colleagues.

But he was brilliant there as well and obviously in the final as well.

He's very at home at Croke Park.

So, yeah, I think he's taken his game to another level.

Do you think then, from being involved in Fitzgibbon, is that the, I suppose, ideal step for these players going on to senior Ireland? It feels like it's the perfect gap now, even from 20s, it's probably nearly 20s Fitzgibbon and then senior.

Yeah

... of Limerick and Galway and, and that day, and, um, Joe McDonagh singing the song and all them things.

And Joe Connolly, in fairness to him, he actually took into the West's awake as well.

So that was a magic night there for whoever was there on Monday night, and I was there last night, and I just got to hear it all.

So, but jeez, I just thought that was brilliant.

Like, so to go back to the actual game itself, um, how do I feel going into it? Like, I suppose it's like this rivalry has come full circle now, lads.

And I won't call it a rivalry, but I'm talking like in 2018, we had the flip of this, Cathal, in that we had Galway, the all-dominant Galway from 2017.

Mm

Your thoughts on that first half? I

think you're doing All-Ireland.

I know there's a strong breeze there, but if you look at the amount of shots you've had at the goal, you've had way more shots at the goal.

You're obviously, you're trusting things.

I was here at the league match when you gave him a nice trim in two, and you're obviously, your system of the 1v1 inside, you trust it, it works for you.

That's how Rory worked out the goal.

Fair play to him.

it's a big 35 minutes for both teams obviously for Galway the fact there's a bit of pressure coming in the fact that Galway beat Kilkenny in the league a lot of talk by the Galway supporters maybe overhyped so it's important yeah that's it and

Mm.

And as I said, when the need was most, as I said already, the lads stood up for Limerick.

Absolutely unbelievable stuff.

Like, I mean, uh, even Shane, like, say, I, I...

Diarmuid Burns, you know Diarmuid very well.

I, I got to know him kind of briefly working with him in, in LIT there.

And, uh, to see the reaction of him, like, his body language when he got the point.

But what a moment that would've been because you can never prepare for that.

Mm

... how were they missing these, like, 'cause, you know, two best teams in the country in the Minor this year.

They've, they've, they've proven that, you know, by, uh, by, by getting to the final, and the teams they've beat along the way.

And just the wides that were being, and the things were being missed.

And so it was, the breeze was a big factor, but look, Tip, Tip had a lot of chances they couldn't make account.

But I, I have to admire the spirit of the Limerick minors.

I thought, you know, they didn't take the lead till, till nearly, you know, the last couple of minutes, but that goal by Gavin O'Brien, uh, he's, I, I believe he's, he's Shane's younger brother.

Shane, you were involved in some of the discussions around that, weren't you, at the, the start at least anyway?

I mean, I don't want to overstate this, but Shane, is that dynamic, what I'm describing, a big reason why we're dealing with what we see in this

film? Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

And part of the necessity of telling the film and taking the 90-minute format was to really be able to connect those dots as well, as far as the palm oil on the market, the market and the money, how that money's making its way around the globe.

But how that's being used for influence locally, I was fortunate enough to be working in Indonesia with one of the government agencies tasked to protect and restore the Los Ricos system.

And we were seeing corruption and intimidation regularly if it wasn't a suitcase full of cash in exchange for a signature to destroy a protected area it was threats of violence and that's something that you know the the crew over in indonesia our friends the heroes of the story is something that they experience in their life all the time as well so It's remarkable.

Again, it's their remarkable story and their preservation and the perseverance to be able to fight against those influences and the success that they're able to garner is what really makes this story something quite exciting and uplifting.

And there's certainly a storyline in the film that I think all the people watching it will relate to.

Sorry, Shane.

No, I agree.

Yeah, I agree.

The World Cup was trying to find its feet and it fully did now in the last 24 hours because everywhere you go, when the likes of the Messi's, the Mbappé's and these lads, no more so when the Keane Lynch's, Tony Kelly's and these people come to life, that they just do magic things and everyone's talking about Hurling in terms of the World Cup.

They could not have got...

Like, if the World Cup PR team prayed for that yesterday, they wouldn't have got it.

100%.

Like, is there something missing there where teams aren't together long enough to develop, to close the gaps maybe to the better teams? And you're looking now at Kilkenny, maybe falling back a bit, Waterford, Wexford.

Sorry, Shane.

No, I agree.

Yeah, I agree.

The World Cup was trying to find its feet and it fully did now in the last 24 hours because everywhere you go, when the likes of the Messi's, the Mbappé's and these lads, no more so when the Keane Lynch's, Tony Kelly's and these people come to life, that they just do magic things and everyone's talking about Hurling in terms of the World Cup.

They could not have got...

Like, if the World Cup PR team prayed for that yesterday, they wouldn't have got it.

100%.

Like, is there something missing there where teams aren't together long enough to develop, to close the gaps maybe to the better teams? And you're looking now at Kilkenny, maybe falling back a bit, Waterford, Wexford.

but

I don't know how you feel, Rory.

You're a carp man.

I think when you go for the third pass, I just think...

I heard Mark Coleman's interview yesterday about he said they didn't know they had to go for it.

But I feel in that scenario, I wouldn't put all the blame on the ref is what I'm trying to say.

And we can talk about the ref there now in a second and his performance.

yeah