‘We want to do Meath proud and go that little bit further’

SHC FINAL REACTION Ratoath boss keen to expand Ratoath's ambitions

Andrew Dermody is getting used to being interviewed by the Meath Chronicle. It's safe to say that his third interview in the space of three weeks was his happiest one yet. The Westmeath man was over the moon as his side got the better of Kiltale at the second time of asking following a nervous finish at Pairc Tailteann on Saturday.

“It's absolutely incredible. I can’t put into words how I felt when that final whistle went. Especially when we made it that bit hard for ourselves towards the end, it was heart-in-mouth stuff. I'm really just so proud of the lads. It was really good performance today,” said the Ratoath boss.

From the outside looking in, there were very few chinks in the Ratoath armour during the 2025 SHC campaign. Dermody confirmed that bar one or two training sessions, the performance and the buy-in from his squad has just been incredible.

“From the get-go this year, we had two Saturday morning sessions that were not hectic. Every other training session has been top class. That's what you need. You need to have competition within the team and the lads need to drive each other on every day. Nobody is safe in the team there.”

Reflecting on Saturday’s final, Dermody had high praise for his sides work rate and their ability to set the tempo in the contest. He was also delighted with the manner in which his side won the game.

“It was five points apiece at one stage. We had a few poor wides early on and we gave them oxygen. Then we scored 1-7 without reply. The turnover Croge (Cian Rogers) got, he ran about 40 yards to get it and we got a score from it.

"The work from the puck-outs was incredible. We really put an emphasis on setting the tempo because that's what Kiltale did last week. They ran the game last week and we were lucky to get a second chance but thankfully, we took it.

“From the start of the second half, they were going for goals. When Jack Regan stepped up to that free, I knew straight away, I didn’t even have to look at it, I just said that’s a goal. When you look at the scoreline, 24 scores to 14. We did it the right way, we really performed and did it in style.”

Dermody was particularly impressed by the performance of Conor McGill. He spoke about how upset the dual star was about his own performance in last week's drawn final and his determination to put that right on Saturday.

“Last week, we were really outbattled for 40 minutes and our focus today was to win our individual battles. You look at Conor McGill today. He was very upset during the week. He wasn’t happy with his performance last week, you could see it in him and today he won every ball. He was out in front, he was driving lads on. I loved that.”

As much as Dermody enjoyed the win in the Meath SHC final, there are bigger fish to fry. The Westmeath man has high ambitions of taking the team further into Leinster and he wants Ratoath to do Meath proud in the competition.

“We want to give Leinster a good run. I watched the Wicklow final a couple of weeks ago and we know what Carnew have. The lads were sick to lose to Bray by a point last year," recalled the man who replaced Mickey Cole at the start of this year.

"By no means would we be happy with a repeat of that this year. This club, this team, is definitely capable of going further in Leinster. I certainly would not be happy if we went through the motions for the next two weeks.

"We want to do Meath proud and go that little bit further. It's up to the players now. We will train on Tuesday and Thursday and if the lads bring the right attitude, we will drive it on.”

Podge O’Hanrahan played a huge part in Ratoath’s victory on Saturday, but he was also the reason they got the chance to take the field in the first place. In the drawn final it was the ace free-taker who stepped up and scored a wonderful point to force a replay. O’Hanrahan was overjoyed at the final whistle on Saturday.

“It's unbelievable, we thought we lost it the last day and we just about got out by the skin of our teeth. We put the heads down this week and really went at it. We had a fantastic first-half but credit to Kiltale they kept coming at us. There was a stage where I never thought I’d win one of these so to do two in a row, it’s just unbelievable.”

O’Hanrahan spoke about the changes that Ratoath implemented to their set-up for the replay and credited Ratoath’s work-rate which he said got them over the line on the day.

“Kiltale brought massive intensity to that game last week and they kind of pulled us all over the place. We set up a bit differently this time around and we tried to block the pockets of space a bit more to try and get on top of them in the first-half, which we did, we managed to kick on again. It was really our manic work-rate that got us over the line in the end.”

O’Hanrahan reflected on what has been a phenomenal year for Ratoath.

“I think, bar the first-half in the drawn final, we have been fairly on it all year. The Trim game was close as well, that probably wasn’t our best performance.

"Trim and Kiltale are savage teams who will put it up to you every time you meet them. It’s hard to be on it 100% of the time, I think at stages in that game today we got to a level which was very good. It’s been a very good year and to be honest, we have worked very, very hard so to get the just rewards is just unbelievable.” said O’Hanrahan.

“We just took it game by game this year. That is how we worked the group stages. With the amount of dual lads that we have playing, our aim was to get straight through to the semis and we got that.

"Obviously, to win it was the overall target and we’re going to enjoy it. We’ll enjoy it for a few days and then our attention will turn to Leinster.”

Finally, O’Hanrahan had high praise for the two main men in the Ratoath managerial set-up, Andrew Dermody and Ciaran McDonagh.

"There is a real good gel there in the whole set-up. Everyone knows Mac, he's just a motivational monster. He is a serious competitor and he puts you through your paces. Andy has a love of hurling like I have never seen. He knows everything about everyone. He has brought a massive enthusiasm to our training sessions. Those two hop off each other great and it’s just been brilliant."

Deserved celebrations, but attentions will quickly turn to more success in Leinster.