AMONG the Glen support you will find a banner that for almost three years has told their players to blow a hole in the sky.
For 57 minutes, it didn’t look like happening. Then Danny Tallon puts the squeeze on a short free, Conleth McGuckian plays a pass that isn’t really on and from 20 yards, Conor Glass punishes the wandering Cormac Sheehy.
Thus the whole in the sky was punched.
“We nearly saved our worst until last,” admitted Malachy O’Rourke from behind the glint in the eye.
They know how little that matters in the end. Each of the last four senior club All-Irelands have been skin-of-the-teeth operations.
A leggy Glen didn’t look like rescuing it. The jolt of electricity Jody McDermott’s late first-half goal sent through them had been flattened by Brian Derwin’s palmed goal moments after the restart. The Derry men led for just six minutes in the entire game – two of them in the first 11 minutes and the last four in stoppage time at the end of the game.
Those are the four that count.
With Ryan Dougan as DJ, the changing room came alive when O’Rourke eventually got shot of his media duties. Nobody dared move, dared look near a shower, until the man that has completed their circle was in. Then, pandemonium.
“Look it was just pure character that took us through today,” said the Glen boss.
“A lot of quality towards the end as well but the overriding thing was we weren’t prepared to give in.
“We kept going until the end and got our reward.
“It is one thing we have referenced, for whatever reason, the All-Ireland finals there, Kilcoo and Kilmacud two years ago was a dramatic finish. Last year was a dramatic finish.
“I don’t want to take away, there was a lot of quality towards the end but the overriding thing was just that we weren’t prepared to give in and we kept going until the end and we got our rewards.”
Whatever element of personal satisfaction there was in it for O’Rourke, he batted away. A man who’s won everywhere he’s been now has an All-Ireland on the CV but this, he insisted, was about a community steeled by last year’s heartbreaking defeat.
“Ah look it, there’s been a lot of dramatic days and it’s hard to rank one against the other but after last year and the way it ended and this year really started with last year.
“Last year after the game, there was a lot of talk about the game and what happened and one thing or another but the one thing the club was really united.
“The club came and said whatever the players and management want, that’s what we’ll do and we’ll be full 100 per cent behind you.
“There was a lot of talk from different sources and a lot people on the outside were giving their tuppence worth but we always said whatever was the right thing for the club, we’d do that and we followed through on that.
“I think that strengthened the whole club and it meant that everybody was going forward together.
“A lot of tough battles along the way, it looked as if we were going to come up short again but maybe it was just that wee bit of desire and hunger that got us across the line.”
They join Bellaghy, Lavey and Ballinderry on the roll of honour from the Oak Leaf county.
No doubt about it now, Glen are the kings of all they survey.
The best club team in Ireland.
A hole blown in the sky.