Ballyboden St Enda’s hero Andrew Kerin revealed the determination his side had to show following a demanding 2-08 to 0-10 victory over reigning champions St Vincent’s in the Dublin SFC final.
Kerin crucially found the net twice for the south siders, who struggled across the finishing line, while admittedly fading towards the end following a first half in which they dominated.
The veteran forward told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland: “We felt if we went at them from the start we had a chance, so that’s what we did.
"We just poured everything into the first ten minutes and it was great to have that reflected in the score line after 10 or 15 minutes."
After leading by ten points early in the second half, Ballyboden’s lead was cut to four by the provincial champions with the game reaching a conclusion and Kerin was happy to admit the goal then was “to just hang on” for the victory.
He added: “We had to just hang on. We put a huge amount of work in behind the scenes for this. Then it was just hoping and praying we were going to carry ourselves through.
"We put in a lot of work in the first half and that might have showed in the second half when we kind of just fell over the line, but, it’s a great feeling."
Kerin also revealed the simple words of instruction at half-time in the changing room was to simply “keep going.”
“To be honest with you it was ‘keep going at them’. We didn’t want to sit back and let them come on to us.
"We decided to keep going, and just keep going until we couldn’t go no more and that was it. I think we just about carried ourselves over the line so it was great.”
The victory saw Ballyboden bring an end to the Marino men's attempt at three-in-a-row Dublin titles, and earned them their first title in six years. Their prize is a Leinster meeting with St Patrick's in the Gaelic Grounds, Drogheda, next Sunday.
