Athlone Town boss John Sullivan took a trip to a playzone with his young son to ease any pre-FAI Cup final nerves, his zen approach to the big occasion clearly rubbing off on his all-conquering side.
Athlone beat Bohemians 3-2 at Tallaght Stadium to complete the double having wrapped up the title a few weeks ago.
Sullivan only took the reins in Septemeber after Colin Fortune's shock departure, but his calm demeanour has suited a very driven group, culminating in an October gilded by silver.
"I have been up since 5am," he said as players danced around him in celebration. "My little lad wakes up at 5am every morning. The early bird catches the worm. So I was just hanging around my home in the morning.
"My wife just finished a half marathon in Rome, so I was delighted with her. We had breakfast and went to some playzone. Personally, I try and kill everything with emotion. Just bring it all down. It's just a game of football.
"Even on my wedding day, I was like, it's just a party. I was going to say, 'yeah, I do'. She's going to say 'I do'. I'm going to have a party with friends. So you killed the nerves, went to the playzone, enjoyed the gym. Yeah, it's just another day."
Kelly Brady's hat-trick won it for Athlone. The prolific striker ran riot against a spirited young Bohs outfit to cap a memorable campaign: Golden Boot winner, league winner, and cup heroine.
"She lights up the room every time she comes into it. Her energy, her positivity. It's so infectious, it's unbelievable," said Sullivan.
"And you can see it in her style of play. She makes every bad ball into a great ball. She just has that never die attitude and she's incredible to work with. "
Brady will train with Carla Ward's Republic of Ireland squad this week but is not in the squad for the upcoming Nations League play-off against Belgium. Is she good enough to play for Ireland?
"In my opinion, yeah," declared Sullivan. "I'm not Carla Ward, but Carla is a big fan of hers. I spoke to Carla recently about her and Carla is a massive fan of hers and that's why she's in with the panel next week."
For Bohs manager Alban Hysa, it was a frustrating afternoon.
His side were excellent in patches, but lost their way in the middle third of the match, giving up goals that irritated their boss.
"In terms of team performance, I thought we did alright overall," he reflected. "We had a go in the last 30 minutes which was brilliant to see because week in week out when we get on the pitch, all I ask from them, I don't ask them to win the game, I ask them to perform.
"We worked on the pitch this week on one v ones and stopping crosses, which was the message given all week and we failed to do that, so I’m disappointed with that considering we knew where the danger was going to come from and we weren’t able to deal with that.
"To be fair to (Athlone) they managed the game so well, falling down and the keeper being a few times down. It shows the progress this young Bohs team have made for Athlone to go and hide the ball away and not wanting to deal with it face to face. It shows progress, I’m quite happy with that."
Hysa also offered some considered thoughts on Brady's potential to step up to international football.
"I think she's a great player in the league, I really do believe that," he said. "Does she need to work in terms of being in the national team? She’s got a lot of things that potentially she’ll need to refine in order to get into that team.
"She runs all day for you so that’s a given and she’s scored a lot of goals in the league but when it comes to the international level you’re playing against the quality of your peers and potentially better which makes it a lot harder.
"If your technical ability to get away from players isn’t where it potentially might be it’s very hard to get away just by sprinting, because you will be matched for all of those things. Yes she can potentially make that jump but she’ll need a little bit of work to get there."
