Matthew sings it loud and sings it proud
Mayo's Matthew Ruane lifts the Sam Maguire Cup after Mayo defeated Kerry to claim a first All-Ireland Senior Football Championship in 75 years. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie
Of all the thoughts and emotions going through the head of a Mayo player in the aftermath of last Sunday’s day of days, that Matthew Ruane felt it was only now that he deserved or had the credibility to sing wasn’t quite what you expected to hear.
A survivor of the heartbreaks of 2016, ’17, 20 and ’21, Ruane revealed his sense of near “embarrassment” about singing “such a good song” in Croke Park heretofore because of Mayo’s repeated inability to see the total job through. Rest assured, Ruane was more than a little hoarse when eventually emerging from the bunker of the Mayo dressing-room having finally seen that total job through.
“To be honest with you, it was like nearly a taboo song to be singing, just because we hadn't achieved what we wanted to achieve. I personally felt I nearly didn't deserve to sing but in there now, out on the field, just to be able to sing it, I was roaring it on the field. It was brilliant,” said the Breaffy man, introduced as a 53rd minute replacement for midfielder Bob Tuohy.
“It’s incredible, honest to God. It honestly hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s just singing, having the craic. Even afterwards, we got out, you know, most of us were in our bare feet, just going out in Croke Park, just having a picture, and the seagulls were there, eating all the food and everything. It was one of the most surreal things I’ve ever experienced.
“Andy had kind of spoken to us the night before about winning being fun but that [winning] is not what it’s about, that it’s about not letting people down, going out wanting to get better, wanting to improve yourself. And that is what it's about. But winning is f****** fun too and it is just an amazing, amazing feeling,” smiled Ruane who, unprompted, already had one eye on the future: “You obviously have to enjoy these couple of days but I think this isn’t the end of the road for this team without a question. I think once we got the monkey off our back, I think we can really drive it on the next couple of years.”
And yet, Mayo had come into this game against Kerry so underrated, but according to Matthew Ruane, absolutely no offence was taken by Mayo to the notion that this game was Kerry’s to lose.
“People had every right to think that, the evidence was there over the last couple of years to be honest with you, but within the group, we were very, very confident going into it.
“We knew, when you go man for man matchups, we were very, very confident throughout the group and we knew we had the bench as well to come on and finish the job. So yeah, we knew once we got down the stretch and we were still in the game, we would be able to drive home.
“We went after things we were really good at, like pressing up high, not taking a step back, really, really going after them. That's exactly how we won it; turn them over high up the field, getting tackles in and then going at them, getting our runners breaking lines running through. That’s what we've done and eventually I think we did break them down towards the end.
“We were getting a lot of contact in early on but they were getting out. And we knew, if he kept doing that, kept doing that, we'd eventually break them down,” explained Ruane, who had watched from the bench as Kerry built an early seven points lead.
“The boys dug deep in the first-half and put us in a brilliant position. We always knew that in the second-half we were going to really turn the screw when we really needed to, and it actually came a little bit sooner than we all kind of thought.
“I think there was a bit of a breeze going into the Canal End and in fairness, the boys really took it out and drove it home.”
The game was on a knife edge throughout the second-half, but particularly when five out of six second-half points went Kerry’s way between the 46th and 56th minutes to leave Mayo with just a one-point advantage entering the home stretch. But Ruane agreed there was something very different about this Mayo team from ones that had gone so close in the past.
“It just felt freedom, like the boys out there just really enjoy the moment. It was just a brilliant feeling.
“You can tell the youth that's there, like Kobe, Darragh, they just threw the shackles off and they just enjoyed it, and I think that was all throughout the team. It’s infectious to be honest with you, and do you know a couple of the older lads there, we started to really thrive off them lads as well and were actually enjoying where we’re at. At the end of the day it's all about enjoyment and yeah, it's just an unbelievable feeling.”
