Winning Minor A hurling captain, Eoghan Murphy of The Harps, dedicated his side’s victory to the family of the late Rory Deegan.
Rory, aged 22 and from Cullohill, died in Greece back in June where he had been working for the summer.
His dad Joe was the manager as The Harps defeated Abbeyleix in the Minor final on Sunday afternoon.
While Rory’s younger brother Ross scored the seventh goal of the day and joined Eoghan Murphy to raise the cup on the podium afterwards.
Murphy mentioned in his winning speech how much it meant to everyone to win after the difficult year that everyone in The Harps had endured.
And speaking to LaoisToday afterwards, the talented defender re-iterated the point.
He said: “We endured savage heartbreak in the final of this last year, losing out to Clough-Ballacolla last year.
“And after everything that happened (the tragic loss of Rory) we just wanted to do it for Joe (Deegan) and all of the family.”
Eoin Delaney finished the final with 2-3 while wing back Tony Mahony scored a monster point from wing back and was excellent also.
Both of these lads will contest the U-15 ‘A’ final for The Harps this Saturday against Park-Ratheniska-Timahoe and captain Murphy gave them special praise.
He said: “Eoin and Tony have been brilliant for us all year and they have been under pressure with the U-15 as well.
“They train with us all the time and we are delighted to have them.
“Hopefully they can push on now and win that on Saturday – we will all be there to support them anyway.”
Not content with just this win, Murphy now wants to see The Harps push on at senior level and end up in a different type of final in the years to come.
He said: “Thank God we got over the line against what really is a brilliant Abbeyleix side.
“It is a savage day for the club so hopefully we can drive it on now and get ourselves into a Senior final soon.
“That is the main goal and this is only a stepping stone in the overall process of what we are trying to achieve.
“We want to push on now and hopefully our days of relegation finals are over.”
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SEE ALSO – Check out our dedicated ’10 minutes on’ Talking Sport Podcast series focusing on various Laois clubs
