Heywood CS manager Byrne pays tribute to All Ireland champions

Ronan Byrne is a name which is familiar in Heywood Community School. He has taught there for years and he will now be remembered in the school forever as wrote his name into the history books when he managed his Heywood side to the All-Ireland ‘C’ football final. His side were the better team throughout. Ennistymon never looked like they would win it, but when they began to gather momentum in the second half, Heywood weathered the storm and hit them for two goals to all but kill the game.

Speaking after the game, one could see the emotion in Byrne’s face. An emotion which he admits was mainly relief after finally getting over the line.

“It’s hard to put into words really, just relieved more than anything. I felt we were the better team for the vast majority of the match but being the better team doesn’t always translate onto the scoreboard, so it was just relief when the final whistle went.

“The goals were probably against the run of play. What we have been doing a lot all year is trying to control the third quarter in terms of possession and I thought we took the sting out of it a good bit in the third quarter. We went over and back and just made them chase after us and we broke up the field after that.

“I felt from that point of view, I was happy enough with the composure we showed in that third quarter so it was brilliant to get over the line”.

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It has been a tough two years. The schools closed in March 2020 when Covid19 hit the country. They eventually reopened again in September, but in January 2021, they closed again as the second wave came.

There was no room for planning. It was two years that was full of uncertainty on whether schools would reopen firstly and secondly, if any football would be played. Byrne paid tribute after the game to the students who did not have the opportunity to play senior football for Heywood.

“I think it’s important but you always think about the ‘What ifs’. I felt last years team, if the competition had got going, would have been just as strong as this years team. But they never got a chance to get going so you think about them, and they left their final year in Heywood without any opportunity to play football at all.”

After shipping a heavy defeat in their first match in November, they recovered spectacularly and wins in the South Leinster Final against Rathangan and then an impressive Leinster Final win over Dublin Champions St MacDara’s Community College. They cruised through the semi-final against St Paul’s Oughterard and on Saturday, they became All-Ireland Champions.

Byrne was full of praise for his young side’s resilience to bounce back from defeat in November while also outlining the benefits to Laois football as a whole.

“We got a bad beating in the first round back in November, but we pulled ourselves together again and we went from there, so we are delighted as a whole. It’s huge, even to give fellas a taste of the big occasion and then success on the big occasion.

“That has to be good for Laois football. A lot of these fellas have played minor and u20 so you’d like to think they will go on now. It will have to give them a great boost in their confidence and their football going forward”.