Just over a year ago St. Vincent's captain Ger Brennan walked up the steps of the Hogan Stand to receive the Andy Merrigan Cup. His winning speech was hailed as the most progressive ever after he thanked 'girlfriends and boyfriends of the players' for their support throughout the journey to All-Ireland success.
Today, after Waterford's commanding 10-point win against Cork in the Allianz League final, Deise manager Derek McGrath did something similar. Speaking to RTÉ following the game, McGrath declared that he was delighted for the "families, partners, boyfriends and girlfriends" of the players.
I'm thinking about five weeks' time. You don't want to give psychological advantage to anyone.
But we can't park league final victories. It's only the third for us so it's a massive day. It's a fair achievement.
We're going to celebrate it tonight and tomorrow. Then we'll look forward to Tuesday and getting back to training.
I'm so proud of the lads. For their families, partners, boyfriends and girlfriends.
I'm so thrilled for all of them [after] the effort they put in since the start of the year. It was a long winter.
What a challenge for any management to prepare a team to face the same team in five weeks' time. But we're looking forward to it.
While the GAA is sometimes seen as an organisation mired in tradition, it has certainly shown over the last year or so that it can also be progressive and inclusive.
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Picture credit: Matt Browne / SPORTSFILE
