“I’m sure a bit of nerves came into it, but to win one is significant for that group, there’s no question about that. It might be a springboard if we use it correctly.”

James Horan and Mayo broke their final duck in Croke Park yesterday.

“I’m not going to lie, it’s not very often that we’ve won silverware up here. For the fans especially, I was delighted. It was a great feeling seeing all them. Seeing my family after the game and getting to celebrate something with them.”

Captain Diarmuid O’Connor outlined what a league title meant to him and his team-mates.

“You know what I can’t say I’m disappointed. Don’t pick that up wrong, we came here to win a game but you look at it and say, ‘we’ve had a good league’.”

Defeated Kerry boss Peter Keane focused on the positives of a productive Spring campaign.

“How many of them have Munster medals? For me, that should be at the top of the agenda right now. They should be going hunting one down every time they get a chance.”

The Munster SHC is now the priority for John Kiely’s all-conquering Limerick side.

“You will see the best of us, I don’t think you saw it today.”

The same applies to Paraic Fanning and Waterford.

“I don’t know what I was doing, I kind of just flicked it. I’d say it was the only thing I hit on target all day. I had enough wides as well, delighted it went in.”

A modest Aaron Gillane played down the sublime piece of skill that unlocked the Waterford defence.

“It’s great to get back to Division 1, that was our number-one goal. But when you get to Croke Park you want to win, we spoke about it during the week. And it’s always nice to pick up silverware here.”

The Division 2 silverware was the icing on the cake for Declan Bonner and Donegal.

“We needed to find out could we come to Croke Park and could we perform. In the end, we weren’t strong enough to finish the game off.”

Progress has been made by Andy McEntee’s Meath but they came up short against Michael Murphy & Co.

“Any day you come to Croke Park, it’s always a tough day in terms of what you have to do to win. We played very hard there for 70 minutes, put a lot of pressure on ourselves with ball we gave away etc. but, scoring 20 points, we were very good on the front foot.”

Damien McErlain guided Derry to an Allianz FL Division 4 final victory over Leitrim.

“It will give them that bit of a boost and that bit of confidence and I think they actually have the ability to come back here next year if they apply themselves right and work hard. I said that in the dressing-room and I have no problem saying it publicly because I think there is an awful lot more in these lads.”

Terry Hyland laid down a challenge to his Leitrim players.

“We’re delighted. We knew coming up today it was going to be a really tough challenge.”

Cathal Murray masterminded a Camogie League Division 1 final success for Galway.

“We just weren’t hungry enough. Simple as that. Galway were. They wanted it more.”

Murray’s Kilkenny counterpart Ann Downey had no complaints.

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