Westmeath manager Tom Cribbin believes a perfect storm of circumstances helped his side to this year's Leinster final.
They came from behind yesterday against rivals Meath to book a final spot against Dublin and speaking to Off The Ball tonight, Cribbin told us why he was confident about what Westmeath could achieve provincially.
"I believed [in the team] and there's different reasons for it. That wasn't underestimating any of the teams we were playing. Louth had a new manager, Wexford had a new manager. They had lost a lot of good, experienced players on both teams," he said.
"We had Louth away and there was a revenge factor from last year. There was a lot of things ticking in our favour and if you look at the quality of the players they had lost, it was a very difficult job for Colin [Kelly] in his first year. We were a very young team, we lost literally no one [except for injuries]. But it was 50:50 and I honestly believed we could get the best out of them to beat Louth and Wexford."
Cribbin also said that after winning both of those games, he knew his team were mentally ready to take on their previous bogey team Meath at Croke Park, given the criticism the opposition had been facing.
But he also addressed his much-publicised criticism of his players after their relegation from Division 2, and said that his comments were delivered in the heat of the moment and certainly not planned.
"It wasn't planned. It was heat of the moment stuff," he said, adding that he "regretted it an hour later" and that it was addressed at the next meeting and that he apologised to his players.
"I apologised to my players because no matter what I feel about them, I owe them the courtesy of talking to them first direct - and I didn't do that," Cribbin revealed, saying that the players had no problem with it and accepted the apology.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
