"As a back, you play on the edge and you get away with it sometimes and sometimes you don’t, and I did yesterday."
'Clare won the game... It'd be wrong to let it colour the whole game' - The panel assess the key moments in extra-time, with @DonalOgC arguing it would be wrong to dwell on the jersey tug on Robbie O'Flynn on the final play #thesundaygame #CLAvCOR #AllIrelandhurlingfinal pic.twitter.com/iN6iy5obut
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 21, 2024
Because of the timing of the incident, it garnered a lot of attention but it’s widely acknowledged that Clare deserved to get their hands on the trophy after a pulsating encounter.
Leen’s story is almost as unlikely as his team’s, who having lost the last three Munster finals, crept up on the inside to beat Kilkenny in the semi-final before accounting for the Rebels, who had twice defeated the four-time champions Limerick.
The Corofin man impressed in the league but didn’t make the starting team when they opened their Munster campaign against Limerick despite being named at number four.
Substitute appearances followed in the round-robin wins over Cork and Waterford before he got this first start in the victory over Tipperary.
From there, he didn't look back and played a huge part in their ultimate glory.
"At the start of the year all I was hoping to get was some league time," said the 22-year-old UL student.
"Honestly, that was the plan from last year. I only came on for 15 minutes, we all know how that went with the yellow card [in a league game against Limerick in February 2023] but then I just took the opportunities that came.
"Thanks to management for giving me them opportunities, and having all the senior lads around me made it much easier.
"They are able to teach me what to do. I always had an outlet with John Conlon in front of me, Conor Cleary beside me, Eibhear [Quilligan] in goal, it made it work."
While Leen has tasted success early in his inter-county career, David Reidy has had to soldier for a decade to eventually get his hands on the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
The Eire Óg clubman came onto the scene in 2014, a year after their last All-Ireland title.
The 30-year-old, who scored two points yesterday, said: "I joined the panel in 2014, the winter after the last one and looking back the team that won that in 2013 was a young team and might have thought there’d be a lot of success, but we soon found that that wasn’t the case and there was a lot of barren years and ups and downs.
"To win yesterday was unbelievable. A lot of emotions, some good, some not so good, the heart was pumping at times but it’s just magical."
Reidy was speaking from the team hotel as the panel recover from an energy-sapping clash played out in front of a full house at HQ.
"That’s the thing, it’s madness. It’s a credit to the preparation that both teams put in," he said of both sides’ efforts.
"You seen lads going down with cramp but that’s after running 10, 11k. That’s not just going down with cramp, that’s after an intense battle so yeah, the bodies are sore but we won’t mind this morning how sore the bodies are."
Goalkeeper Quilligan (above), who pulled off a superb save from O’Flynn in the second-half, added: "It’s very special, it will probably be later in the week when it really sinks in.
"As a child you dream of this and even as an adult you dream of this and it’s special to get over the line."
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