IN the chaos and confusion of Cavan's Ulster Final victory celebrations Oisin Pierson showed a cool wit, quipping "I think they've brought you the wrong Oisin."
His namesake Oisin Kiernan had scored two points, including the brilliant one from out on the left wing which put Cavan ahead late on, before Conor Madden's goal in added time secured the win over Donegal.
The latter's Gowna clubmate Pierson spent the match among the subs, but he was every bit an Ulster winner, according to manager Mickey Graham, who said: "If you asked me 'Who was your star performer?' I'd say I had 38 star performers: the lads who couldn't come with us, to the 26 who togged out, and the boys who played. There's no airs and graces, just pure honesty."
Indeed 21-year-old corner-forward Pierson had started the three previous wins, over Monaghan, Antrim, and Down.
Yet although he insisted that "at the start of the year we set our sights on an Ulster title, and our inner circle is where the belief comes from", he acknowledged that actually achieving that was still amazing:
"It's hard to take in and believe it's after happening. Those boys out there are warriors, they put their life on hold for this team and there's nothing but admiration and credit given to the boys on this panel.
"We never let media or outside voices creep into our circle, it's a very tight-knit group. When teams were named nothing ever got leaked. We had inner belief and were not letting 'white noise' take over."
Another flash of humour when asked about taking on All-Ireland champions Dublin, chasing six-in-a-row: "Surely favourites for that one, are we? I don't know. Ah, we'll soak this in and see about the Dubs on Tuesday night, analyse it then, wherever you start."
The Dubs will be huge favourites, but Pierson insists Cavan won't simply accept defeat:
"I'm only in since Mickey [Graham] started so I didn't know what went on that before it. But the other boys says it's a culture change, that's what it takes to win Ulster titles. It happened in Donegal in 2010, Jim McGuinness changed it, and the sky was the limit with them.
"Culturally we were a Division Three team until Terry [Hyland] started that revival. Yet we were only points away from Monaghan, who went on to win Ulster titles. You have to have that inner belief if you're going to go places.
"That's the main thing I'd take from Mickey, he has belief in every single man, from one to 36 or 37. We believe in ourselves and fear nobody."
