This article is from page 100 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 100 JPG
TULLA are old stock. Clichéd and all as it may sound, they hurl from the heart and it’s taken them to a Munster Final.
Think of that. A Munster Final!
At the start of the summer that con- cept wasn’t even part of their thought process and before the provincial de- cider on Sunday, Jim McInerney said as much. He looked back to where Tulla were at this time last year — having been dumped out of the Sen- ior B Championship — and said that a Munster Final would barely have registered as a dream.
But that’s where they were on Sun- day and the club has provided some of the only positive vibes in Clare hurling this year — particularly since they took the county final back at the end of October.
Before that, they went quietly about their business, taking out a couple of big guns on the way to a novel final against Crusheen. If that game didn’t live up to expectation, perspective gives us the opportunity to reflect that in hindsight, maybe both sides went in hoping not to lose rather than aiming to win. The hurling didn’t set the world alight and word was out that Tulla had won a soft enough
championship.
War NmmyeclyeM mba OCcmrcn ele Mm iMmy schol mn r-b be either. In ways, it probably has more to do with the usual swelled crowd at the final compared to the numbers present to see Tulla dispose of New- market and Clarecastle.
The county took Tulla to their hearts but it wasn’t a rapid process. Word was seeping out that the Kerry champions could take a Clare scalp in the first round of Munster but Tulla came out that day in Tralee all guns blazing and had the game killed off before Lixnaw could even shake the cobwebs from their bones.
Then Ballyduff came to Ennis and
Tulla played some of the best hurling Cusack Park has seen all year. Flags and banners with the claret and gold have popped up all across the county since then.
In a year of let downs on and off the field for the county hurlers, it was Tulla, along with Clonlara who car- ried hopes through the latter half of the season.
That Tulla failed to take a provin- cial title shouldn’t ruin the next few months for them. Since the county fi- nal, celebrations have been cut short as they seriously went about taking a Munster title. All year they’ve been proving their critics wrong and the
attitude was — what’s the point in stopping with a Clare title.
When they’d finally relinquished the game at the Gaelic Grounds, a large knot of Tulla supporters moved onto the field to commiserate with them. It was a shared pain. Through- out the game, it was the Tulla fans who displayed most energy and colour and they too will have some warm thoughts to keep them going over the cold months now upon us.