This article is from page 67 of the 2011-11-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 67 JPG
THE celebrations at the end said it all.
This was Sixmilebridge’s 12th county minor success, but coming after a three-in-a-row of final defeats at the hands of Inagh/Kilnamona, Newmarket-on-Fergus and Kilmaley, it was no wonder this one was greeted as vociferously as the first way back in 1970 when the legendary Christy ‘The Craw’ Murray captained them to victory over Smith O’Brien’s in Dr Daly Park.
“It was brilliant to win, just brilliant. It’s a great feeling,” said manager Brian Culbert, himself a minor championship winner with the ‘Bridge in 1997.
“It’s John Corbett below in the field who has the pitch in immaculate condition to the lads in the senior club, minor club. The whole parish was involved in this minor victory and it was a great feeling at the final whistle.
“It was a serious battle. It was only the last 15 or 20 that we pulled away. It was tit-for-tat the whole way from the first whistle.
“We said at half-time to stick with it. The first 15 minutes of the game was just a battle and fighting and wrestling for the ball – it was hard because there was no pattern to the game.
“We told the lads to settle down and once we started hurling we knew we’d come through. Once Ballyea didn’t stop us hurling we knew we’d have the hurling to win,” he added.
And so it proved, with the ‘Bridge reeling in Ballyea before half-time, then turning the screw in the second half as their hurling gradually overpowered their opponents.
“There was no pressure on us,” revealed Culbert afterwards. “It was the first final in the four years that we went into that we went into as massive underdogs. That helped our lads. The lads knew that there was no pressure. A lot of the pressure was on Ballyea because they were favourites.
“We knew that if we performed we were confident in our own ability. We were confident when we started in February that if we hurled we would come through as champions for the year.
“Key for us was that we switched Seadna Morey on to Tony Kelly and put Brian Carey back centre-back. It gave us a lot more space – our halfback line and half-forward were crowding midfield and Tony Kelly couldn’t get the space he needed and they resorted to putting him in fullforward,” he added.