The Clare People Archive

IF RTÉ radio and television reports were to be believed on Sunday, Ryan Cup hopefuls ITT had produced the shock of the round to knock out the 2009 champions Clare. And in truth, it was an eventuality that appeared extremely likely approaching the final stretch as the visitors led by three points.

However, much like George Best in the 1999 Champions League Final between Man Utd and Bayern Munich, RTÉ’s source must have prematurely exited the game before Clare’s late recovery saw them secure their passage to the quarter-finals.

Afterwards, manager Ger O’Loughlin was relieved but understandably not leaping to any conclusions after only the first competitive game of the year.

“It was a good workout although Tralee IT are probably going away thinking how the hell did they lose that one. We worked hard but I think what we got out of today is that we had nine or ten lads out there that are trying to make their way onto the team and we’ve learned that maybe three or four might do it and there are another three or four that won’t and that’s being truthful about it. So it’s as well off to learn this in January and February I think and that’s what we got out of it more than anything else.

“We were lucky and we turned it around and got the few breaks towards the last few minutes to win it and it was important to win because we want a couple of games as well. But you know it’s our first competitive game as such so I’m delighted to win it but I know overall you’d be disappointed with our display.

“In saying that, I would take good heart out of a lot of things. We brought on a few lads and a few showed up well. Cian Dillon was very good when he came on, Caimin Morey showed well and I thought Nicky O’Connell went through a lot of work and I was very, very happy with Conor Tierney so they are all the positives.”

“We have no hurling done and it probably showed out there but in saying that we will take a bit of heart from eight or nine displays and we know we have a mountain to climb in terms of work but I think we are hitting in the right direction alright.”

Clare are certain to meet a more stubborn challenge against LIT this weekend and with O’Loughlin unsure of the availability of his large NUIG contingent due to Walsh Cup commitments, the odds are certainly stacking up against his side to reclaim a semi-final spot.

“LIT would be considered stronger and I don’t know the schedule next week but we mightn’t have the Galway lads next week so I’m not sure how they are fixed for that game.

“But look it’s a chance for lads but we probably need to be going out a bit stronger that what we did today to get over the line in these games. We are all using them to prepare for the season ahead and we have learned a good bit today and I think that’s the main thing. We have a lot of work to do but I’m happy with some displays as well.”

WINNING isn’t everything but the will to win is as Clare proved on Sunday by snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. With experimentation the norm at this time of year, expectations weren’t high as can be seen from the paltry support in O’Garney Park. And really the only prerequisite is the result as the county crave as many competitive games as possible ahead of the real business of the National League.

In that regard, Clare can count themselves very lucky to be still in the hunt for Waterford Crystal Cup honours after producing a six point turnaround in the final three minutes to deny their student counterparts.

With eight senior debutants in the starting line-up, Clare never flowed with any great purpose over the 70 minutes and it almost cost them dearly. The home side hit 16 wides and even the conversion of basic frees eluded them while in contrast, ITT made their most of their chances, particularly through Limerick’s Eoin Ryan who was unerring from both placed balls and play.

To hammer home the extent of the changing of the guard in the county side over the past few years, Clare had only two survivors from the starting line-up of 2009 (Gerry Quinn and Fergal Lynch while ITT had eight.

What finally turned around Clare’s fortunes however was the Under 21 class of 2009, Nicky O’Connell and debutant Conor Tierney from the starting line-up as well the introduction of Caimin Morey, Cian Dillon and John Conlon.

It was Morey who grabbed the headlines however, scoring an unanswered 1-3 in the final three minutes to take the spoils, with 1-1 of that total being supplied by Tierney.

That urgency was not as evident earlier in the proceedings however as despite a healthy first half breeze at their backs, a ringrusty Clare were wasteful in front of the posts but still able to keep their heads above water by the break.

Indeed, it was a Clare man that opened the scoring, albeit for IT Tralee. Thomas Downes, the Cooraclare player who plays his hurling for Éire Óg, was one of three Banner natives on the Kerry College starting line-up along with his clubmate Stephen Guilfoyle and Crusheen’s Fergus Kennedy and duly set the ball rolling after three minutes.

Clare replied with three out of the next four points through Cormac O’Donovan, Colin Ryan and Diarmuid McMahon before the game came to life in the 14th minute with the opening goal for the visitors. In truth, it was the type of goal that would only be forgivable at this time of year as midfielder Nickie Quaid was handed two bites of the cherry before flicking the ball over the line from point blank range.

By the turn of the opening quarter, Clare had gained parity through the hardworking Nicky O’Connell and

TWO games down and two wins. Positive stuff as Clare’s season comes to life, not so much because of the win that puts Clare within 70 minutes of a first McGrath Cup final since the dramatic win they scored over Limerick in the 2009 decider – more to do with the way the victory was achieved.

“I would say we won dirty,” says Clare manager Micheál McDermott. “I’d be always of the view that any match you go out you have to try and win, no matter what that game is. Winning dirty like the lads did today is important for the team because is shows character.

“They showed last week against University College Cork that they wanted to win it and they showed this week against Cork IT that they also wanted to win it, even though we made a lot of mistakes we really wanted it and that’s important for the development of the team as we get ready for the start of the National League.”

From there McDermott sifts through the game – both negatives and positives of a 70 minutes that was insipid, if physical, for much of the first-half before opening out in the second-half on the back of some impressive forward play by Clare.

“We were quite unfortunate to lose Gary Brennan in the first-half and it put us under pressure. We didn’t play good football for a lot of it and we gave away too many easy scores, but some of the football we played and some of the scores we kicked were good and it gives us something to build on again.

It’s early in the season and a result is very important for us because it gives us another competitive match, this time against an inter-county team which will be a fair test of where we are at as the National League approaches.

“Cork IT are a good side. They won the Sigerson Cup two years ago and they’re a very strong and physical side. Every college team we play is made up of very strong club players from Cork and Kerry and intercounty as well. We needed the physical challenge and a lot of the younger players stood up well. A lot of the younger players did well, Cathal O’Connor did some great work in midfield. He made a couple of mistakes but he has a great future ahead of him.

“Some of our ball movement was very good at times, while we kicked some quality scores, while it was very positive to see David Tubridy back from injury. He was itching to get back into it – we didn’t think we would have to use him so early but he really stood up to the challenge and has a game under his belt.”

With that McDermott’s mind drifts to the start of the National League – he’s not forgetting the challenge to be faced up to when Clare play Waterford on Sunday, it’s just that he knows that the National League from February onwards is what his team will be judged on, not McGrath Cup fare in January.

“You never really know until you hit the pitch in the first round of the league how you’re going to perform,” he says. “We always said that first match against Leitrim is vitally important. As they say in the Premier League, it’s six-pointer and both teams will be looking to do well in the division, so if we can get a win away from home it would be a great start.”

They might be heading that way.

EARLY days, so early that it’s far too soon to make a call on Clare’s chances of realising their goal of promotion from Division 4 at the league’s end, but some more encouraging signs were manifest in Sunday’s display.

A win against physically stronger opposition and a win in which the work undertaken by the squad during the closed season really came up trumps as they maneuvered themselves into a winning position before a late CIT comeback threatened to bring the game to extra-time.

That CIT’s comeback that yielded a burst of three points from substitute Andrew O’Brien in the closing ten minutes just came up short was just desserts for Clare, simply because the quality of their play in the second half made them far the better side over the hour.

Yes, Clare were slow to get going and could only muster one point in the opening 25 minutes, but once they took the lead for the first time with a fine score from Rory Donnelly, they had exerted a control over proceedings that was eventually rewarded with a win and a semi-final outing against Waterford next Sunday.

CIT didn’t start their two Cork AllIreland winners Aidan Walsh and Ciaran Sheehan, but All Star midfielder Walsh was introduced as early as the 18th minute when the students realised that they were in for a tough hour.

Walsh did add strength to an al- ready strong CIT side, but ultimately brains and not brawn was the winning of this game as a flurry of wellworked and executed scores in the second half showcased the real difference between the sides. Clare had that bit of panache in the final quarter of the field – CIT didn’t.

Indeed, despite kicking seven first half wides, Clare looked to be on the high road just before half time after Donnelly’s point from lifted some of the gloom that inevitably attached itself to a game that produced only two points in 25 minutes – Barry John Walsh’s opener for CIT after five minutes and Alan Clohessy’s equaliser 11 minutes later when a soaring catch from Timmy Ryan teed him up for a tap-over.

Points via a David O’Brien free on

“OCTOBER 17, 2010 is a date that going to live long in the minds of Crusheen people, no matter where they are on this planet. Decades of disappointment were finally put to bed that day and I as a proud Crusheen man was so happy for everyone in Crusheen that finally our day had come.”

The opening lines of Crusheen senior manager Michael Browne’s speech before the historic medal presentation to his panel of players. Delving deeper into the club’s Clare Cup and subsequently successful championship campaign, he paid special tribute to the players who brought the side to victory as well as the rest of his management team.

“You could see the confidence and the belief beginning to develop among the players as we got out of the group and entered the quarter-final of the championship. The discipline that this team showed on and off the pitch was second to none. They really responded to the challenge that was put in front of them and for that, I really admire them.

“You could also see it grow in the management. Nothing was left to chance and we had an absolutely fantastic management team in place. Eddie [Fitzgibbon]. Niall [Griffin] and Gerry [Kennedy] worked absolutely so hard at training and prepared meticulously for everything that happened throughout the year and for them nothing was too much, too far or too hard.”

In also thanking Cyril Lyons for his role in taking training at various junctures throughout the year, he recalled a conversation he had with the former inter-county star.

“Cyril felt that ‘for every team, there is a small, short window of opportunity to win a county title’ and I know many people felt that for Crusheen, that window had disappeared and was gone. But I can tell you that as we made progress in 2010 and especially in September and early October when that window came back into focus for us, there was absolutely no way that we were going to let it pass this time and that is exactly what happened.”

Junior A manager Joe Mullins reflected on the perfect year as his side claimed both league and championship honours.

“What a year we have had in 2010. We entered two competitions and won both of them, championship and league and in doing so contributed hugely to what has been the most successful year in the history of Crusheen GAA.

“We played 11 games in the league, winning nine, drawing one and losing one and this after we had already qualified for the semi-final. It’s a great record by any standards and after seeing the way the team performed in the final especially when the pressure came on, we knew that this could be our year to have a real crack at the championship.

“On the 30th of October, we lined up against our old foes from Newmarket. The lads played tigerishly and it ebbed and flowed as all tight games do but we said to each other going out for the second half that whatever happened we would fight to the final whistle. And so we did fight and that is why tonight we are honouring these county champions who have brought the junior A cup back to Crusheen for the first time since 1959 and not only that but they have also brought back the junior A league Cup to Crusheen, a double that has only been achieved twice before by any club.

“So in summing up the great year for the Crusheen junior A team, especially for the times we are living in, I’d like to put it like this:

“If this were a company and I was chairman of the board of directors and all of you were the shareholders, I know that you are very happy with your investments.”