23/10/2013
September 13 and Cork finally locked out
by Diarmaid Williams
It says something about their amazing resilience as well as Clare’s lack of a clinical touch that Cork could very easily have drawn the replayed All-Ireland Hurling Final.
When Stephen Moylan got their third goal, Cork found time to launch one last attack on the Clare goal. Amazingly Clare, despite filleting the Rebels for most of a quarter of an hour, still hadn’t shaken them off and more amazingly still Seamus Harnedy somehow managed to field the ball inside the Banner 30 metre line.
He drove across goal and laid off a desperate pass to the incoming Cathal Naughton who agonisingly fumbled the sliothar from his grasp.
Seadhna Morey, just on as a substitute emerged from the subsequent thicket, having seemingly picked the ball clean off the ground from my view just behind the Hill 16 goal. My eyesight is suspect however, and anyway Morey wasn’t providing any tells that he had been dishonest . He took off with Pat Horgan in pursuit and soloed fully 40 yards before driving low to Darach Honan in the left corner where the Cusack meets the Canal.
Honan, dogged by injuries to the extent that he lost his place to the day’s most potent figure, Shane O’Donnell, revives memories of the blistering threat he presented at under 21 level. The big man dodges round two Cork defenders and with a neat burst of pace is left with Nash to beat. He opts to bat and the ball trickles slowly over the line.
Saffron and blue celebrations - a year or two sooner than expected.
Saffron and blue celebrations – a year or two sooner than expected.
Had Naughton collected he would most likely have been fouled, the redoubtable Nash would have been called up for another crack at goal and there’s every chance it could have ended 4-16 apiece.
The middle third of the game was owned by Cork but during that period of dominance Clare defended with such stout-hearted valour that not enough damage had been shipped, when the inevitable revival came. JBM has been a playing and managerial witness in many Clare collapses over the years and he and his cohorts must have thought that another collapse was genetically predestined. Not so for this team.
There’s no doubt Clare were the better outfit but they have much to learn. The great thing is they have learned so much about themselves while still managing to grasp the Liam McCarthy. It’s hard to fathom the turnaround since mid-Summer when they could so easily have been caught by the yellow-bellies in Thurles.
Again that day Clare were the better team but poor concentration meant Wexford stayed in touch and grabbed an unlikely green flag at the death. Clare ate them in extra time.
As evidenced in both finals the lessons hadn’t really been learned but Clare seem to be playing with such abandon that the mantra was almost a case of “you score three, we’ll score five”. For those who prize sound defensive play its heresy and it will be interesting to see how Kilkenny and others counter Clare’s free-flowing style in 2014.
A young Clare fan gets nerves tested again. Been like that all year.
A young Clare fan gets nerves tested again. Been like that all year.
All year long following this team has been an emotional rollercoaster. A well-known Crusheen man and great friend of mine has RTE in his house in North London and we saw much of the fare there this year in those hospitable surroundings. The motley crue of Crusheen, Clonlara, Kilkee and Barefield were enthralled in April, when we snatched an extra time chance from the jaws of defeat.
Eventually we got over the line by a single point and relegated the rebels. It was delirium to win in this manner and I remember saying aloud that simply staying in Division One was good enough for me for this stage in the team’s development. Not very ambitious I know but I am a Clare child of the sorrowful 70s and 80s and that’s never left me.
Still by Munster Championship time and buoyed on by the confidence of the younger around me I allowed myself to feel that a Munster title wasn’t beyond reason and thought we had Cork’s measure, having disposed of Waterford.
It turned out to be the lowest day we had and again I was once again reminded of the folly of having too much expectation of the warriors of my native place.
I watched the game online and although a few beers were had on the day, I must admit the disappointment was too much and my other half, a Cornish girl herself, was close to tears herself at the sight of me!
When I recovered my composure she reminded me that I hadn’t cried at the birth of my own son, which to my shame is true.
It’s difficult to explain how hurling gets into the marrow of your bones, but all I can say is that when you are in exile its emotional hold and the pride you feel in your home place is enormously powerful.
Shane O'Donnell's brother had to watch the game many miles away in a bar in Israel. The beer and the emotion of the day all got a bit too much in the end.
Shane O’Donnell’s brother had to watch the game many miles away in a bar in Israel. The beer and the emotion of the day all got a bit too much in the end.
The two finals were attended, the second time with her ladyship in tow, and the feeling after both those games was a mixture of relief and exhilaration.
Three days after the replayed final had been won and Liam McCarthy was safely ensconced beside the Fergus, I rang an uncle of mine who lives in deepest west Clare. A single man, with a small holding he lives on the back-roads leading to Lehinch, and gets by on a little farming and a little council work.
I hadn’t met him on the day but at 60-odd he’d made his first trip to Croke Park, and on seeing him starry-eyed on Facebook holding the Liam McCarthy Cup at the team hotel on Sunday morning, I said I’d give him a bell to let him know I’d seen the picture and that he should look to get it framed.
As he recalled excitedly the events of the day, and spoke with confidence of how much he looked forward to the team taking on the Kilkennys and Tipps next year, I felt myself welling up again. It’s hard to explain the geography of Clare hurling to an outsider but safe to say it’s often the people in sparsely populated west Clare, far from the hurling strongholds that have the greatest pride in their team. You cannot describe what this win has given to people living humble lifestyles on far flung outposts; it’s inestimable.
A Father Ted inspired image from outside Ted's house in Kilnaboy.
A Father Ted inspired image from outside Ted’s house in Kilnaboy.
In his column on Sunday Jamesie O’Connor spoke about what Ger Loughnane said to a bunch of under 16 Clare players at a gathering in Ennis four years ago, many of whom were part of the Clare squad this year. He said that while there were other sports, rugby and soccer in particular, and many other distractions out there, nothing, nothing, would give them the same recognition from their own people, than to represent their county and be successful with Clare.
The ownership those such as my uncle have in the team is a joyful thing and with a bleak winter ahead a sidewards glance at the Liam McCarthy Cup picture on the mantelpiece will ensure spirits are never too low on that grand peninsula in Midwest Ireland.
Beating the cats in a final would be a big one for Clare. Cody will be keen to put down the nouveau riche.
Beating the cats in a final would be a big one for Clare. Cody will be keen to put down the nouveau riche.
Clare people travelled from exiles in Alaska and Los Angeles, to name but two I know of, to get home for these games. There might only have been three thousand in Thurles on the 13th of July; some of that down to being let down in Munster, some down to economics and some down to the simple fact that so many of us live outside the country now.
But the belief returned again when they hit Croke Park and we dared to forget the Cork debacle, and the Wexford fright and dream once more.
The team were undoubtedly feeding off the growing enthusiasm seeping in from home and abroad. Davy recalled visiting a hospital and meeting a man who spoke about the Podge Collins’s and the Conor McGrath’s even while on his death bed.
There will be no shortage of candidates keen to take the crown next year and some with real motivation to bring the banner down a peg or two. Ger Lock was at it again mid week expressing hope that the team does not disappear like Tipperary did after 2010.
Ger may not have been aware of how offensive that may sound to some premier ears, but then again Ger being Ger, who knows?! Incidentally Loughnane came up with an amazing statistic on Clare FM during the same interview. Only Kilkenny have won more All-Irelands in the last 20 years. Amazing as it may seem, when Clare won Sunday they took second place in the two decade roll of honour.
Meanwhile Tommy Conlon in the Sindo has delivered an extraordinary attack on Kilkenny for what he refers to as their introversion. He compared them unfavourably with Clare, who he said are national champions. Quite harsh and a little generalistic, even if it his honest opinion, but such talk won’t do any harm for Cody’s motivational fuel supply for 2014.
Clare unable to stop Nash thunderbolt. Rule needs examining though
Clare unable to stop Nash thunderbolt. Rule needs examining though
Many pundits have been shown up during this campaign. The consensus was that Waterford’s shooting let them down, Galway had simply lost form – the dreaded year after contesting the All-Ireland syndrome. Meanwhile Limerick had let the hype get to them and if they had only scored more frees in the first ten minutes it would have all been different.
Then in September it was about Cork’s tradition, how Cork wouldn’t lose a replay, how Clare were figured out when they couldn’t use a sweeper, how they wouldn’t score goals.
Not to be this time Frankie boy. The last Cork team to win had the likes of Cusack, the rock and Gah involved and that is still the case.
Not to be this time Frankie boy. The last Cork team to win had the likes of Cusack, the rock and Gah involved and that is still the case even if you’d want to take some of the shine away from that bunch.
Sometimes when you read what passes for analysis you wonder if any real investigation is being done as the tendency to fall back on old certainties seems all too common.
Credit was given to Clare but only conditionally; usually the average pundit would salute Davy’s side’s ability in a narrow way, before then expounding on the disastrous failures of their opponents. All the while the mantra was that consistent errors by opponents were the reason Clare had gotten so far, without much thought to the coincidence of consecutive victories. I cannot remember one journalist really examining a glaring truth; when Clare didn’t have the ball they put enormous pressure on the other team to cough it up.
It’s basically Barcelona tactic to some extent, but relocated to the game of hurling.
These are innocent days in a way for Clare hurling’s new generation. Davy Fitz and whatever future managements are involved have great challenges ahead for a county unused to winning at the top echelon.
Between 1995 and 01 a great Clare team didn’t alter personnel too much and to the side’s ultimate detriment. 1-10 picked themselves and this is unlikely to be the situation for the current crop. There will be enormous competition for places and sentiment will have to be guarded for the good of the team.
Some heroes of September 2013 may be usurped by newer faces next season and thereafter and hard choices will have to be made while retaining harmony in the dressing room, soothing egos, managing ambitions and continuing to see that potential is fulfilled.
For now rather than fretting about 2014, this Clare man and his brethren will be holding on to the winning feeling throughout whatever winter throws at us. Hopefully Liam McCarthy will pay a visit to the Clare contingent in London too, but for now this is on rotation in our house for a few more months
PS: Here is what I predicted back in December - couldn’t have foreseen a Clare – Cork final and had safely and lazily guessed on Kilkenny and Galway coming to the fore again.
PPS: To diverge slightly this may be the final column for me. I have a slight bee in my bonnet. All ended well but for a time I didn’t know if I would get a ticket for the drawn game. At the time I contacted Croke Park to get clearance for the press area, but no go.
My writings, mediocrities though they often are, are hosted on position 1 and position 5 on Google.com at the last time of looking. Now a progressive organisation would surely have prioritised the online blogger completely dedicated to hurling ahead of say a provincial newspaper of a non-playing county? No? Well maybe not.
Old ways die hard though, which is why the GAA have somehow considered getting rid of a league system which provided the best entertainment in years for Spring hurling. They did this seemingly at the behest of a secret society of elitists without consulting the broader hurling public.
It’s a backward step; hurling isn’t just about the top eight or nine teams; its about the Longfords and Fermanaghs too. I would say to Liam O’Neill that Clare’s win represents a great opportunity to grow the game where it really needs tending at the moment and not to bow to pressure from the self-serving.
It took Clare three years to get out of the second tier and they only narrowly avoided another demotion before claiming the All-Ireland. As harsh as it may seem for Limerick, Wexford and Offaly at the moment, you have to earn the right to be in that hothouse Clare benefited from in early season; it shouldn’t be a given based on tradition.
O'Donnell is suffering the same fate as Beiber.
O’Donnell is suffering the same fate as Bieber.
PPPS: Spare a thought for Shane O’Donnell in the rough and tumble of the Clare club hurling landscape in the coming weeks. The Ronaldos, Beckhams and Bales never had the possibility of shipping timber to keep them grounded.
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