Mulrooney hails Cats’ character

IT WASN’T the historic success most Kilkenny fans travelled to Croke Park hoping for but, according to manager Richie Mulrooney, his minor team can take their own place in the county’s GAA annals.

Trailing by double scores after 34 minutes, the weight of pressure as red-hot favourites appeared to be weighing heavily on the young Cats. But the manner in which they cast off that burden to seal victory with 2-5 in the last 25 minutes was enough to convince Mulrooney of the rare talents he was dealing with.

“I will stand over what we have said about them; they are one of the best minor teams to come out of the county,” said Mulrooney.

“When it wasn’t going right for them, they stood up and proved that it’s not just hurling they have, they have character and spirit. And all of that was tested to the last.

“It’s a disadvantage coming into a final having won your semi-final by 19 points with crazy things being poured in their ears about being 1/12 with the bookies. It was absolutely incredible stuff.

“I said all along that this would go down to the wire and nobody was believing me except Clare and our players.

“I wasn’t one bit surprised about how good Clare started. They were phenomenal against Waterford in the Munster final, they went 0-8 to 0-1 up on Dublin in the first 16 minutes. So I wasn’t one bit surprised what they brought to the table and it makes it all the more impressive to overcome that.”

Mulrooney said the performance of full-back Willie Phelan summed up the collective effort of his team who fought back from six points down after half an hour. “Our full-back Willie Phelan played today with a broken collarbone,” gasped Mulrooney. “It’s broken and it’s been looked at by two different consultant radiologists. We were told by our own medical team before the match he was unlikely to last until half-time. He was still there after 64 minutes.”

Clare manager Donal Moloney said his team dominated for long stretches but, crucially, didn’t get the scores to reflect that.

“Fair play to Kilkenny, they stuck at it when things were going badly for them and nobody has a knack of getting goals like Kilkenny,” said Moloney. “That was the difference but we’re exceptionally proud of the players and performance.”