Anthony Daly: Ballygunner on a mission they are perfectly equipped to complete

A personal lesson in discipline frames a sharp-eyed look at Loughrea’s challenge against an imperious Ballygunner side

Pauric Mahony will have benefited from the break. INPHO/Tom Maher

Eight days before I started in my first Clare senior final for Clarecastle in 1989, I lined out with the Clarecastle U21 footballers against Doonbeg in a big championship match. Strange as it may sound, we had been going well in the big ball at that time. We’d won an U16A a few years previous but Doonbeg always saw any hurling club from the far side of Lisseycasey that had football notions about themselves as a legitimate target to put manners on.

As we expected, it was hot and heavy. It wasn’t ideal with a handful of us on the senior hurling team but we had to have a cut at the U21A championship because the football people in the club would have gone ape if we’d downed tools and not bothered.