Banner U-21 bosses must be promoted

JOHN F Kennedy produced a line for the ages in his inauguration speech as US President when he told his audience to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

In light of many off-field developments in Clare hurling over the last few years, I’d like to modify that a little – ask not what your county can do for you, ask what you can do for your county. I’m thinking of two people in particular here, I’m thinking of John Minogue and Cyril Lyons, manager and coach respectively of the Clare U21 hurling team that overcame Galway in Thurles on Saturday, and reached the county’s first All-Ireland final at this grade. The last management team to bring Clare to an All-Ireland final was in 2002, the senior final, when Clare lost to Kilkenny – the manager that day was Cyril Lyons, and one of his selectors was John Minogue. Following that achievement those two men were treated very shabbily by the powers-that-be in Clare. John was pushed out at the end of 2002, followed by Cyril at the end of 2003.

Most other people would then have washed their hands of the whole scene, taken up golf or whatever. Neither John nor Cyril did that; instead they continued to do what they had always done, stayed involved at club level, and a couple of years ago got involved again with Clare, albeit at a younger level.