The building blocks behind the Banner

Five years ago work on the revival of Clare hurling got underway in earnest. This weekend they are reaping the rewards — and even brighter times may lie ahead.

It’s not often that Clare make a hurling trip to Kilkenny and come away successful but it happened five years ago and the county is reaping the benefits ever since. It wasn’t for a match, however, it was much bigger than that.

We had all been hearing about Kilkenny’s new development structures, put in place several years earlier by some visionary people, led by county chairman Ned Quinn and hurling great Pat Henderson. At the time Kilkenny were at the top of their game, so the benefits of those new structures were becoming obvious. Three men, Seánie McMahon, Brian Quinn and Jim McInerney, three stalwarts of Clare teams of the 90s, took it on themselves to head for Kilkenny, investigate, then adapt what they found to suit the needs in Clare.