Buzz back for Banner
Centre-back Seanie McMahon had broken his collarbone but, because they had already used their full quota of subs, he refused to come off the pitch. “I can’t go off”, he told manager Ger Loughnane, as related in Loughnane’s ‘Raising The Banner’. “I’ll go corner-forward”.
Minutes to go, he forced Cork’s Timmy Kelleher into conceding a line-ball, the most fateful line-ball in Banner hurling history; Fergie Touhy stepped forward, ball into the Cork square, Baker goal, Clare win by a point, go on to conquer Munster, to win their first All-Ireland title since the 20’s. All so recent, all so long ago.
He was only a youngster then (22), unknown outside his own county. Nine years on, McMahon ranks among the all-time great centre-backs. So much else has changed in the intervening nine years.
Then, somewhat like the great Kerry football team of the mid-70’s, McMahon was just one among a team of carefree bachelors. Mortgage, marriage, fatherhood, house-building, home-building, all those growing links on the heavy chain of responsibility? Nah, for the birds. Not any more.
Days before the first round of the 2004 Munster SHC and Seanie McMahon is in a very different world. Married in 2002 to Mary Clune, from his home parish of Barefield, living in their new house in Spancil Hill, six-month-old Darragh, the conversations among the lads have taken a bit of a turn, since those heady days. “Big changes,” he sighs. “I had been working and living in Galway, now I’m working in Shannon, living ten minutes from training; have the dinner after training, and I’m at home ten minutes later, a lot easier than facing into Galway.”
Priorities too have changed, and hurling has slipped down the list. “Family will come first, that’s only natural. It tightens your time a lot, reduces the hours you can give to hurling, to training. At the same time I’m looking at a very supportive wife who understands what’s involved, I’m very lucky she’s like that. If you didn’t have that kind of support it would be very difficult to give it the full blast.”
Those are not the only changes, in the life and hurling times of Seanie McMahon. Back then, he was flanked by Liam Doyle and captain Anthony Daly, a couple of wily old foxes. Doyler is long gone off the inter-county scene, Daler is the boss, and Seanie McMahon has assumed the role of wily old fox.
“1995 is nearly ten years ago, and at times we nearly have to pinch ourselves to realise that, but over that span, you’re doing well to have any part of a team still there. You do get used to playing with certain individuals, I would have played an awful lot of hurling with Daly and Doyle. I don’t know how many times the ball would have gone in behind me and there were the two boys waiting to cover, that was part of their strength.
“But when they’re not there you just have to get on with it as well. I would have played most of my club hurling with David Hoey and he’s been there for the last couple of years with Gerry Quinn, very good hurlers, both of them, they played in the 2002 All-Ireland final.”
Even in all the change, however, one thing has remained constant in the life of the Clare centre-back. The buzz, the championship buzz. “From the start of the year, even while you’re gearing yourself for League games, you’re really looking at the first round of the championship, that’s what the year is geared towards, as individuals, as a group. It’s something we’ve been aiming at all year and certainly now, the buzz does begin to kick in a bit more. We’re back training in Cusack Park, the evenings are long, there’s a championship feel about the place. The time is coming, you would be getting excited, enthusiastic.” Nerves? “Plenty. But if you didn’t have a bit of nerves, there would be something wrong. We have a lot to be nervous about, up against a very good team, good players.”
That would be Waterford, of course, the same Waterford that Clare beat after two mighty and controversial tussles in the Munster final of ’98, the same Waterford that Clare again beat in the All-Ireland semi-final of 2002, a game that again was shrouded in controversy, after Clare’s Gerry Quinn had his thumb shattered in a late off-the-ball incident, the same Waterford that lost last Sunday’s League final to Galway. The same Waterford, yet, according to McMahon, different. Very different.
“I’ve often said this, ’95 and ’97 are of absolutely no use to us now; neither is ’98 and 2002 of any significance. Ultimately, when the ball is thrown in, you’re not going to be thinking of what happened four years ago, what someone might have said to you, or someone did. I know it’s an old cliche but it’s going to come down to who can win the ball. Nothing that happened six years ago, or four years ago, or two years ago, will have any effect on that, winning the ball and putting it over the bar. There will always be the bit of hype about it, media do that, in some cases, but I think it will have minimal effect. We’re not saying anything about it anyway.”
As for Waterford’s League defeat, forget about it. “When Waterford hit form they can beat anyone, they are certainly serious contenders for honours this year. The way we’re looking at it now, it’s probably the biggest game of the year for us. That’s why we’re not thinking of any day beyond that.”
Not thinking of any day beyond it, not thinking of any day that preceded it. Single focus, that’s Seanie McMahon. “When you’re playing, you’re not looking back thinking ‘I’ve won this, won that’; plenty of time for that when you’re 20 years finished. We still feel we’ve got a good team with a good chance of success and we’re very keen to try and have that success. That makes it easy to keep going. You want to win, ultimately that’s why you play. The day that buzz goes out of it is the day to give it up. It’s not a social gathering kind of a thing, if you’re not driven to win, there’s no point.”
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