‘Well are confident against Clarecastle

THERE is a spring in Ciaran Carey’s step these days that has been missing for a while.

One of many heroes of the Patrickswell team which recently won their 18th Limerick SHC title, Carey is eagerly looking forward to tomorrow’s Munster club SHC clash with Clarecastle (Clare champions) at Cusack Park (3pm).

He won’t discuss it, but a good run and some good performances in the club championship discuss it, but a good run and some good performances in the club championship might persuade new senior county coach Pa Joe Whelehan to resurrect his inter-county career.

“All my thoughts are on Sunday’s game against Clarecastle,” said Carey. “They beat us in the 1997 final by a couple of points so we owe them one. It was the one and only time we’ve met in the club championship.

“It should be a great match. Any team that comes out of Clare must be respected, and the fact that they are very close to Limerick makes it that bit more appealing.”

The ‘Well who had been out of the Limerick limelight for the last three years, bounced back to deny defending champions Adare a hat-trick of titles with a thrilling two point victory.

“Apart from myself, Gary Kirby, Declan O’Grady and Anthony Carmody, most of our team are in their mid 20s and several of them have won a couple of county championship medals over the years.

“At the start of the season nobody in Limerick gave us much hope, but we worked away nice and quietly, and I have to say deserved our victory over Adare in the county final.

“We have a very experienced side but are expecting a difficult hour from Clarecastle. On the last occasion we met, we lost a player with a bad facial injury and I only lasted about 10 minutes after dislocating my shoulder. we’ve waited three years for this rematch and don’t intend to waste the chance.”

The ‘Well have no injury worries and are likely to stick with the team that won the county final. Carey, Carmody and Kirby, with 30 county senior championship medals between them, should be at centre back, centre forward and full forward respectively, and despite the away draw, Patrickswell are quietly confident they can qualify for their first final in six years.

For newly appointed Clare manager Anthony Daly it’s possibly his last campaign with Clarecastle before he gets down to putting the Banner County back on the hurling map.

“It’s going to be a cracking match”, said Daly, “particularly as they have a Sixmilebridge man, Jim Fraul, training them which adds a bit of spice to the game.

“He was asked recently did he know much about Clarecastle, and he replied, ‘I don’t know the personnel but I do know the jersey’. We’ve only met once before, in 1997, when we won our one and only Munster Club title.

“While we got it easy in our own county final, we came through the toughest side of the draw. The ‘Bridge, Wolfe Tones and Kilmaley were all in our side and when you emerge from that you deserve to be champions.

“We didn’t play particularly well against Ballyea in the final. It was a local derby game and they made it hard enough for us. The early goals meant they were always chasing the game, but we certainly won’t get that kind of a start against Patrickswell.”