Captains lead the charge for medals of honour
However, their backgrounds in hurling are sharply contrasting.
While Barry, one of the outstanding centre-backs of the modern era, has won All-Ireland medals with Kilkenny, he doesn't have a club medal. Cloonan, who has been on three winning Athenry teams, can only dream of what it is to be on a Liam McCarthy Cup-winning side.
The pair were in Dublin yesterday, at the Toyota Motor Centre, along with the captains of the teams which contest the football final Colm Parkinson from Portlaoise and Ballina Stephenites' Brian Ruane. Alone of the four, the Mayo club have yet to win a club title and they will be going into the final on Thursday week without two key defenders.
"For us (James Stephens) to be there on
St Patrick's Day is beyond our wildest dreams," says Barry. Anyone who saw the dramatic finale to the Kilkenny county final could appreciate the sentiments. It was a game they were comfortably in control until DJ Carey hit three late goals from frees and then drove another narrowly over the bar which would have denied The Village an overdue title.
"The club has been there before, in fairness, but this generation hasn't. It's a brand new team. James Stephens is a big club, a proud club and it was a reward for all the years of dedication and effort put in by the officers and members for us to win a county. Luckily enough we did that," says Barry, a Waterford-based accountant. "It was brilliant, it was unreal, it will live long in the memory of everybody in the club.
"When you won your All-Irelands with Kilkenny or whoever, it's a dream come true. Some of us were playing for 13 or 14 years and we never won anything except a few football medals."
Cloonan doubts if it will really mean much to Athenry to have contested (and won) two finals in recent years. "But every final is different. Obviously James Stephens will have hunger as well. It's their first time for a while. "It has been great to win with the club, but while we're still trying to win McCarthy with Galway, you can't compare the two of them," he says.
The loss of his younger brother Diarmuid through suspension is clearly hard on him personally, he agrees. But they have to be positive. "You can't sit back and complain about it."
Portlaoise won their only football title in 1983 (a year after James Stephens' success). Team captain Colm Parkinson agrees that the Laois champions face a huge challenge if they are to emulate that team. "We're hearing stories all our lives about the '83 team. They have gone down in history, but that was so long ago and club finals have taken on an awful lot more importance since then."
Interestingly, he said he heard a story that after the 1983 All-Ireland final, a few of the team went off to play a hurling match.
In terms of playing in Croke Park, he points out that all but one of the side which finished in the semi-final has experience of playing there with Laois at senior and minor level over the last ten years. However, he says he's unsure if it's going to be an advantage to them.
One thing that he is sure of is the fact that Portlaoise were extremely fortunate to get over Crossmaglen Rangers in the semi-final. "I couldn't believe the chances they missed. We were just hanging on at the end, we couldn't get the ball past the half-way line," he recalled.
"We had luck on our side. Usually Crossmaglen would put you away in the last few minutes, but they missed a free and John McEntee missed another chance.
"Maybe our name is on the cup," he added.
As far as the Stephenites are concerned, Brian Ruane says that all of the players are delighted to have the opportunity to try and avenge their defeat five years ago (by Crossmaglen).
"We were there in '99 and we had our chance but didn't take it," he says. "It's great to be back again to make amends."
As part of their status as "official car to the GAA," Toyota will present each of the two winning teams with a car. It's part of an ongoing sponsorship.
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