Rules reversal as O’Dwyer finally gets taste of Croker

PRIOR to last Sunday, Odran O’Dwyer could have told you what it was like to represent his country on the Melbourne Cricket Ground but had never played at Croke Park.

Last October the Kilmurry-Ibrickane forward finished top scorer for Clare in the championship and picked up a slot on the International Rules team that travelled to Australia under manager John O’Keeffe.

Whatever views people may have about the Tommy Murphy Cup, it would be churlish to begrudge O’Dwyer and the rest of the Clare players their time in the spotlight. Prior to the win over Sligo, Denis Russell was the only one of their number to have kicked a ball in Croker.

“Yeah, it’s funny when you think I got to play in the MCG in Australia before I ever played in Croke Park. It’s a lovely surface though, a bit hard and I’m feeling the aches today, but it was just great to finally play there.

“It was a long time coming. It’s my 11th year with the panel. I played in the league back in ’93 and made my championship debut a year later. You do start to wonder if you’ll ever get the chance to play there after a while.

“It means a lot to Clare football. It’s our first major win of any description in 12 years and it doesn’t matter if it’s an A or a B championship. Sligo went up there determined to win. They cancelled their club games the weekend before, so no-one can say they weren’t taking it seriously.”

The win itself was tempered somewhat by the injury to corner-back Dara Blake after only four minutes. The young corner-back was left with a fractured collar bone, stitches in an ear and a bad bout of concussion.

But he finally got his hands on the cup when the panel paid a visit to the Mater Hospital on Sunday night. He was released early yesterday morning.

“It was great for myself and a few of the other older lads to get the chance to play there and win a trophy but it’s even more important for the younger players who will be there for the next five or six years. That’ll stand to them now and they know what it’s like to play on that stage and what it’s like to win there.

“It gives us great momentum going into next year’s league as well. When we decided to enter the competition, the main reason was that we wanted to be playing championship football as far into the summer as we could. We didn’t want the group to be breaking up in early summer again. We’ve done that now and we’ve ended the season on a real high.”