Comerford urges players to celebrate with pride and dignity
Andy Comerford was in full flow and wasn’t throwing his words around loosely. The O’Loughlin Gaels man singled out one panellist for very special mention, the great John Power who was introduced in the final minutes to add to his All-Ireland medals tally: “Last January, I made a telephone call to John asking him to make himself available to the county this year, and he answered that call. Today may well have been his last occasion to pull on the Kilkenny jersey and, if it is, then I want to thank him from the very bottom of my heart’’.
He then spoke collectively to the players, exhorting them to celebrate the victory with pride and dignity: “Don’t spoil this great victory by doing rash things now or some weeks or months down the line. We have gained the respect of the entire hurling world, so let’s not blow it.’’
Words well spoken and words that were given a rousing round of applause by players who are clearly intent on not letting their captain down. The captain apart, the media scrum inevitably centred on the irrepressible D.J. Carey.
Clearly this latest victory was something extra special for the great Gowran clubman who admitted that ten or 12 weeks ago he had given up on the year because of a persistent injury: “I never believed then that I would see this day, and it is days like this that make everything worthwhile.’’ Carey said the team came into the final as well prepared as any Kilkenny team he had ever previously played on. Their training sessions were “All-Ireland finals in themselves’’, and while everyone had installed them as red hot favourites after their semi-final win against Tipperary he knew that Clare wouldn’t “roll over’’.
“They didn’t, and our victory was a lot harder won than the scoreline might suggest’’, he said. “We beat a great Tipp team, but suggesting that that was our All-Ireland made no sense as far we were concerned. Today was All-Ireland final day’’.
He said there was no question of trying to prove themselves after last year’s semi-final defeat. “ Last year is gone, consigned to the pages of history, and what happened in 2001 had no relevance for us this year. Yes, we have proven ourselves to be the best team this year, next year will be totally different and one we won’t be giving any thoughts to for some time to come’’.
The dynamic forward said the subs they introduced had given the team a massive lift at an important juncture in the game with Clare threatening to claw themselves back contention. “Charlie (Carter) and Brian (McEvoy) scored marvellous points and, when you see that happening, everyone else is given a great boost. You need 20 players on any given day to steer you home, and while many of the 30 players we have had in training weren’t even listed today they too have had a huge input into our victory’’, he said. “Today is a very special day for me, a marvellous day and probably the most satisfying of my whole career so far.’’
The captain’s brother, rangy full-forward Martin Comerford, disclosed that he had a broken finger for the past few weeks and had to have an injection just minutes before taking the field against the Banner: “I was genuinely worried that it might not stand up to the rigours of the game, especially playing on a man as durable as Brian Lohan, but everything worked out fine for me in the end and D.J. did the rest’’.
He said that, despite always being in the lead, he knew Clare would come at them at some stage, and it was no surprise to him when they did so midway through the second half: “However the points scored by Charlie Carter and Brian McEvoy when they came off the subs bench gave us a huge lift and then, of course, D.J. got the scores that finally clinched our victory. He’s some man for one man.’’
Sterling centre back Peter Barry insisted that despite their comfortable winning margin Clare were “there or thereabouts’’ for most of the game: “They have a tremendous never-say-die spirit, but thankfully we managed to open up the game and then our forwards did the business’’.
