We can stay the course, declares skipper McClearn
Ten minutes in the company of Loughrea captain Damien McClearn and you have just one option — go for it.
Talk to any of the Cheltenham experts and they’ll tell you, it’s not just about the pedigree, about looking good, about having the pace, the jumping ability; only those horses with the guts, the heart, the fighting spirit, survive up that hill, finish as champions.
Well, according to McClearn, Loughrea have that heart, that spirit, have already shown it; what they have most of all, and the most critical link in the chain, they have the belief. Much of that belief, reckons midfielder Gavin Keary, comes from their captain: “He oozes positivity; doesn’t spare lads on the training field, gives it everything, expects everyone else to do the same. He’s really taken to the leadership role, takes no bulls**t from any of the lads in training. If a guy is missing, or messing, he isn’t told by the management, he’s told by players like Damien.”
First question to Damien: from where you started with the club, 16 years of age but already playing senior on a team that traditionally struggled to make it anywhere near the quarter-finals of the county, did you see this day coming? Others on this team had said no — 65 years of waiting, all they saw was a county title. Damien is different. “I did, to be honest, and I know that might sound surprising, but I’d be one of the more positive fellas on the team. I always felt we had the players that if they put their minds to it, prepared properly, they had the ability to compete at this level.
“When you’d be coming up through underage, to 16, 17, start thinking about playing senior, and you see fellas your own age with Athenry, with Sarsfields, going on to win All-Irelands, you have to say to yourself: — ‘we could do that’.
We’ve had great success at underage in recent years in Galway, so I could see very few reasons why we couldn’t compete. I think we’ve proved that this year.”
Having come close in 2003 and 2005, lost both finals, what eventually made the difference? “Getting beat, really, we just had enough of it. Good management too, in Pat (O’Connor) and the lads, but the players — we made up our minds that instead of trying to win it, we were going to make sure to win it, and that’s the difference. We trained harder than we ever trained; it’s easy to say now that we trained like we were already county champions but we did, from the start of the year.”
Mental attitude, so critical; you may not become a champion because you have it, but you won’t become a champion without. And yet, even as teams still train themselves into the ground physically, it’s still a most undervalued element of preparation.
“Definitely,” Damien agrees.; “If you believe you can do something then you can do it, it’s just a case of backing it up after that. Eliminate the doubt, eliminate the excuses, there’s no cause other than to go out and win. I’ve been asked that question a lot, what made the difference, but really and truly it was the players, we just decided this was it, no more excuses.
“There’s a lot of strong characters on this team, all well able to express themselves. But you don’t really know yourself either ‘til you lose, you don’t know what you have to do to win — it took a lot of figuring out. The first final we lost, 2003, we should have won it, that was the easier final, and that’s no discredit to Portumna. The second final, 2005, we learned a lot; we thought we were in good shape but Portumna were on another level as regards their fitness, completely outhurled us in the last 10 minutes. We learned hard lessons, didn’t ignore them, figured out what we had to do to win.”
Five to one, only two horses; Ballyhale Shamrocks are favourites for a very good reason — they’re a brilliant team. But, that second horse isn’t bad either, and come that finishing hill, the final furlong, well, who knows?
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