Tubridy beginning to believe

MUNSTER SFC (Quarter-Final): Waterford v Clare (tomorrow, Dungarvan, 3pm)

Plying his trade for Clare at the basement level of the National Football League had lead Tubridy to conclude that such awards were the preserve of the elite. He reckoned the call was a hoax from one of his buddies and it was only when Clare team liaison officer Tom Downes texted to pass on congratulations that the penny finally dropped for the 22 year-old.

“I definitely thought it was a wind me up,” he laughs. “I know Ciarán McDonald from Tipperary got it last year when he was in Division 3, but I’d never heard of a Division 4 player getting it. Still it was great to be recognised. My parents were up there with me in Dublin, we got to meet the President Christy Cooney and the other award winners. It was something special you’ll remember.”

The award arrived on the back of a month when Tubridy shot the lights out to propel Clare to the top of Division Four. In a period of brilliance, March 21 in Cusack Park against Carlow stands out. Clare pipped Luke Dempsey’s side that day by 1-13 to 0-15, with Tubridy claiming 1-11 in an attacking masterclass. He was responsible for Clare’s entire first-half total of 1-8 and afterwards Clare coach Liam McHale was moved to draw comparisons between Tubridy and Kerry legend Maurice Fitzgerald.

When the league swung into April and the wheels came loose on Clare’s promotion wagon, Tubridy’s high scoring input remained constant. He fired 2-5 out of a collective 2-7 when they lost to Limerick and even though Waterford were emphatic victors in Dungarvan a week later, the Doonbeg man still weighed in with 1-4 to bring his total to 6-48. That figure is a glowing testament to the unstinting effort he puts in. He works in the family bar and restaurant in Doonbeg but whenever business is quiet, his parents order him back to the local pitch to sharpen his shooting from play and frees.

Still those personal accomplishments proved a poor consolation after the promotion prize had slipped away.

“It was a massive disappointment to lose out. Looking back at it, the Limerick game was the killer. We came back at them at the finish and if there was another five minutes, I reckon we’d have levelled it. That’s all we needed, one more point to get the draw and we were promoted. We lost Joe Hayes and Ger Quinlan through injury that day which was a big blow. The heads were down going to Dungarvan the following Sunday and we never really turned up.”

Since then they have overcome the disappointments. Kilmurry-Ibrickane made the final of the All-Ireland Club SFC and while Tubridy was pleased for his friends in that side, he was also afflicted by pangs of jealousy. Amongst the cluster of football clubs that hug the West Clare coastline, the rivalry is fierce and only ten miles separate Tubridy’s home from Kilmurry-Ibrickane’s base in Quilty. In Doonbeg they still have regrets at their failure to close out last October’s county semi-final against their neighbours

“You’d look at them getting to Croke Park and be thinking about what could have been. I’ve got a good few friends in Kilmurry-Ibrickane and it was great to see a Clare club doing well. But you’d be envious seeing them get to play in Croke Park.”

Still he is rooted in a strong football tradition himself in Doonbeg. They are one of the most celebrated forces in Clare football and on the county’s greatest day in 1992, it was Tubridy’s cousin Francis McInerney who was the Doonbeg man that ascended to the podium to lift the Munster trophy.

Tomorrow the parish will be emptied of its residents as they trek the 192km to the Fraher Field to watch its local representatives in action. Colm Dillon lines out for Clare in the junior match and Mikey Tubridy and Aisling O’Mahony play in the Primary Game, and then David carries the mantle in the main event, with his cousin Mark from Cooraclare at corner-back.

This is his third year in the intercounty ranks and ever since he slotted home the penalty in Cooraclare that secured the McGrath Cup in 2008, he’s been the go-to guy up front.

Tomorrow is a day to keep that star rising.

“There’ll be a big crowd heading down from home, it’s a massive tradition here. You’d look at the Doonbeg lads from 1992 and think some day we might have that chance. Micheal McDermott has brought great steadiness to us this year and he’s top-class people around him like Liam McHale and James Horan. I don’t think we got six wins in my first two years in the league, so there was big progress this year. I think we’ve recovered well over the last month since the league. Now we’re ready for Waterford.”