Banner bank on joint approach

DONAL MOLONEY reckons it was about 15 years since he’d laid eyes on his former school friend Gerry O’Connor when he walked into the Half Way House bar in Ennis a few years back.

The former classmates in Scariff Community College got talking and inevitably their conversations drifted towards their favourite hobby horse, Clare hurling. It wasn’t long before they plotting on how to develop the game in their county and those embryonic moments have paved the way for tomorrow afternoon in Croke Park, where the Clare minor hurling side they jointly manage will take on Kilkenny in the ESB All-Ireland MHC final. The concept of joint managers may seem unworkable to many but both Moloney and O’Connor are highly enthused by it.

“Gerry and myself have been discussing this for four or five years, first of all how the hell we would get in charge of the minors and second of all, how were we going to be successful,” remarks Moloney. “That’s been our relationship. We’ve worked off the principle that two heads are better than one. I couldn’t do it without him and he couldn’t do it without me. We both have our strengths and weaknesses. We both absolutely support each other and we try to do what’s best for the team.