Sheedy’s magic works again

“Championés, championés” – that was the cry from the Newmarket-on-Fergus dressing-room following Sunday’s Clare SHC final as the players celebrated the storied club’s first county title in 31 years.

It would also have been the cry in the De La Salle dressing-room a couple of weeks ago after they had beaten Dungarvan in the Waterford final, and in the Portroe dressing-room after the underdogs had toppled mighty Toomevara to claim their first North Tipperary senior hurling title.

The common denominator in all three wins? Former All-Ireland-winning Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy, coach to Portroe, adviser to the two others. Sheedy’s ability was always appreciated in Portroe, his home club, but in Waterford and in Clare, the players of both De La Salle and of Newmarket were both fulsome in their praise and grateful for his input, none more so than Newmarket captain Enda Barrett.

“Liam Sheedy? What a man,” said Barrett. “I can’t explain what it is but he seems to have the Midas touch, every team he’s involved with goes on to win. He’s an absolute machine.”

Barrett’s teammate Colin Ryan, who won the Man of the Match award with a fine 1-8 tally, concurred. “Liam is a great guy, has been very good for us. He hasn’t been there all the time but when we needed him he was there.”

In Waterford, where he operated as playmaker rather than finisher in the county final (and still finished with three points!), John Mullane too gave due credit to Liam Sheedy. “I think the forwards set the tone with the hooking and the blocking — the workrate was unbelievable. We had Liam Sheedy down during the week and he emphasised that it was all about workrate, keeping the discipline and the scores will follow.”

That Sheedy mantra of every player working together was also key to getting a Newmarket team that has been so close for years over the line on Sunday. “We all bought into one simple message — take it one step at a time. When an entire panel buys into something, everyone working hard together to make it happen — that’s what we did, we’re like a family,” explained Barrett.

Sheedy now has a problem, however. On Sunday week De La Salle face Newmarket-on-Fergus in the semi-final of the Munster club championship. What does he do now?

While the Waterford champions have had a couple of weeks already to get the celebrations over and done with, with or without Liam Newmarket have less than two weeks to get ready for De La Salle. Not a problem, says Colin Ryan. “This is a huge win for us all — I have uncles and they don’t have enough hands to count their medals but now at last I have one. It’s nice to join the tradition, nice for every player we’ve lost over the five or six years — everyone has been part of that, they too have suffered the hurt and the pain. Obviously then there’s going to be celebrations but I’m sure we’ll buckle down again by Wednesday or so and get right back into it.

Barrett concurred: “We’ll have a day or two to celebrate then get back to business. We don’t want to let down our families, our club. We want to properly represent Clare.”