O’Leary hopes Newmarket can give Banner a boost

When Newmarket-on-Fergus captain Enda Barrett received the Canon Hamilton Cup at the end of the Clare county final he said he was receiving it on behalf of Newmarket teams going back 31 years.

No wonder. Their previous title, in 1981, brought down the curtain on a dominant spell that had yielded 13 titles in 20 years. The three decades since then had yielded a couple of close calls in the 2006 and 2008 finals but it took until this year to break that drought.

Former senior manager Diarmuid O’Leary doesn’t feel that long barren spell was necessarily a burden on the club’s players, however.

“I think that was more for people outside the village. Being very realistic, it’s only in the last ten years we became very serious about winning back the senior title. There was a lot of work put in at underage level, and thank God that’s coming to fruition now.

“In the ’80s and early ’90s we might have lost focus a bit, but being honest we never made a big issue out of it. Maybe people on the outside might have thought it was, but for us it was never a huge issue.”

With that background, beating Cratloe 3-10 to 0-9 – Newmarket had 1-1 on the scoreboard after a couple of minutes – indicates a team who dominated rather than squeaking past the post. What was the big positive O’Leary took from the county final?

“The final whistle,” laughed O’Leary.

“Speaking for myself, no matter how far ahead we were at the final whistle, I still had to pinch myself at the very end to see if we’d actually won it.

They never gave Cratloe a chance on the day, and we’d have had plenty of tussles with those lads all the way up the ranks, we’d have beaten them in an U21 final so we’d have known well how much talent there is in Cratloe.

“And in Clare as a whole, you’d hear people say that the standard has gone down, but I wouldn’t agree with that at all. I think there’s huge talent coming through in Clare and that’s what makes the senior championship so difficult to win.”

The near misses of recent years reinforced that impression for O’Leary, but he took solace from the quality coming through the ranks.

“You’d always be hopeful, and we came very close, but in my opinion the best team always wins. We weren’t the best team in 2006 and 2008 but they’ve always been very honest and committed as a bunch of players.

“You’d always think there was a chance, and coupled with the minor successes we’ve had in the last couple of years, we’d have felt the winning formula was coming through.”

Though in many clubs ending a three-decade famine might be seen as the excuse for celebrations on an epic scale, club PRO Concepta O’Connor says the players didn’t need to be told to take it handy; they were back on the field the following Wednesday.

“It’s been terrific, the support we got from people in the run-up was huge and in fairness to the Newmarket crowd, they’ve always been very loyal.

“We’ve had great support from the clubs in Clare, clubs who would have been our rivals up to a few weeks ago are encouraging us. I suppose we’re representing Clare now.

“There was no whip stuck on the boys in terms of celebrations, they were back training on the Wednesday night and trained well.

“Sixmilebridge is handy enough to us, they’re the neighbouring parish; we played the county semi-final there, so it’s grand and local. It beats a long drive down to Waterford for us.”

Ah yes, Sixmilebridge. Tomorrow Newmarket take on Waterford champions De La Salle, who had a facile win in their own county decider. O’Leary doesn’t take much prompting to point out their main weapons.

“They have two current All Stars, John Mullane and Kevin Moran, six or seven inter-county players, Newmarket won’t be taking anything for granted.

“We’ve got great support from all over the county since we won the title and hopefully that’ll follow through tomorrow, please God we might make it through to another Munster club final.”

Even if they don’t, the future looks bright for Newmarket. It looks pretty rosy for the Banner County as a whole, come to that, given their recent successes at minor and U21.

“I was giving a hand out with our own minors this year and we have a Shield final on Monday night, and we’d be hoping to win that,” says O’Leary.

“There was a very competitive minor championship this year and looking at what’s coming through I’d be very hopeful not only for Newmarket but for Clare hurling in general.”