Trust paid off for Banner’s young brigade
It is a bond born out of mutual respect and forged in adversity as they tried to perfect a modern hurling style based on intelligence, on winning, keeping, and then making the best use of possession.
It is also a bond based on trust. Davy and his management team had to trust in these energetic combination of youngsters and a few wise old heads to implement his game-plan, his style.
Those players had to return that trust in Davy and what he was trying to do. It’s taken a while but it all paid off last weekend in Croke Park after an epic end to Championship 2013.
Tony Kelly was there every step of the way. And though the road was long, the journey helped strengthen the bond and resolve between all involved in this incredible squad of young men.
“We’ve all bought into it — it’s the possession game. Davy and the boys have stressed that if we have the ball and keep the ball, we have a chance to score, a better chance of winning the game.
“Early on we were doing a lot of short passing but as the year went on, we mixed that up with the long ball — we developed the ability to play both styles, or to mix them up. We’ve benefited now.”
It hasn’t been just Davy Fitzgerald and Louis Mulqueen and Mike Deegan, the three selectors. Others too have played their part in the development of this team and this style, people like current U21 joint managers Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor, along with senior and U21 coach Paul Kinnerk.
“We were with them with the minors in 2010 when Paul came in, he implemented his game-plan and from then it has developed with the seniors. Paul wants to see the possession game but he places huge emphasis on tackling, on winning the ball back when we lose it. Then you try to hold onto it, work it up the field and get good ball into the forwards. His influence has been there for the last two years at senior level and it blends perfectly with what Davy is trying to do.”
It’s a risky game of course, a strategy which drew fierce criticism from Cork supporters when it was pioneered there in the mid-noughties even as Cork were winning All-Ireland titles. Through this campaign Clare have met the critics from among their own with Davy “thanking” the fan who threw a match programme in Mulqueen’s face after the Munster semi-final loss, telling him what to do with his short game.
“We were hearing the criticism, yes, the management team especially — ‘Why aren’t ye playing the traditional Clare game, why aren’t ye hitting long ball?’ When it works it looks great but when it breaks down I suppose it can look poor and you get slated. Thankfully it worked out for us last weekend.”
You need good hurlers to play this new game but above all, you need intelligent hurlers, who take the right options, do the right thing. On this team Clare have an abundance of those, not least hat-trick hero Shane O’Donnell.
“We have so many phenomenal players on the team — Conor McGrath is one. He’s the brains of the brains on this team. Only a few of us are working, a few teachers. Most are in college, studying to be teachers or doing something along business lines — David McInerney, Patrick O’Connor, Colm Galvin, Podge Collins, Shane O’Donnell and myself. Conor McGrath, Darach Honan and John Conlon all finished this year.”
A young team then, as in 1995, and lessons to be learned too from that era. Clare did win a second All-Ireland title, a third Munster, but there was more in that team, much more. Even as they ready themselves now for the celebration circuit, Tony and his young team-mates must be aware of that. “We’ll have to be wary. The county will go mad, we’ll have different people telling us different things, saying ‘Clare are back, we’re here to stay!’ We know nothing is guaranteed, every team will want to knock us but we plan on coming back next year and repeating this.
“Davy and his management team — Louis, Mike and Paul — will have us working hard to do just that.”
The hurling world is warned.
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