Clonmel Commercials in good heart for London encounter

“This is certainly not the one you want to lose,” remarks Charlie McGeever.

For his Clonmel Commercials side, there have been too many games to think of this season where victory was secured from the unlikeliest of positions.

At the top of the pile is surely the Munster quarter-final where six unanswered points in the final five minutes were required to overtake Newcastle West.

Then there was the Munster final; the one game they were not expected to win. And who will ever forget how victory was forged on that wet Sunday afternoon in Mallow.

So, to Ruislip they travel, or have travelled (their flight from Cork departed at 4pm yesterday) for an All-Ireland quarter-final against Tir Chonaill Gaels.

No Irish club has ever fallen to London opposition at this stage of the club championship and so you can appreciate McGeever’s concern at history being created this afternoon.

Irrespective of the result, club officials such as Derek Williams and George Barry won’t be hanging around after the game as the Munster GAA club of the year award requires collecting at Dromoland Castle later today; McGeever is quick to paint the picture of having to accept the award against the backdrop of defeat in Ruislip.

No, this is certainly the game they don’t want to lose.

“The bottom line is no club has ever gone over there and failed to come away with the win.

“The lads have achieved what they have achieved and nobody can take that away from them. It would be terrible to lose and it is certainly the one you don’t want to lose because it has been an unbelievable year for Clonmel Commercials,” he says.

“We are recipients of the Munster club of the year award and you don’t want to be accepting that award on the back of having been knocked out at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage.

“We are representing the province here and we have to be conscious of that.” The team returned to training on the Wednesday night after the dramatic one-point win over Nemo Rangers and McGeever insists it hasn’t been an issue concentrating the minds for the next obstacle at hand. Mind you, a couple of the players are planning to stay in London until tomorrow and the Clonmel manager is hopeful he doesn’t have to remind them why they’re travelling over in the first place.

“The squad is very young and the exuberance of youth is such that some of them are probably staying over on Saturday night.

“I haven’t noticed any change in their attitude since the Munster final win, if I am being honest.

“They are so young and I don’t think the full scale of what they have achieved will set in until further down the line.

“These players are used to winning. They are used to playing against Cork teams and getting results.

“They have been training extremely well for the last three months with players coming from all corners to be present. They are an easy group to train. The age profile means they are a sprightly bunch.”

And for McGeever, what did the Donegal native make of the Munster club football crown arriving into Clonmel for the first time.

“For me, there was that realisation of how much it meant to the players who had played in the finals going back the years. Most of the lads involved in the four previous final defeats are still around so there were a lot of tears after the match and indeed that night. It brought home to me what it meant to the people of Clonmel. I have to admit that I was a small bit ignorant beforehand. The win opened my eyes to what this meant.”