We never give in, warns Ballyea's Brian Carrigg

Brian Carrigg, nestled among the Ballyea subs at Cusack Park, almost floored Eoghan Donnellan when Gary Brennan crashed the sliotar to the Thurles Sarsfields net four minutes into second-half stoppage time of their epic Munster club semi-final.

Donnellan had suffered two fractured vertebrae in a freak training ground accident a fortnight previous and Carrigg nearly inflicted further injury during the excitement of Brennan’s equaliser.

Carrigg had started the afternoon in Ennis at left corner-back for Ballyea and in the company of Lar Corbett. Although plagued by a dead leg in the days following their historic first Clare final victory, he’d been declared fit to take his place on the starting team for the club’s provincial championship debut. A collision 10 minutes in, coupled with a wild pull by a man wearing blue, saw the dead leg force the defender ashore.