Patrick O'Connor hails Clare's new sense of optimism

Earlier this month, an emotional Patrick O’Connor stood in the Kinane Stand tunnel and what he didn’t pour out on the field against Tipperary he gave up in an interview.

He spoke of his friend Michael Fogarty, who had passed away following a car crash the week before. Fogarty, a lifelong Clare supporter, was one of a number of tragedies that had hit the county in previous weeks.

What O’Connor didn’t say at the time was Fogarty was an uncle of Eimear Noonan, the 21-year-old teacher who died in France last November.

Last Monday week, Alan Rynne died in a car crash in Miltown Malbay, a brother of a client of O’Connor’s in Kerry Agribusiness in Ennis.

Clare has had its fill of heartache but not so far away from where O’Connor gave that interview in Semple Stadium earlier this month, there had been elation as the team delivered the performance that had eluded them for the previous five years.

“I got a story off a guy,” grins the Clare captain. “He was there with his five-year-old daughter and he was beside this auld fella from Clare. And when the final whistle went, he (the old man) just caught hold of his child and starting shaking her saying, ‘Don’t you ever forget this’.

“Yes we are slogging away for so many months of the year but those guys have invested nothing in it yet they are still so emotional about it.

“There is a tremendous grá for GAA and hurling in Clare and I do think over the last couple of Sundays the new format has allowed us to reconnect with the crowd. If it was the old format we’d have been gone the first day and had an awful lot more questions hanging over us.

“The reconnection with the Clare supporters, I get the sense they are proud of this team now and see an awful lot of what they like in this team, which is really satisfying for us. Because it was levelled at us ‘What have you being doing? Where have you been?’ We’ve been out here (in Caherlohan) every year training, taking lumps off each other, but for so many varying reasons we just could never get over the line for a big win.

“And we can say now we have got over the line for a big win.”

A victory sets up tomorrow’s Munster final with Cork — memories of last year’s equivalent are front and centre for O’Connor.

“We have to hold up our hands when it comes to last year. We were beaten fair and square by Cork, worthy Munster champions and have proved it this year by probably having the most consistent run through the five weeks and are back in a Munster final again.

“In boxing terms you could say we never landed a punch, like. It was disappointing, it was a tough pill to swallow but maybe those are the days you have to go through to finally get there. A lot of lads say this team is in around the 2013 team, but when you look in that dressing room, that 2013 team is more or less gone now at this stage. You have a couple of the guys left but there’s so much of a different look to it now.

“Maybe that day (the Munster final defeat) is what this team needed to go through to develop a more clinical edge, which is what I feel we would have now.”

A

nd there were other lessons for Clare. There was an overemphasis on the influence of Anthony Nash last year. Not this time around.

“It’s something we have been guilty of in the past, of focusing on the opposition and what they can bring to it. I think we neglected our strengths a small bit in the last couple of years. The other side of it is Nash, he’s so much more than a goalkeeper — he’s basically like a quarterback for this Cork team.

“I think a lot of it comes down to bravery, I do believe a lot of goalkeepers have that in their locker but it’s the courage to try something and brush it off if it goes wrong. It’s really admirable. We will focus on his role again this year, there’s no point in saying otherwise. But we set up quite defensively last year to try negate his influence and I think it was definitely to the detriment of our attacking play.”

He continued: “Starting in 2017, I had won one championship match in Munster, then won one last year and won three this year. A lot of the story around us last year, particularly before the Limerick game last year, was that we wanted to improve our Munster championship record — because it was dismal.

“I think if we were to be successful in the Munster final, the really satisfying thing is that we’d have beaten every team and nobody could ever say that one was flaky or anything like that. We definitely did get the favourable draw but any day you can say you beat all the teams, if we do, that would be one to really cherish.”