Inagh-Kilnamona still bidding to clear that final fence

XXJob SPORT 17102021 Inagh Kilnamona's David Fitzgerald and Cratloe's Conor McGrath in action during the Senior Hurling quarter final at Cusack park, Ennis on Sunday. Picture ; Eamon Ward

Clare SHC final

When the pain hits, the fear is normally framed around one tiny detail, a sharp but audible sound. A pop. Some players hear it, some don’t, but, either way, terror ransacks a player’s mind when they fear they’ve suffered a serious knee injury, especially the dreaded cruciate knee ligament tear.

When David Fitzgerald injured his knee against Éire Óg in the Clare semi-final two weeks ago, the red flags were flying up all around him. Did he hear that un-mistakeable pop? If he heard a noise, was that really the solemn signal of a cruciate injury?

As Fitzgerald was lying on the Cusack Park pitch, curled up in agony, riddled with anxiety and trepidation, his mind was processing more than just the pain; his brain began computing the wider ramifications of how serious the injury potentially could be.

Fitzgerald was tracking back one of the Éire Óg players in the first half when his leg got stuck in the ground and he went out over it, hyperextending his knee. The pain was excruciating. “Initially,” he says, “the physio thought it was lights out.” Although the pain sub-sided, Fitzgerald was still clearly in distress, but he refused to come off and played on until the final whistle. The elation of reaching a first county final with Inagh-Kilnamona briefly tranquilized the pain and anxiety but it didn’t remove the dull ache at the back of his mind. More than just a county final appearance was on the line. “It has been a real worry,” said Fitzgerald last weekend as he waited for the results of an MRI scan on his knee.

The swelling around his knee delayed the scan. The waiting game in the meantime has been torturous. It certainly wasn’t the build-up Fitzgerald was hoping to experience ahead of Sunday’s county final against Ballyea.

On such an important week, there haven’t been any bulletins or updates. In that vacuum, rumours around whether Fitzgerald will or won’t play have flourished.

“All you can do is try and stay positive,” he said. “You’re just hoping everything will be ok. I’m just trying to stay focussed. Maybe I can just get through 60 minutes. You never know.” Fitzgerald’s injury, plus the hamstring strain of Aidan McCarthy (although he did feature for Kilmurry-Ibrickane in last week’s senior football final) have been a shadow hanging over Inagh-Kilnamona’s preparations. With Tony Kelly not available for Ballyea after an ankle operation, the potential loss of Fitzgerald and McCarthy could be a decisive factor in the outcome.

Sunday’s decider is certainly a novel final but it’s also one completely reflective of the modern culture of Clare hurling. The last decade has been dominated by Sixmilebridge, but Ballyea have emerged as a real force, winning a first county title in 2016, and subsequently reaching an All-Ireland final, before bagging a second title in 2018. Inagh-Kilnamona are still chasing a first title but they’ve been incrementally building to this point and now stand on the threshold.

The emergence and re-emergence of Clonlara, Cratloe and Crusheen at the end of the 2000s showed the dramatic shift away from the traditional powerbases, but the presence of Ballyea and Inagh-Kilnamona in this final has copper-fastened that shift; Ballyea, Kilnamona and Kilmaley are the only three clubs west of Ennis to have won county senior titles in the competition’s 138-year history.

Kilnamona won three county titles between 1902-1908 but they amalgamated with Inagh in 2008 to form Clare’s newest club. The clubs had actually met in the 1998 county Intermediate final, which Kilnamona won. Inagh finally secured an Intermediate title in 2005 to go senior for the first time but, by that stage, a new future was inevitable.

In 2003, both clubs had amalgamated to compete in ‘A’ championships. Huge success immediately followed; an U-16 title in 2006, minor championships in 2005 and 2008, an U-21 crown in 2007. Numbers was an issue but both clubs couldn’t deny the potential force they could become under the one umbrella at senior level.

Fitzgerald is from Inagh but his homeplace in Maghera is only a stone’s throw from the Kilnamona border. “Growing up we would have always been close with the Kilnamona lads,” he says. “When you’re starting out so young, it’s not an issue when you’re playing with the lads you meet week in and week out. You’d be playing with Inagh in a B or C competition but the following day you might have an A game with the combination.” History is never easy to alter, especially when both clubs had been traditional rivals for so long, but a new generation carved, created and shaped a whole new identity and modern history.

“It always felt natural,” says Fitzgerald. “Maybe originally when the club was starting out, there might have been old school thinking where people were breaking down the team to see how many were from Inagh and how many were from Kilnamona. That is completely gone out the window now.” 

Inagh-Kilnamona have always been an underage powerhouse; the bulk of this team is built around the U-21A winning teams of 2016 and 2018; the club won another Minor A title last Saturday.

Making that breakthrough at senior level though, was a whole different challenge again; they narrowly lost semi-finals in 2012 and 2019 to Cratloe and Sixmilebridge.

Inagh-Kilnamona looked in control of that semi-final two years ago but Sixmilebridge hit nine of the last 11 points. “When you analyse that match, it came down to experience and that bit of cuteness from the ‘Bridge,” says Fitzgerald. “They never panicked. In the last 15 minutes, they knew how to grind out the win and we were the ones which ended up panicking.” 

Last year’s campaign ended in even more disappointment. Heavily fancied against O’Callaghan’s Mills in the quarter-final, 17 wides eroded their footing and they’d fallen off a cliff long before the end of a match they eventually lost by nine points. “It was a big setback,” says Fitzgerald.

That defeat provided the rocket-fuel to launch a completely different attack on this season, but Fitzgerald had his own personal motivation too after a disappointing year with Clare.

After playing in all five of Clare’s league games, scoring in three of them, Fitzgerald only featured off the bench late on against Waterford and Tipperary in the championship. He didn’t make the squad of 26 for the qualifier against Wexford.

His excellent form throughout the club championship has reflected a player hell-bent on atonement. But the experience also imbued Fitzgerald with the power of greater perspective.

“Personally, I didn’t have a good year with Clare,” he says. “It’s tough when you can’t make the starting team. You obviously want to do well but I wouldn’t begrudge any of the players ahead of me.

“It was disappointing but the big difference of late is trying to focus on enjoyment rather than outcomes, which has been beneficial to me. When you come back to the club, the shackles are off. It gives you an opportunity to express yourself.” It’s five years now since Fitzgerald announced himself as a 20-year old on the Clare team which won the 2016 National league title. After an excellent season at full-back with the U-21 team which narrowly lost the 2015 Munster final to Limerick, Fitzgerald was brought into the senior panel as a peripheral squad member that winter but had established himself by the following spring.

He started the 2016 Munster semi-final against Waterford, but Fitzgerald didn’t start a championship game again until 2017. He made the first 15 for all of Clare’s championship games that season, and the first three matches of the Munster round robin in 2018, but Fitzgerald was still a big impact player off the bench throughout that summer until returning to the first 15 for the All-Ireland semi-final replay against Galway.

Fitzgerald started three of Clare’s four championship games at half-back in 2019 but when Brian Lohan took over, he identified a new attacking role for Fitzgerald. Excellent in the 2020 league, Fitzgerald started two of Clare’s four championship games last year at half-forward, but he hasn’t started a championship game since the 2020 qualifier win against Wexford.

“There have been plenty of ups and downs,” says Fitzgerald. “My Clare career has not had the trajectory I’d have liked but it has been a massive learning curve.” Every day now is a learning experience and Fitzgerald has really had to borrow from that bank of knowledge and school of hard knocks over the last two weeks. He desperately wants to play on Sunday but, whatever happens, Fitzgerald has learned that winning teams cannot function without a serious element of trust and loyalty and togetherness.

“Even the last day, I wasn’t much use to the team after I got injured, but the other players really stood up,” he says. “I’m trusting the lads that even if I can’t play, that they will stand up again.” Inagh-Kilnamona have stood up and faced down every challenge they’ve faced this season. Now that the endline is in sight, Fitzgerald and his team-mates aim to trust themselves even more to push on past that glorious final frontier