Harty now a different beast, says Flannan's mastermind Tony Kelly

Tony Kelly, who is coaching the Flannan’s team eyeing a record-extending 23rd title, has witnessed a major increase in physicality since his schooldays.

Sat, 01 Feb, 2025 - 06:39

Stephen Barry

Compared to Tony Kelly’s schooldays playing Harty hurling with St Flannan’s, the All-Ireland-winning captain notices a major difference in the students today.

Back in 2012, Kelly captained the Ennis school from centre-back on a team featuring future Celtic cross-holders in Shane O’Donnell, Peter Duggan, Conor Cleary, David Reidy, and Eibhear Quilligan.

Even with a star-studded group, the depth of competition was underlined by their narrow elimination at the quarter-final stage by eventual champions Coláiste na nDéise.

The age limit has increased since those days, from U18.5 to U19, and Kelly, who is coaching the Flannan’s team eyeing a record-extending 23rd title, has witnessed a major increase in physicality.

“You see them walking around the school. They’re all six-foot-plus and they’re the width of doors going around the place so that’s the biggest difference.

“When we were playing, there was gym underage but not to the level there is now.

“You would see some lads playing Harty Cup now that’d be on senior inter-county S&C programmes. They could be on a training panel on a senior inter-county team. From that viewpoint, it’s definitely changed.

“The skill level is probably higher than it was back then as well.”

Another game-changer for Flannan’s was the closure of their boarding school in 2005 but that hurling tradition has been carried on over the subsequent decades.

“We’re the biggest school in Clare and the bulk of lads that predominantly play hurling want to come to Flannan’s,” says Kelly.

“It’s all about keeping that tradition, history, and culture going in the school. You can’t win every year but it’s about competing.

“Since 2007, Flannan’s hadn’t been back in a Harty final until 2020 and it’s massive. 2020 was the first time they won a Harty in the school where there was no boarders.

“This would be another massive opportunity to put a second one with that.”

While minor has dropped back a year to U17, increasing the Harty age cut-off to 19 allows players to carry more experience into the occasion that will greet them at Mallow where Flannan’s meet Thurles CBS in Saturday’s final (1pm throw-in).

“The likes of James (Hegarty), (Ronan) Kilroy, Joe Casey, Robbie Loftus, we have a lot of lads that would’ve been on that Clare minor panel when they won the All-Ireland and a lot of lads who played Clare 20s last year, two or three years above their age,” says Kelly.

“Drawing on that experience is huge for them lads. As a coach, selector, or manager, you can only tell lads so much. They gain experience by playing at high levels themselves.

“We’d have eight or nine lads who would’ve started senior club championship last year. That’s a big help.

“A lot of these lads would’ve played in front of bigger crowds than they’ll face Saturday. We’d have a good few lads that played in county senior semi-finals and finals last year with the club.

“You’re just trying to draw on that for the younger lads. You’ll need your big players to play well to have any chance of winning on Saturday.”

Flannan’s sealed their final berth by following up a nail-biting quarter-final comeback against Midleton CBS with their “best 20 minutes hurling all year” to blow away Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG.

Having begun their Harty campaign by splitting an opening-round draw, 2-21 apiece, with Thurles, both schools left expecting to meet the other again before the year was out.

“We didn’t really know going to Cappamore… we knew we were good, we just didn’t know how good we were. It gave our lads great confidence being so competitive the first day,” says Kelly.

“The biggest plus for us is we got to play them and see them up close. You can watch videos and clips of them play but seeing them up close is where you learn the most.

“They’ve probably been the most consistent team in it since the start. I knew we drew with them but they’ve probably had better results against better teams, the likes of Ardscoil Rís and De La Salle were very good as well.

“We knew even coming into the competition that there were three or four teams tipped from the outset of being in the business end and they were the best of the three or four.

“The firepower they have up front in terms of taking scores and creating space is really good. In terms of counteracting anything, it’ll be counteracting their front eight or their front six which has been very impressive for them.

“Since that first outing against Thurles, we’ve played maybe in fits and starts so we’re hoping at the weekend we’d get a more all-round performance for longer.”