Clare's unexpected centre-back and 'mini-Tarzan' bring Banner freshness
Diarmuid Stritch (left) and Niall O'Farrell are two of the young players who have broken into the Clare hurling team this year. Pics: Sportsfile
No one in Clare saw Niall O’Farrell breaking onto the county team as a back. Certainly not manning the number six jersey, worn by giants like Hehir, McMahon and most recently Conlon, as a rookie.
In his last game of the 2025 county championship he put up 3-14 against Corofin to ensure his club Broadford retained senior status. All his hurling at school and in college and underage with Clare had been upfront. It was as a forward he had been drafted onto the panel, not as a prospect to anchor the defence.
Watching on in Limerick though, the real surprise for Niall Moran has been that it has taken this long for his former pupil at Ard Scoil Rís to feature with the Clare seniors at all.
For the opening game of this year’s Munster Championship, Brian Lohan again leant heavily on loyal servants. Ten of the team that started against Waterford in Cusack Park also started the 2022 Munster final, the first in a trilogy of provincial finals against Limerick. Sixteen of the 20 players that got game-time against Waterford were on the 2024 All-Ireland final matchday panel.
Read More
Yet tellingly with David McInerney still out injured and John Conlon now 37, Lohan plumped for O’Farrell as his starting centre-back.
And the first forward he unleashed from a bench that included Shane Meehan and Ian Galvin, both proven impact subs as underlined by their respective scores in extra-time of that epic 2024 All-Ireland final win over Cork, was Diarmuid Stritch. Another graduate of Ard Scoil Rís across the county bounds.
Moran coached them both, including when the school won their first and only All-Ireland title in 2022. Stritch, while still only in transition year, came on as a sub in that final against St Kieran’s. O’Farrell, a cousin of Tipperary’s Sam, lined out at centre forward, taking the frees and finishing with a game-high seven points.
“Our full-forward on that team would have been Shane O’Brien who obviously everyone would have known even then. But to our management team we would have had Niall on a par with him. Although they were both a year young [fifth years], they would have been to the forefront of that group.
“Coming into that final, Niall would have sustained a severe shoulder injury in the semi-final; actually Diarmuid replaced him at half-time. On the match programme for the final, Niall would have had a jersey in the 30s. But we just felt there was no way we could have gone into that final without playing him. We had to start him because of his free-taking and his temperament. And it worked. When the game was there to be won Niall was dominant.
“To me the real surprise with Niall isn’t where he’s now playing but that it’s taken until 2026 for him to have been considered for the Clare squad, let alone the team. I was never sure why he wasn’t held in the same esteem in Clare as he would have been in Limerick. Maybe it was because he was part of that [2021] minor team that Cork obliterated by 40 points. If he had been with Limerick he would have been given his chance earlier.”
It eventually came this past league. In the opening game at home to Dublin, O’Farrell came on as a sub at wing forward for Peter Duggan with 10 minutes to go; Diarmuid Ryan was tried at centre back that day. By the third game of the campaign though, O’Farrell was starting at wing back and by the league final he had been moved into the centre.
Over the years, Tommy Guilfoyle would have heard folks in Broadford say that O’Farrell’s best position was in the backs only they had a greater need to play him in the forwards. Clare’s needs were the opposite.
“For some reason, we’re not producing top-class defenders. Back in my time we’d always have 10 backs and it’d be forwards you’d be looking for. Now it’s flipped. Ronan Kilroy, who scored five points for the U20s during the week, was tried at corner back with the seniors during the league. And Lohan obviously saw something in training about O’Farrell that he could make a fine back.
“He’s a bit strong lad, pacy enough and what’s stood out for me is that he gives good ball to the forwards.”
Moran, whose brother James would have served as a selector to Lohan, can see why the Clare manager identified him as a possible number six. “I do think it’s a very big ask for a lad in his first year senior to play in what is probably the toughest position in the modern game. But he has a lot of the credentials you need in a modern centre back. He has an ability to read a game, is a beautiful striker of the ball, is strong in the air and would be a bit like Declan Hannon with how he can come forward.”
While O’Farrell, at least at centre-back, is understated, Stritch immediately catches the eye. “He probably looks like a mini-Tarzan with his locks and everything else,” says Moran. “He’s like Niall in that he’s very soft-spoken, mannerly, a straight A-student, but the way he plays, he’s electrifying. Every time he gets on the ball there’s a buzz about it.”
In the league Stritch racked up 0-12 over just four starts at either midfield or centre forward. Then upon coming on against Waterford two weeks ago with 20 minutes to go he swiftly fired over 0-3.
“He must be every defender’s worst nightmare to see coming on,” says Guilfoyle. “He’s this free spirit with frightening pace. He can strike from 80 yards out off either side without breaking stride. He’d remind you of Shane O’Donnell. He has that X Factor.”
Stritch, like O’Farrell and Seán Rynne, was also on that minor team that Cork demolished by 40 points five years ago. But that class of 2004-born players haven’t turned out too bad, nor the Clare contingent from Moran’s colleges All-Ireland winning class of 2022.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
