One player stood out when Clare's need was greatest under early Cork onslaught in All-Ireland final, and it wasn't the man of the match
The forward created the goal for Mark Rodgers, scored back to back points, gave the pass for Rodgers to cut Cork's lead to one and won the ball that led to Aidan McCarthy's equaliser.
Not for the first time, Anthony Daly found the right words. On the evening of Sunday, November, 19, thousands tuned in to TG4 more out of curiosity rather than genuine interest. Clare were playing All-Ireland champions Galway in Boston in the final of the Super 11s - a GPA brainchild with different rules to traditional hurling, of which the lack of points is the most obvious.
Billed grandiosely as the AIG Fenway Hurling Classic, it was a fast-paced and often hard to figure out game - especially as all players wore the same helmets. When the dust settled, Clare had triumphed and, thousands of miles away, Daly reached for his phone.
He tapped out a few words and hit the send button on his Twitter app - ''We're no longer the whipping boys of Boston!'' Daly's tweet - which was an echo of his famous speech after captaining Clare to victory over Tipperary in the 1997 Munster final - raised quite a few smiles.
READ MORE: Full Tony Kelly speech as Clare win All-Ireland Hurling Championship
READ MORE: Tony Kelly magic fires Clare to All-Ireland glory as Cork's drought continues
But it did remind us how often Clare have been the whipping boys in the deep south in recent decades.
Ger Loughnane stepped down as Clare manager after the 2000 Championship. After that, Cyril Lyons, Anthony Daly, Tony Considine, Mike McNamara, Ger O'Loughlin, Davy Fitzgerald and the double act of Donal Moloney and Gerry O'Connor all tried to follow in Loughnane's footsteps.
All bar Moloney and O'Connor were either Loughnane's former players or part of his management team. But it seemed that the Feakle man casts a long shadow.
In the 17 Munster campaigns after he left, Clare won just five games. The 18th campaign was in 2018. Munster won three matches on Moloney and O'Connor's watch, reaching the provincial final, where they'd lose to Cork.
They'd go on to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals, losing to eventual champions Galway in a replay.
But it was a year that gave them hope. That hope seemed to fizzle out quickly, however. The following year, Clare's season ended in an early Munster exit, and Moloney and O'Connor walked away.
In came Brian Lohan, and nothing would ever be the same again.
This is largely Lohan's team but a handful of the men of 2013 have been massive for him. That was especially the case on Sunday.
Tony Kelly made the biggest moments of the All-Ireland final his own. John Conlon had a powerful game at centre-back, and then there was Shane O'Donnell.
His hat-trick of goals in the 2013 replay means it will always be remembered as 'The Shane O'Donnell final', but he left his mark on Sunday too.
That was especially the case when Clare went seven points down in the first half and there were real fears that Cork were going to pulverise them.
What happened next? Shane O'Donnell happened. He created the goal for Mark Rodgers, he scored back to back points, he gave the pass for Rodgers to cut Cork's lead to one and won the ball that led to Aidan McCarthy's equaliser.
Remember how it was in 2013? Remember how Clare were? That Banner strut was back.
At the final whistle, as bedlam raged around him following his hat-trick heroics in the replayed decider against Cork, O'Donnell was cornered by RTE's Clare McNamara for an interview.
Tousle-haired, fresh-faced and beaming, he looked as if he'd be more at home on stage with One Direction than in the Croke Park cauldron.
Even in that interview, his composure was striking. As he was finishing up, he pointed to the celebrating Banner hordes at Hill 16, simply marvelling at what had happened to his county.
Back then, the hurling world looked as if it was there for the taking for Clare.
After all, a year later, the Banner would win their fourth All-Ireland Under-21 title in six seasons.
But it would take a large chunk of his career for O'Donnell to even get back to Croke Park.
In 2018, many of his 2013 teammates had already departed the stage and O'Donnell talked of what the likes of himself, Conlon and Kelly had to do.
"Definitely the level of ownership we take of the team has to increase when lads like that move on.”
They did just that. It's one of the main reasons why Clare are All-Ireland champions.
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts.
Related
Share this page
Guest Posts by Easy Branches
