All hail the comeback kid

There were a number of occasions in the past two years when it appeared that Gerry O’Grady’s hurling career was over. A serious ankle injury meant he saw little action with  Crusheen last year. Things had started very brightly for the talented player as he led Clare to the Waterford Crystal Munster Hurling League title.
He was named as Clare vice-captain at the start of the season and in the absence of captain Brian O’Connell, he was handed the captain’s role and played a leading role as Clare beat all opposition to claim the title with a final victory over Tipperary.
A short time later, the ankle injury flared up resulting in little action for the remainder of the season. Indeed, there were fears that he would be forced to give up the game he loves. The injury required surgery and while he was in recovery at the start of the current season, he made the decision to withdraw from the Clare squad.
Since to the playing fields, he has been injury free and is hopeful this will continue to be the case.
“It’s great to be playing and it’s particularly pleasing to be involved with the club. The ultimate dream always has been to win with the club,” he said this week.
Like all of his clubmates, his hurling started in the local national school. “Gerry Kearney would have stated all of us off in the national school. I remember losing the division 5 schools final but we progressed and won Division 4 and Division 2 during my time at the school. Subsequently, they progressed to Division 1 with a number of our current senior team involved and they won that title. Massive work with regard to the promotion of hurling was done in the school by Gerry Kearney, who is a senior club selector now,” said O’Grady.
He is proud to be the club captain but he doesn’t feel any extra pressure in the role. “It is a great honour, particularly when I missed so much hurling last year, but the reality is that there are plenty of leaders there already,” he said.
“There is a great buzz around the parish right now. The junior team has also qualified for the county final and the underage teams are doing well. They are all taking a lift from the senior team,” the senior captain said.
The club captain has played all underage grades of hurling for Clare and he has also represented St Flannan’s College at all levels. He helped the famed Ennis nursery to win two Harty cup titles (’99 and 2000) while he was also a member of their 2001 side that which lost out when chasing a third title on the trot.
“We played St Colman’s in that final and Limerick’s Andrew O’Shaughnessy caused all sorts of problems for us,” he recalled
During his time at NUI Galway, he played in four Fitzgibbon Cup campaigns but the closest they got to winning was a semi-final defeat to Waterford IT.
He graduated to the adult team in Crusheen in 1999 when they lost the county intermediate title but they were back a year later to win the title. They followed this up with a senior B title and have been knocking on the door for the Hamilton Trophy in recent years.
They contested the county senior final in 2007. “It was a massive disappointment losing that final to Tulla. A year later we lost in the semi-final in a replay to Clonlara. Last year we failed to get out of the group but the lads regrouped and won the B title,” he explained.
O’Grady has no doubt but it would be extra special to win the senior title. “I have been playing with these lads since our school days and we all have the same goal, that is to win this title. A lot of work has gone into the preparations in the last few years. We face a huge task as recent weeks have shown that our opponents have the form but we will give it our best effort,” said the versatile hurler, who is equally at home in defence or attack.
Should Crusheen manage to make the breakthrough on Sunday and win the Canon Hamilton trophy for the first time, there are few followers who will begrudge Gerry O’Grady the honour of accepting the trophy.