Senior Hurling Final

Ballyea and Éire Óg may be comparable in hurling ethos, county player experience and stature now but that certainly wasn’t always the case. Aiming for a fourth senior title in just seven years couldn’t even be contemplated when Robbie Hogan was a player himself as the hurling landscape around Ballyea was the antithesis of the senior force that have become today. “The dynamic, the facilities and the overall ambition was just so different. The old pitch was known as the slob so we were in every way a junior club. That was the level we were training to and playing at and there’s no point saying otherwise. “I remember the late Brian O’Reilly came and trained us one year for the junior. He was from Kilrush but a very good physical trainer and initally he just got us fit which was in itself a major development because before that we just turned up at training and played a game. “He …

One of the stories of the GAA this year has been Shane O’Donnell’s sparkling form. The Éire Óg man has reminded the hurling public of his undeniable skill and scoring ability with a series of devastating performances both at inter county and club level. After suffering a concussion in training last summer, O’Donnell endured a lengthy spell on the sidelines while he missed Clare’s entire league campaign this year. Fortunately, he was deemed fit enough to return to training in March as he tells The Clare Champion the advice was for him to jump right in and return to full contact training so that he could develop confidence in being able to take contact. “I was told explicitly that I should be thrown straight in, that I was ready to go and if I got a knock that it would be the same as if I got a knock without ever having a concussion before.” “I had fully recovered, and …

Eleven years after his last senior championship experience, Cathal O’Connor triumphantly returned to Ballyea’s ranks last year in what would arguably prove their greatest Canon Hamilton title feat of all. After all, without talisman and back-to-back All-Star Tony Kelly, the 2016 and ’18 champions’ chances of overcoming a momentum-fuelled Inagh-Kilnamona initially appeared bleak. However, a typically never-say-die final storm from O’Connor and Co. dramatically turned the tie in their favour. It proved the final element in the Clare Senior footballer’s assimilation process and he hasn’t looked back since. “It worked out to be a brilliant decision. With Coolmeen, we haven’t played senior so it was a great opportunity to see what the pace of senior championship was in Clare. I’m thoroughly happy that I made that decision as to contribute in some way and to win a senior championship medal is great. “There weren’t too many strangers in the dressing room anyway to begin with as there was a big …

Éire Óg captain Liam Corry believes the success that the club’s footballers achieved last season in lifting the Jack Daly Cup is helping the hurlers this year. The Townies are in the unusual situation whereby the club have ended a 22 year wait for a Senior Hurling final appearance but yet they still possess a fair degree of experience after the footballers managed to end their 15 year wait to lift the Jack Daly Cup in 2021. Corry feels the success experienced by Paul Madden’s side last year has helped instil the extra belief and confidence amongst the hurling fraternity within the club. “The main lads in that football panel are the main lads in that hurling panel too. We have played with them all the way up so we work together all through the years. It’s unreal to see them win. When you see your colleagues from the same club winning it makes you want to win even more …

Éire Óg sharpshooter David Reidy believes his side’s near misses in recent years has helped them become battle hardened for this Sunday’s mouthwatering decider with Ballyea. After progressing through to seven quarter finals in a row with this year being the third in succession that they have reached the last four, Éire Óg finally reached the decider as they stand just an hour of hurling away from lifting the Canon Hamilton for the first time since 1990. “We’ve been knocking on the door for the last few years. We have been to a number of quarter finals, a semi final last year and just kept on not getting the job done. These setbacks stand to us. “You can’t beat experience. It’s probably not the experience that Ballyea have in terms of their pedigree but we built up a lot of experience. “With Mattie over us he’s brought another edge to us; that resilient side and never say die attitude. Again, …

For a marquee player that has won almost every accolade in the game, Tony Kelly will probably relish Sunday’s County Final the most of all 30 starting players involved. Having missed out on last year’s decider against Inagh-Kilnamona due to a long recuperation from ankle surgery, Kelly was doubly determined to get the champions back into a second consecutive final and actually play his part this time around in what will be his first county final showdown since 2018. “After we won last year’s quarter-final, I was sitting at home thinking that there’s only potentially two games left but it wasn’t an option to play,” Kelly said this week ahead of the final. “It would have been worse if we didn’t win it because you would have always been looking back thinking if I didn’t bother going for surgery, could we have won it? Luckily that didn’t happen and there were no regrets and it was mighty that we did …

Ballyea’s victory over Cratloe in the senior hurling championship semi-final as shot by John Kelly

If Éire Óg win on Sunday they will bridge a 32-year gap to their last senior hurling success, a famine that far outlasts the previous drought that stretched from 1966 all the way to 1980 — a landmark success for the Éire Óg Dalcassians team now recalled by Joe Ó Muircheartaigh. “I always remember Paddy Kelly turning up in the Éire Óg Grounds on the morning of final day. He did some warming up exercises, pucked about and when walking off the field remarked to me with great enthusiasm, ‘Today has got to be our day’. With that injection of confidence, he lit his first cigarette of the day.” Tony Kelly, 1980 HURLING hindsight is 20/20 vision, or in this case it was 1980 vision, but Éire Óg couldn’t have played it better in their quest for a first county title in 14 years. You can never be under the radar in a county final because you had to show …