Clare U-20 hurling captain John Cahill is eagerly looking forward to next week’s championship opener against Cork — a campaign that carries with it high hopes of success writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh.
When the Clare minor hurlers won Munster and All-Ireland honours in 2023 the group that immediately preceded them were left wondering what might have been.
Among them was this year’s Under 20 captain John Cahill from Clooney-Quin — he was wondering because in 2022 the team he was part of could also have gone the whole way in Munster and beyond, that’s what everyone associated with the group believed, but it wasn’t to be.
“When the minors won we were obviously buzzing for them,” he muses, “but there was a bit of jealousy as well because we would only have loved to be in that position as well.
“The year before the Munster and All-Ireland wins the minor team got to the Munster final and lost it on penalties on penalties to Tipperary, so we were very close.”
And, it’s the memory of that, as much as the near misses at Under 20 level in the past few years that’s driving the likes of Cahill and others, who were part of that minor class, on to reach their goals this year in their last year in the grade.
“It’s excellent being part of it. The lads won Munster and All-Ireland titles at minor and also two years ago I was on the squad that got to the Munster final when we were unlucky to lose it to Cork.
“It was a great game two years ago — I didn’t get to play as I was only on the bench, but we were very unlucky that day.
“We were unlucky again to lose to Cork last year in the semi-final after beating the eventual winners of Munster (Tipperary) in the round-robin.
“Obviously we want to win this year. First of all we want…