Belief. With the majority of inter-county minor sides training to a very high level, it’s invariably the key separator in tight matches and so it proved once more in Páirc Uí Rinn on Tuesday evening when taking down hosts Cork to advance to the Munster decider.
An almost incredible turnaround in fortunes in less than ten months, this Clare minor side have really developed since falling to Tipperary in the opening contest three weeks earlier.
“I’m delighted,” commented manager Brian O’Connell on the field afterwards, “Our biggest challenge with these lads was just making them believe in themselves and when they did that, they’re just starting to skyrocket.
“We’ve pretty much focused on ourselves. We know that we’ve good hurlers here, I keep emphasising it but these lads have won provincial junior schools and some of them All-Ireland senior medals so they’ve had a good year’s hurling and good experiences of winning titles and playing in finals.
“So there’s definitely a good bunch there and we’re delighted with their attitude and everything tonight.
“We obviously need to bring them back down to earth because there’s a final to be played next week but look, they deserve it.
“From what some of them went through playing Cork last year, this is a massive turnaround for them to put some demons to bed and we’re delighted.”
It’s a winning ethos that has permeated throughout the entire minor set-up as while their flagship side prepares for next Wednesday’s Munster Final against Tipperary in TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick (7.30pm), the second string under Ger Hickey are also at the business end of the Celtic Challenge national developmental competition when hosting Waterford in O’Garney Park Sixmilebridge this Saturday at 2pm.
“Look, it’s all about getting games and that belief in themselves and realising that even coming down here to Páirc Ui Rinn, the pitch is the same and the game is the same as what they play in Caherlohan of a Wednesday night.
“So that has been our biggest challenge but since day one, you can just see that they’ve started to believe and believe and hopefully next week we can push on again.”
Clare won’t require any additional motivation either, having been blitzed by the Premier County in Semple Stadium a few weeks back.
“The lads will go into that knowing that they were certainly in the game and that there’s not much to fear against Tipp in terms of knowing that they’re at the same level as them.
“That said, the games that Tipp have got will only stand to them and they’ll obviously have progressed since that first game against us as well. So it’s all to play for.
“For us, it’s definitely a team ethos. It’s not about individuals, it’s a collective and the first message from us is all about work-rate and being honest. And I think we saw it in spades with the seniors at the weekend and we saw it in spades again tonight.”