Cratloe quintet a fearsome force

WHEN Cratloe’s five county U-21 panellists talk among themselves, the verbal digs fly as freely as a speeding sliotar on hard ground. Yet, when they pull a jersey over their heads, be it for club or county, they back each other until they have expended their last drop. Perhaps that’s what allows them to liberally trade barbed comments; they know that when they really need somebody at their back, at least one of the other four will be there.
Cathal McInerney, Conor McGrath and Conor Ryan will, barring a draw, play their last U-21 hurling game for Clare on Saturday evening, while Podge Collins and Enda Boyce are underage again in 2013. Maybe the thought of spending yet another year in Podge’s company is why ‘Boycey’ got his retaliation in first.
“I’d say Podge,” the LIT renewable energy student replies when asked which of his four clubmates he tries to avoid. “He never stops talking,” he laughs, looking around to make sure Collins couldn’t hear him.
“He doesn’t understand what I’m saying,” Collins retorts, when he got wind of what had been said.
“Ah no, it’s great that the five of us are on the panel. We all get along very well. There’s a good bond and we all play both codes,” the UL student adds, lest anybody think he was serious.
All five play hurling and football but none of them say they find it overly taxing.
“It breaks things up. We’ve no problem with it and we enjoy both codes luckily,” was Cathal McInerney’s succinct take on their dual mandate.
Centre-back Conor Ryan attributes their freedom to play hurling and football at a high level to good management at club level.
“They’re very good in the club to us in that they completely separate the hurling and the football, even though it’s more or less the same players. All we can do is take it one game at a time. We’ll never complain when we’re winning matches,” he says.
Ryan experienced the most thrilling evening of his GAA life on Wednesday, August 8, when Niall Arthur’s last-minute goal snaffled just a second provincial title at this grade for Clare.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it before. The stadium lifted off the ground. It was fantastic to be a part of it. But that’s gone now and the only way we can repeat that is if we win on Saturday,” Ryan, who is an engineering student, reasons.
Although Conor McGrath won an All-Ireland U-21 medal three years ago and played a pivotal role in setting up Cormac O’Donovan’s winning point, you get the feeling that a second medal, won with his peers, would top that. Anybody playing senior inter-county hurling is placed under intense scrutiny, which may be one of the reasons why McGrath likes to hurl with lads his own age.
“It’s probably a bit more intense at senior and there’s probably a bit more craic at U-21 level. Everyone’s around the same age and everyone is in college together and know each other fairly well. You’d look forward to coming up to training and enjoy it while you’re here. There’s a good buzz around,” McGrath says.
So does he ever have enough of the other four, whom he has been hurling and playing football with since they were eight or nine years old?
“You’d get sick of them alright,” McGrath smiles.
“Ah no, we get on very well. We’d have to, I suppose, with all the time we spend together. Most clubs might have one or two on the county panel. It’s rare enough that you’d have five. It’s a great feeling travelling up together and going back to club training then together as well,” the accountancy student notes.
All five will face an ultimate hurling examination in Thurles, when they try to help Clare to a second U-21 All-Ireland final win over Kilkenny.
Boyce played against Kilkenny at minor level and vividly recounts the experience.
“When we played them in minors you could hardly catch your breath, every ball was coming so fast. But we can’t wait for it. They’re animals; competitive animals. They just want to win so much. We’re trying to learn off them and I think we have,” he says.
Boyce claims that such is his obsession with beating Kilkenny, they are on his mind day and night.
“You think about it most nights before going to bed and before you get up. That’s all you want. To try and get back and get an All-Ireland medal.”
Collins was also on the Clare minor team beaten by Kilkenny in the 2010 All-Ireland final. Hopeful that McGrath will have to make an acceptance speech as an All-Ireland winning captain, Collins doesn’t think he’ll be listening if Clare win. He has no memory of what McGrath had to say when Clare won the Munster title.
“To be honest, I couldn’t really hear him. There was a fair atmosphere after the game. If we win the All-Ireland, we probably won’t hear him either. But that’s the least of our worries. The main thing is getting the result,” Collins cautions.
In that Munster final, Cathal McInerney gathered Peter Duggan’s line ball before laying it off to Arthur, who sent Cusack Park into orbit with his deadly finish. All three were substitutes, although McInerney is likely to start against Kilkenny.
“There’s a serious panel and it’s tough to pick the first 15. There’s serious competition for places and that’s what’s driving people on. These days don’t come around too often, so you’ve got to make the most of it and prepare right. We’re well focused now leading into it. We had a week off with the clubs and now we’re back training fully,” the LIT sport and business student, who performed a deft, on-pitch ‘McInerney Shuffle’ victory dance after the Munster final, explains.
The Cratloe quintet are so in tune with each other at this stage, they can almost predict each other’s on-field actions.
“We’re playing with each other now since we were eight or nine years of age. So you’d have a fair idea what lads are going to do and what they’ll do in certain situations. It helps on the county stage as well and definitely at club level,” McGrath acknowledges.
“They’re probably giving out in Cratloe that we’re gone county training and are never club training but I suppose lads would be proud. Cratloe would have been a small club traditionally. We’re only senior in the last 10 years or so and we’d rarely have five lads on a county panel at the one time. It’s unique, I suppose.”
Whatever happens this weekend, the Cratloe players will be playing knock-out championship football next Wednesday when they play Liscannor in Round 2 of the senior championship. So no time for a bit of socialising if Clare win?
“The match is Saturday. I’d say we’d go for a swim after the match and maybe go back to the beach the next morning for training. Straight back into it,” Collins, a rock of common sense, replies.
Ryan is about to say something about how GAA involvement can restrict one’s social life when Collins butts in.
“With Ryano there is always a social life. You don’t gel your hair like that for nothing,” he says to uproarious laughter.
“Well, I don’t know where they’re getting that from now. I think the pot is calling the kettle black. But seriously we’re so used to playing so often now it doesn’t really affect us. It’s something we enjoy doing. When we haven’t a match, it’s always nice to have a night out. But it doesn’t really affect us during the year when we know we’re working towards something,” is Ryan’s measured take on it.
With the evening closing in and training over, Cratloe’s finest headed for home. The jibes were still flying but when it matters, their intent is crystal clear. They love playing hurling and football, be it for club or county, but winning an All-Ireland together would be a momentous, youth-defining achievement.