Crusheen dreams fulfilled

WHEN referee Seanie McMahon sounded the final whistle at Cusack Park on Sunday, Crusheen players and mentors jumped for joy but few jumped higher than team manager Michael Browne.
It wasn’t because he had just created his own bit of history having led a second team to the Clare senior title in three years. It was simply because, as a Crusheen man, his club had just won the Hamilton Trophy for the first time.
Having been in the opposition camp three years earlier when he coached Tulla to victory over Crusheen, he felt for his fellow clubmen on that occasion.
“I was, of course, thrilled for Tulla but when you play for a club, it is always close to your heart,” he said amidst wild celebrations on Sunday.
“I didn’t intend to be here but it ended up that way. I ended up with them a year ago. At the end of the year when we were knocked out of the championship, we got down to a bit of tougher hurling in bad conditions. They got into a better style of play. They showed all year that they had what was needed,” he said.
“They showed it in the Ballyea game when they showed their grit. It was a dogged determined battle against Clarecastle. It’s a great tribute to our backs that we held Sixmilebridge as good as we did. They are a super team as they showed in the Clare Champion Cup final on Saturday,” he went on.
The Crusheen manager felt that game gave the side some courage going into the final. “We knew we were up against a great set of forwards, in particular a couple of forwards that they have. They caused us trouble and they got scores and we knew that that was going to happen.
“You are not going to keep a good forward scoreless, you have to limit the amount of scoring he does. It was the battling we did all over the field and you could see that building.
“It was coming step by step. The last match of the group was a county final for us, the quarter-final was a county final, the semi-final was a county final and that’s the way we approached this as well. We were the underdogs here. Cratloe were expected to win this but we gave it everything we have in our bodies,” he said.
Continuing, he said the heart the team showed was savage. “They were unbelievable. They went for everything. They fought for everything. We were trying to drill that in for a while. Anyone will fight for a 50-50 ball but it’s the 60-40 or the 70-30 ball they have to go for. We had to go for them and in fairness, everyone of the lads did today and I am so proud of them and so thrilled for them that they have their reward.”
Browne stressed that you don’t win a county final in one year. “You win it in a decade and this is what has happened here. It’s been a decade of hard work by loads of people within a small club and a small community.
“This is a huge victory by everyone in the parish. I am so thrilled for the likes of Stephen Cunningham and his selectors, for whom it didn’t work out, for the likes of John Fitzgibbon and Michael Liddy and Eugene Barry. They have all worked with this squad.”
He added “This means so much for the fathers and uncles and neighbours of the players who played today. They gave us the space in the last week to prepare for today and thank God it worked out”.
Looking ahead he said, “We now have to get into shape for the Munster club. We will take it on. A first victory like this must be celebrated but the winter is long and there will be lots of time for celebration,” he concluded.