Development squads improving Clare hurling

IT may well be his first year as team manager but Eamonn Fennessy is well versed on Munster minor hurling final days, having been part of the Clare management team for the past two seasons when the county side captured the title.
“The experience of the last few years is a help. While you cannot look beyond the next game, deep down my goal at the outset was to get to this final,” the Sixmilebridge man said.
“We take it game by game and can’t get carried away. We played Tipperary in March and they gave us a right trimming in Borrisoleigh. I knew that if these fellas perform, they will do well. They are doing well in training but it has to happen on the day.
“Preparations have gone brilliantly. If they have a cut, they have the ability to win. We all have to play a part and everything has to click,” the team boss said, as he put the finishing touches to preparations for Sunday.
According to Fennessy, “Three-in-a-row is not the focus. We are going into this final wanting to win the final. There were no great expectations for this squad at the start of the year. There are just a few players remaining from the panel of last year.”
The manager continued, “Expectations were higher for us last year. This year we had to get to know the players. We all know how good Tipperary are. They are a formidable outfit that includes quite a number of dual players and they will be keen to complete the minor double at provincial level.
“We had to go to extra time in two games on the way to this final, whereas Tipperary got there in just two games. There is more pressure on them now to deliver a double,” according to Fennessy, who says his primary goal is to develop players in hurling, discipline and physicality for U-21 and senior.
“The general view is that Tipperary will complete the double. They have been thinking beyond Munster from the outset. It’s been their focus and their goal,” the Clare boss said.
Fennessy acknowledged that Clare also have dual players. “We have managed their welfare quite well. Tipperary have mirrored that and the pressure is on them to deliver the double.”
According to the Sixmilebridge man, “All Clare teams are feeding off each other at present and it’s great that they are all going well. There is a real feel-good factor out there at the moment and it is a help. From here on is a bonus for us.”
The manager believes, “The development squad system has been excellent. We are just another cog in that wheel. We have to keep the continuity and this is part of the job, part of a development system that will supply a conveyor of players into the senior set-up.”
Concluding, he said, “There is a great bond between the players and it’s all part of it. The future of Clare hurling is very bright, no matter what happens on Sunday.”