From lines to footsteps in the sand

Brian O’Connell, his management team, and his players have dragged Clare minor hurling off the floor in the past two seasons writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh, who spoke to the Shannon man who never had any doubts about taking up the job and bringing this generation as far as they could go.

July 14 2021, Semple Stadium, Thurles.
A Wednesday evening, in high summer, but it was like a morning in the darkest of winter, so dark it was just black, with no white, never mind any primary colours. Dickensian. Depressing.
Bleak House and Hard Times were two tomes that came from Dickens’ quill – this was those and much more and it was the worst of times as Clare’s minor hurlers were on the receiving end of a 6-28 to 0-6 hammering from Cork that evening.
Where do you go from there? How do you even go on?
Brian O’Connell’s answer was to jump at the opportunity to manage the very next minor team that rolled off the production line, albeit it was a time when many wondered if that same line had just seized, or been completely derailed.
Not BOC. He knew better. And, as a result, it was no surprise that he seized his chance. That’s what leaders do. As a 24-year-old he had stepped up to be Clare’s senior captain in 2009 and relished the role, so it would be and so it is that the same attitude pertained when he answered the county’s call once more in the aftermath of the county’s darkest day ever in the grade.
Without a thought, without hesitation!
“To be honest I never even thought about the result the year before,” he confirms. “We would have been in with the group from last year at 14s. We came in as development squad coaches, a lot of us that are here now, and a few have gone.
“Cyril Lyons was with us last year. A lot of that was during lockdown so there were a lot of challenges associated with that and last year I came on as manager,” he adds.
Still, even if the Shannon man wasn’t thinking of that 6-28 to 0-6 from Cork when he took the job, it surely crossed his mind and everyone associated with underage hurling in the county, not just at minor level, when the Class of ‘22 in the grade made the journey to Leeside to take on the Rebels in the Munster semi-final in the first week in May.
By then, minor hurling had already been rehabilitated after they bounced back from an opening-round defeat to Tipperary to beat Waterford and then Kerry to reach the last four.
But…playing against the county that beat them by 40 points just over ten months previously, it was more than just a semi-final.
“It was massive,” remembers O’Connell. “Our biggest game was that game; Cork down in Páirc Uí Rinn. That 40-point deficit the year before would have been playing on some people’s minds.
“To go down to Cork and win that really set us up for the year and gave the lads real confidence and for the lads that are still involved, it obviously brought that bit of belief through and the lads that were watching on and weren’t involved at all, us getting to a Munster final and being narrowly beaten by Tipperary gave everyone a bit of a lift and confidence that something could be done.
“From all the development squads, from everyone involved in underage Clare hurling would have looked at that and said ‘yeah ok, we are doing something right here’. A line in the sand and we haven’t really looked back.”
The result is the county’s first All-Ireland minor appearance in 13 years, as O’Connell et al have built on last year, instead of dwelling on the trauma of losing the Munster final on penalties to Tipperary.
“We went back earlier with them,” he reveals. “We knew the group we had the year before, so we didn’t go back until Christmas time 2021, so this year we went back earlier with a bigger squad, trying to figure out who we had.
“They had been in good hands prior to being with us.
“There were good development squad coaches – Ger O’Connell was the manager of the under 16 team last year and there this year, his brother Barry was with him, Barry Corbett, Denise Lynch, all these had a big influence on these lads.
“They are rounded individuals, good hurlers, exposed to good strength and conditioning and good diet. Everything like that would have been done at a younger age and we just brought that momentum. A lot of credit goes to that for these lads being in an All-Ireland final. Without that influence and whole development structure and how well it’s managed, it wouldn’t be possible,” he adds.
It’s a window into a Clare hurling set-up where everyone seems to be pulling in the one direction, across different teams and age groups, that makes success across all grades not just a possibility, but attainable, only to just go out and grab it.
“Being in finals is not something we are overly familiar with in this county,” admits O’Connell, “and we know that Galway are a great team and we have watched them.
“We stayed after our game in Thurles to have a look at them. They are really impressive and we are under no illusions that it’s going to be really tough, but we are definitely going up believing that we can do something.
“The lads are really confident – even Eoin Gunning on the day was collecting the Munster trophy referenced the fact that there was more work to be done and they’re fully convinced that they are capable of doing it.
“They love it; they love training. At the flip of the year, we trained in January and February which was a struggle at times to find a pitch. We went around the place. We would have been in Wolfe Tones, anyone that would accommodate us.
“It was a far cry from the way it is now with the sun shining, but these lads are loving the whole set-up and loving hurling, every minute of it. When you have a bunch like that they are really focused and singleminded on what they’re at, you have a great chance.”
Now to seize that chance.
If the victory over Cork last year was the line in the sand – victory on Sunday would put some giant footsteps in the same sand.
In the sands of Clare hurling’s time!