It’s all about the hunger and who wants it the most

Clare Intermediate Hurling Championship Final

Wolfe Tones manager Barry Keane is in his first year at the helm and things couldn’t have gone any better. Just sixty minutes away from a return to Senior Barry remembers the moment he decided to become the boss.
“Sitting in the car in Newmarket last year after the loss to Doora/Barefield was a real bleak moment. I just couldn’t believe that we were gone down and a lot of people were hurt over it. For the next few weeks there was this voice niggling away at me saying you have to go back in. You have to help. I had spent my whole life coaching but I’d never managed so I had a real long chat with myself and decided if I was to do it I would have to surround myself with quality people. Alan Cunningham was the first person I reached out to. We negotiated it over a game of golf and to know he was going to commit was massive for me. He is one of the best hurling coaches there is and once he was on board I continued to fill the management team with quality. We then got lucky with Clem Nihill coming on board as S&C coach.”
Knowing he was taking over a side that was expected to bounce straight back up again did bring its own pressure for the man who began his coaching career with the county development squads.
“Of course there’s pressure to win but alot of it comes from within our own group. From the minute we as a management team took over our sole focus was on Broadford in the opening round of the Championship. We used the league solely to prepare for that game and we performed well in the group stages.”
As dominant as they have been they nearly came unstuck in the quarter final with Keane describing the match against Parteen-Meelick as the wake up call they needed.
” Parteen-Meelick in the quarter was a real eye opener. They rattled us and it could so easily be the Parteen-Meelick manager here doing this final preview. We were chasing them in that game the whole time and we eventually got over the line but by God it wasn’t easy.”
Readily acknowledging the fact that his side are massive favourites going into most games the former player feels they’ve also had the necessary rub of the green.
” We’ve had a bit of luck along the way. Against Ruan in the semi final half time came at the right moment for us. They had all the momentum at that stage and the break helped us to regroup. We’d worked all year on starting the second half of matches well and we did that against Ruan. We landed the first four scores and never looked back. We’ve an ability to blitz teams with our scoring prowess and it came to the fore against Ruan.”
Tubber are a surprise finalist but Barry feels they are an outstanding team with leaders all over the field and that this game will go down to the wire.
” Tubber will be one hell of a battle. I have no doubt about it. We’ve watched them three times live and we’ve also seen plenty of them in our video analysis sessions. They are an outstanding side with one of the best half back lines in the county. Domhnall McMahon has been a revelation for them at wing back and sure Pat O’Connor is one of the best hurlers this county has ever produced. They know how to battle. They’ve loads of experience at this grade and at playing in finals. There is no doubt that they will give it absolutely everything as they always do and we need to be one hundred percent because any less simply will not do.”
Finals are there to be won. It’s all about hunger and who wants it the most. There’ll be nothing in it and it could come down to a puck of a ball.
We’re so fortunate again to have Alan with us. He has massive experience of the big games and the biggest days so he’ll definitely be a calming voice in the dressing room. We will prepare for the day and get ready for the battle. We have to enjoy it too though because county finals don’t come around every year. We feel the lads are in a good place. The colours are around the place. It’s great to see the green and white flags everywhere and the smile on people’s faces. Let’s just hope they’re still smiling after Saturday” he says smiling.