Long wait for the ‘Bridge

When Christy ‘Rusty’ Chaplin accepted the Canon Hamilton Trophy after leading his beloved Sixmilebridge to victory over Clarecastle in 2002, little did he, or any of those involved, think that nine years on, the ’Bridge would not have repeated that success.
“Nine years is a seriously long time and none of us realised in 2002 that we would not be back here for nine years. There is a huge amount of work being done at underage level in the club but we haven’t got the success at senior level.
“It hasn’t come through to senior ranks yet despite the fact that we have been appearing regularly in and winning U-16, minor and U-21 finals,” Chaplin told The Clare Champion this week. It is the first time he will manage a team at this stage of the championship.
The 2002 success saw Chaplin collect his sixth Clare senior Hurling championship medal from nine final appearances, an impressive achievement. He won his first in 1989 when he was introduced as a substitute. He was also a valuable member of Clare’s All-Ireland winning panels of 1995 and 1997.
“Everything is geared towards the championship and, of course, the target is to get further each year. The first target is to get out of the group and progress from there and now that we have done that, we want to push on and win the title,” he said before stressing that Crusheen are a well balanced team who will be a serious test for any opposition.
“They are a settled team with mostly the same players that have contested four finals in five years. They are strong in defence and midfield and they have good hurlers in the forward line. They have loads of experience which you gain when you play together for so long.”
Given that Sixmilebridge followers would see nine years as a long time to be without a title at this level, is there pressure on the team to deliver a win?
“No. Everyone in the ’Bridge is behind the team and all want the club to do well. The support has been great and they are all hoping that the team will perform on the day. From our point of view, we would be putting pressure on to do well.
“We are hoping that the players will give everything on the day. There is a lot of talent within the squad. We have 11 or 12 U-21s but it takes time to come through and deliver at senior level. Most club senior teams have a mixture of youth and experience.
“We are lucky enough to have Gilli, Tadhg Keogh and Tony Carmody while Fitzy is back playing again and you won’t get much more experience than that,” stated the club manager, whose selectors are Seamus Cusack, Mike Deasy and Sean Chaplin.
He will be keeping his fingers crossed this week that there are no additional injury concerns ahead of Sunday.
“We are still in the running for the minor title and we have a few players on that team while there are also colleges games this week. We are happy that the lads are playing games. We have a rule in the club that minors train with the minors while they are still involved. Of course we are hoping that they won’t pick up any injuries but sure that could happen at training.”
Indeed it was an injury in the second half of the quarter final against Inagh-Kilnamona that led to the return of Davy Fitzgerald. Derek Fahy sustained a facial injury that ruled him out of the semi-final and Fitzgerald answered the call and made a valuable contribution to the win over Cratloe two weeks ago.
Who will fill the number one position on Sunday?
“We will make a call on that later this week when we see how Derek is doing. We are hoping that he has a chance. He only returned to training this week and we will monitor how things are going before making a decision,” was the manager’s reply.
Rusty was a strong and forceful player with club and county and since taking on the role of team manager two years ago, he has been equally determined. In 2002 when he led the team home with the Canon Hamilton Trophy, Davy Fitzgerald, Tommy Morey, Brian Culbert, Tadhg Keogh, Robert Conlon, Paul Fitzpatrick and Niall Gilligan, now the team captain, were amongst his team mates.
Chaplin was also captain of the winning team two years earlier. He will be doing all in his power to ensure that similar scenes of celebration will be witnessed on Sunday in Cusack Park and later in Sixmilebridge.
Such an achievement would see Chaplin join a select group that have captained and managed their club to county honours.