McInerney Hoping To Finish 2020 On A Positive Footing

Derrick Lynch

2020 has been a mixed bag so far for Cathal McInerney, but in a sporting sense he is hoping it culminates with a third Clare senior football title.

The secondary school teacher was forced to miss out on the early part of this year’s campaign as a hamstring injury threatened to derail his entire club season. He made his return against Clondegad in the opening playoff round and since then has hit the ground running to rattle off 1-22 in three games to date, including 1-9 in their semi final win over St Breckan’s, and is odds on to claim yet another championship top scorer award.

The Limerick based secondary school teacher admits it was a tough road back to fitness but is confident that it is now behind him.

“It just came at a terrible time of the year really. At the start of it I thought I would be out for the whole year but it just came well for me and I was delighted to get back out. I missed a good chunk of the hurling championship but I have three games now under my belt now with the football and I am really enjoying it. Initially I was unsure as to how I was until I got back out into that matchday setting against Clondegad and then we had to turn around and play again two days later so I was happy enough with how I came through that first match. It gave me the confidence then going into the Miltown game and I could just build from there so I feel happy with my fitness at the moment. It has been a tough year for us in Cratloe and for a lot of families. Obviously we had a few cases of Covid-19 and it was looking for a while like we could have been pulled out of the championship so I think all the lads are just happy to be out playing” he noted.

Cratloe’s future in the 2020 hurling and football championships was thrown into disarray when cases of Covid-19 connected with the club were confirmed last month. Following a period of isolation, the club got back on track but McInerney admits it was a really concerning time for reasons other than just sport.

“Sport is secondary in that situation and you are just looking after peoples health. Our main concern was that if some of the players got it we could be potentially passing it on to the older people both in our families and those in the vulnerable bracket who are involved with the club. At that point, you are not really thinking too much about sport but thankfully things did work out favourably for us health wise, and then the bonus was being able to keep playing hurling and football. It was certainly a worrying time and we were just delighted to overcome all of that because it really was a stressful time” he recalled.

Cratloe have shown huge character in their last few games as they battled past 2019 champions Miltown before a late surge saw them overcome a promising St Breckan’s side. McInerney feels that game against the North Clare men is one they will learn from and outlined that they will be punished if they fall too far behind Saturday’s opponents.

“We knew that we were in for a huge test against St Breckan’s because they are a brilliant team with some excellent forwards. They will probably be a bit aggrieved with how things went because they dominated it for large spells and were unlucky not to get a few scores at the start of the second half that would have pushed the gap out another bit. I thought we showed great character in the way we kept battling and stayed in the game when we were under real pressure. It was the same with the Miltown game when they went a few points ahead too so we are happy with the character that we have shown but we also know that we cannot afford to do that against Kilmurry the next day so it is something we will have to work on ourselves” he stated.

McInerney also returned to the classroom in recent weeks in his role as a secondary school teacher in Limerick City. He feels while it is far from the normal experience, everyone is working together to ensure as much normality as possible.

“It is a totally different environment but everyone is working together to make sure that it works. The students have really worked well in adhering to the rules and they deserve great credit for that. It also means that the teachers have had to be innovative in the way they go about delivering classes. A lot of the time we would have been putting students into groups to learn from each other but you cannot do that now with the social distancing, and on a very basic level you cannot be bringing books into the school and things like that so there are challenges there. The other side of it is that the teachers are also learning as we go along” he said.