More power to the champs

Winning a national title is the dream of any sportsman and Crusheen native Gerry O’Connell is no different.
The holder of 32 national titles as well as a number of national records he would, he said this week, trade the lot for one championship medal with his beloved Crusheen.
“I’d give all the All-Irelands I have for what Crusheen have now. It’s great for the club and the parish particularly after all the near misses over the years.” Gerry recalled his first match for the club at senior level against Ruan in the championship in 1962 or ’63. “Ruan were a very strong senior team at the time,” he said.
The seven times Irish senior powerlifting champion said, “Crusheen threatened a few times over the years to make the breakthrough. In ’66 we won the Clare Champion cup when we beat Éire Óg in Newmarket. Éire Óg were very strong at the time and won the championship that year when we were beaten by Whitegate in Tulla.”
Four years later, Crusheen contested the county final. “We drew with Clarecastle but lost the replay,” he recalled.Playing at full-forward, a persistent knee injury meant that Gerry’s hurling career was regularly interupted. 
“A few years after this final loss, Crusheen, with assistance from Smith O’Brien’s, threatened a breakthrough but lost by a point to Newmarket. Back then, there was nothing else, no mobile phones. It was all hurling outside of work.
“The older people would go into town on the Saturday and all the conversation would be about the match. There were great conversations and great banter. There is still great banter and many of us will meet up before the game for a chat,” Gerry added.
Remembering some of Crusheen’s great games against Éire Óg, Gerry said he “worked a lot in town and there would always be great banter. We also had great rivalry with the ‘Bridge who had great hurlers in the Barrons”.
Gerry’s athletic commitments have taken him all over Ireland and to many parts of Europe over the years but in all that time, he rarely missed a Crusheen game.
“It’s very hard to win the first one and make the breakthrough. Nerves come into it but it’s a bit different now as Crusheen have made the breakthrough and have won one. I suppose there is a certain amount of pressure on Crusheen. They have gone through everything now and they know what it’s like. It would be great to hold on to the title,” he said.
In the ’60s Crusheen ran the club for about £50, Gerry said. We had two or three hurling balls. We had a lad who would paint them white when they got faded. We never heard of cones. We warmed up in the dressing room. There were no gear bags. We travelled with a hurley and the boots tied to the end of it. There were no pre-match drills. After the game, we washed ourselves in a barrel of water” recalled Gerry who regularly played in goals.
“I used to put two pieces of lead into the pole of the hurley for pucking out. It gave extra length,” he explained.
Competing at such a high level in athletics and playing hurling often went against each other. “I would be doing heavy training with weights in order to remain on the Irish team and this wouldn’t help with the hurling,” explained the man who is still competing regularly at athletics events. 
Just a few weeks ago he won the European masters title at Templemore. In 1986, Gerry broke the Irish record – one which still stands – and recently he was a guest of the athletics association when he presented the medals at the national track and field finals in Santry.
Getting back to hurling and Sunday’s final, will Crusheen be celebrating another win?
“Crusheen’s backs are very good and it’s going to be hard to get scores off them. Michael Browne is a very good coach but, in a final, you never know. We will be there to cheer them on and hopefully things will go their way,” he said.