Tag Archives: All-Ireland

WHEN the jubilant fans had streamed out through the gates and into the darkening Dublin streets, Darach Honan and Shane O’Donnell took a quiet moment to sit on the hallowed turf of Croke Park and reflect on the momentous achievement the Clare hurlers had just pulled off. John Kelly’s photo captures perfectly the unity that is within the squad. O’Donnell took Honan’s spot on the starting line-up and turned in a heroic performance to complete the first goal hat-trick in an All-Ireland hurling final since Lar Corbett in 2010. He tagged on three points on his way to being named as man of the match. Honan came on for O’Donnell with five minutes to go and scored a goal at the end of a blistering six-minute spell that opened up a six-point window between the sides and put a lid on the Rebels’ hopes of swiping the Liam MacCarthy Cup from the Banner men’s grasp. Honan was understandably disappointed at …

By Seamus Hayes Man of the match in Saturday’s All-Ireland replay, Shane O’Donnell, did not know he was in the starting line-up until just over two hours before the throw in. “We were getting food at St Patricks College when Davy brought me aside and told me I was starting ahead of Darach. I was delighted. The way the game went is just the stuff of dreams. It was absolutely amazing,” the 19-year-old Éire Óg clubman said. “Anyone of 24 or 25 could have started. Cathal McInerney has been getting on before me in recent games. It’s just testament to how hard people are working inside at training. I was just lucky enough to get the call and it worked out well. The lads gave me the ball and it was handed on a plate to me to score the goals,” according to the second-year genetics student at UCC. He quipped that he will be returning there “early enough this …

EVEN though Clare are All-Ireland champions, Pat Kelly argued that Tipperary and Kilkenny are still the two best teams in the game. “To me Kilkenny and Tipp are still the best two teams in Ireland. I know we’re All-Ireland champions but they’re still the benchmark. We’re going to have to be ready for them next year. We’ll probably be back training on November 7 or 8, that’s the way it’ll be. We’ll enjoy our few weeks, we’re All-Ireland champions, they’ll be mad to beat us next year and knock us down a peg or two,” he commented. The Inagh/Kilnamona number one said relief washed over him when the final whistle sounded. “It’s just relief, your heart would be racing. You’re over the line, you can just relax, you celebrate because you’re over the line. In fairness, if we’d let that slip it’d be a travesty; it would have been worse than the last day. The last day was bad but …

CORK were simply beaten by a better team, Jimmy Barry Murphy readily acknowledged after the game. “My initial thoughts are that, on both days, we were playing catch up from the word go and it’s a difficult thing to do. When you’re in that situation you have to do everything right to get back into a game. We did an awful lot of things right, but it’s got to be perfect at that stage and our luck eventually ran out. We were beaten by a much better team on the day, on both days, I’ve got to acknowledge that they deserved it,” he said. Asked if Cork could have won the game if they had taken the lead after drawing level from eight points behind, he said, “That’s one of the great imponderables, if we’d taken our chances when we got back level it may have been a different story but we didn’t. There was too much to make up, …

WHEN James McGrath sounded the final whistle, Clare achieved something that didn’t look likely when they lost to Cork in the Munster Championship or when they stumbled past Wexford in the qualifiers. Just before getting on the bus to leave Croke Park, Domhnall O’Donovan acknowledged earlier in the year, he didn’t think Clare were real contenders. “At the start of the year, if you’d told me I’d be here, I wouldn’t have believed you. Then, as we built momentum, we were thinking ‘we could actually do this’. Tipperary were knocked out and Kilkenny were knocked out and it was a much more even championship and we realised anyone could beat anyone, so we realised we could do it, if we believed.” The Clonlara corner-back said he was in a state of shock when the game ended. “I couldn’t believe it, I was in shock. I’m delighted that getting that point in the draw actually meant something; if we lost it …

AFTER the drawn game everyone knew that any 21 yard free for Cork was likely to result in a goal and on Saturday evening Cian Dillon said that especially large hurleys had been made for defenders to use whenever Nash came up the field. “It was kind of funny in training when Fitzy told us there might be 12 or 13 of us on the line and that we’d be getting hurleys made for us. We had eight especially big hurleys to try and stop them! It didn’t work for the first one, he didn’t really connect with the last one, maybe he was put off by the amount of us!” the Crusheen defender said. Clare led by four points at the break, but it had been eight points earlier on. While Cork had found their stride, there was still great confidence in the Banner dressing room, Dillon said. “At half time, in every game we’ve played this year, we’ve always …

ONE of five Clonara men to play a part in Clare’s epic 2013 All-Ireland final win, John Conlon has long dreamed of this day. The 24 year old Clonara man, who hurled with ferocity and poise in what was a momentous 70 minutes of hurling, set his sights on hurling in Croke Park, long before he wore a county jersey. “I remember when I was younger sitting in the Nally Stand and looking out. I was wondering ‘will I be here one day?’ You train, train and train. You have the bad days and these are the amazing days,” Conlon said afterwards. He watched the 1997 All-Ireland final from the Nally Stand and speaking on Saturday evening, he found it hard to comprehend that he was now an All-Ireland winner himself. “This is the stuff of dreams. I remember being out in the back garden when Limerick played Wexford. (1996) I was looking at the TV inside the window saying …

By Seamus Hayes Clare 5-16 Cork 3-16 What a day for Clare hurling. All-Ireland senior hurling champions for the fourth time in the county’s history after a truly memorable game. In the lead up to Saturday’s replay with Cork, analysists everywhere argued that Clare would need at least a goal if they were to win the LiamMcCarthy cup for the first time since 1997. Another of the big debating points for the past two weeks concerned whether or not Clare would make a change to the starting line up. Two hours before throw in time news emerged that nineteen year old Shane O’Donnell would start ahead of Darach Honan ahead of full forward. to say that he repaid the faith the management showed in him would be an understatement. He delivered a man of the match performance hitting 3-3,  the goals coming inside the first twenty minutes Clare had run up some hugely impressive point tallies in this campaign but …