Tag Archives: Munster Minor Hurling Final

Clare Captain John Cahill enters this evening’s Munster Minor Hurling Final with more skin in the game than most it seems. While undoubtedly hoping to eventually follow his cousin Paul Curran’s major playing accomplishments of a clean sweep of senior honours from an All-Ireland crown to a National League title with Tipperary over a decade ago, in the immediate term his mother’s Mullinahone roots only provide motivational fuel for the versatile Clooney-Quin star against Tipperary in the TUS Gaelic Grounds tonight (7.30pm). After all, it’s not the first time, this month even, that Cahill has been incentivised by familial ties. “While my mother’s family are from Tipperary, my father is from Cork.” Explains the bubbly captain. “So from my own perspective, the two teams I wanted to beat this year were obviously Cork and Tipp. At the start of the year, most people were tipping both to be fighting it out to win Munster so we’ve beaten Cork, we just …

Pop quiz hotshot, name the current Clare minor mentor that helped a county garner back-to-back All-Ireland minor titles in the past five seasons? In a vastly experienced team headed by former Clare senior captain Brian O’Connell, it’s not six-time Munster and three time All-Ireland winning joint-manager Donal Moloney nor 1995 All-Ireland winner Cyril Lyons who guided his native county to the 2002 All-Ireland decider as manager. In fact it’s coach Damian O’Halloran who while teaching in Balinasloe, was part of Jeff Lynskey’s backroom team that made the breakthrough for Galway with All-Ireland minor crowns in 2017 and ’18 before also having a stint with the Tribesmen at Under 21 level alongside Lynskey, Franny Forde and Tony Ward. “It was a great experience.” Recalls O’Halloran. “Going in cold, it certainly opened my eyes as to the standard required, the levels at which even minor set-ups are operating at along with the workload of management teams that are actually comparable to a …