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The future has arrived


LAST Saturday in Cusack Park the rug was pulled even further from under the confused feet of Clare’s hurling establishment. Cratloe’s place in the 2009 county hurling final has been wrought primarily from their belief in the outstanding youngsters eligible to wear the club jersey.
Last weekend’s semi-final was as clear an indication of the new way in Clare hurling as any. While Kilmaley primarily looked to Colin Lynch, Diarmuid McMahon and Conor Clancy, Cratloe put all their faith in their young players to help the club alter the course of their hurling history.
Although Kilmaley have a few able young hurlers in their ranks, Dara Keane in particular, it seems that Cratloe and Clonara have been best rewarded for their investment of both time and trust in their youngsters.
There’s a deep-seated belief in Clare GAA relating to the value of experience. That sometimes results in young players not being trusted when it really matters and can see the players in question either losing confidence or interest.
Often the only experience the “experienced” players have is how to lose – rather than match or championship-winning know-how. Yet they are still sent out to play rather than gambling on the exuberance of their younger brethren.
Perhaps Clonara and Cratloe had no choice but to opt for youth. Maybe they had nobody else to turn to. Whatever the reason behind their mutual development of some of the best young hurlers in the country, they have shown the way forward.
Nine of the players who line out this weekend, in what will be Cratloe’s first senior hurling final, have All-Ireland U-21 medals at home on the mantelpiece.
It’s worth noting that none of those nine All-Ireland medal winners have yet to start a senior championship game for Clare.
The fact that not a single regular county senior hurler will be involved in the club showpiece suggests that the new wave of Clare hurling’s top class hurlers have arrived unnoticed by the outgoing senior county management team.
Clonara second in succession and Cratloe’s first ever senior final appearance adds freshness and excitement to the butt end of what has been a year of seismic shifts in Clare.
For the first time since the late 1990s the county has new sporting high achievers to admire and place some hope in. Yet, while the U-21 hurlers thrillingly broke new ground, the senior hurlers didn’t win a single game of note. In the finish the one game that they did win, the relegation semi-final, was deemed null and void.
Thence you have a large segment of the Clare hurling establishment who don’t feel part of the new wave. They can’t claim any ownership or credit because it has nothing to do with them. The heroes of the past have been sidelined and haven’t much to do with what is happening.
In the earlier part of this decade Doora-Barefield, Sixmilebridge, Clarecastle and Kilmaley divided most of the Canon Hamilton’s between them.
At that stage, clubs like Clonara and Cratloe were virtual nonentities, easily swatted aside when the big powers stepped it up.
With Clare hurling sliding backwards as quickly as the county strode forward in the 1990s, the county needed something fast. When Clonara won the intermediate championship two years ago the broader county didn’t take much notice. Tulla were the main men back then. Since that they have trekked back to obscurity while Clonara have powered forward. Inside 12-months the hurling landscape has altered considerably. Their pockets bulging with medals, the Clonara men have infused the county with hope and ambition. Nothing seems impossible now be it with club or county. This despite the fact that much of the counties hurling people are still in a daze as to what is happening. Clonara and Cratloe in a county final. What is Clare hurling coming to?
It would be rather ironic if Cratloe were to dethrone the champions on Sunday. Yet it would probably be apt in that the new wave would merely be replicated 12 months on and at least wouldn’t mean that the old order had been immediately restored.
In practical terms of course, playing three weekends on the bounce could derail Cratloe. Having a mere week to prepare, on and off the field, for the club’s first senior hurling final, reeks of short-sighted fixtures planning. 
There you have it. The more things change the more the old order seeks to ensure that things remain just the same.

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