Croker brings back happy memories for Banner – now to do it again

Clare can’t afford to freeze up on return to GAA HQ

THE headline in the Clare People this week captured the mood of a county. ‘Time to hurl like it’s 2013!’ it urged its young side. The Banner roar will be in full voice at Croke Park tomorrow evening for the first time since their hurlers thrilled the nation by winning a classic All-Ireland final replay against Cork.

If you somehow transported yourself back to that extraordinary September evening and told the gleeful Clare supporters as they left the stadium that they wouldn’t be back at headquarters for another five years, you would have been laughed all the way down Jones Road.

Davy Fitzgerald’s young team – their average age was only 23 with the oldest player just 28 – had made Croker their playground during that wild and wonderful summer. They were certain to be back for more.

Except they never did. Before appearing in the 2017 All-Ireland club final with Ballyea, Tony Kelly was at headquarters and cut a perplexed figure when asked about Clare’s failure to return to the stadium, saying that it was mental to get back there with his small club before he did with the county team.

In all, only three of the Clare team have played at Croker since winning an All-Ireland title — Kelly and Jack Browne in the club final defeat to Cuala in March of last year and Podge Collins, who played there with the footballers in the 2016 All-Ireland quarterfinal defeat to Kerry.

In the intervening period, all of Clare’s Munster rivals have played Championship matches on Dublin’s northside.

Tipperary were there seven times for, Waterford four times, Cork twice and Limerick once.

Clare were mere spectators on every occasion.

In the likes of Collins, Kelly, Conor McGrath and Shane O’Donnell, the Banner seemed to have hurlers born to play on the wide expanses of the national field. But the love affair began long before this Clare side came into existence.

Anthony Daly, the man who lifted Liam MacCarthy in 1995 and ’97, has spoken before of how that team believed Croke Park to be their ‘field.’

In six Championship games between ’95 and ’98, Ger Loughnane’s Clare team were never beaten on the sacred sod. The current generation can say the same — although they have played just three games there, all in 2013.

As every other member of hurling’s elite got a run out in headquarters, Clare never did.

Even when they played Dublin in the League, the game was in Parnell Park.

Between 2014 and 2017, they played 12 Championship matches, not one of them in Croke Park. And their summer never extended beyond July.

It mightn’t this year, either. Galway are imposing opposition and favourites to retain their All-Ireland title. But simply by making the journey back up the Jones Road, the Clare joint-managers of Donal Maloney and Gerry O’Connor can suggest that the season is already a success.

The management team knew their heads were on the block all year with O’Connor saying after they beat Tipperary that if the team hadn’t won that day in Thurles, that would have been it.

Even though the All-Ireland quarter-final was played in front of a paltry crowd devoid of atmosphere in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and the Wexford side looked lethargic and heavy-legged, it was still a significant win for Clare.

They needed it as they had stumbled at the same stage in the previous two years — to Tipperary and Galway.

And given that they won by scoring a late flurry of points when Wexford crept back into the game indicates that there is serious character in this Clare team. John Conlon, O’Donnell and Kelly all scored freely from play in a way that the trio hadn’t done together for some time.

Galway hold all the aces tomorrow evening. They are the standard-bearers and have already had their one spluttering performance of the summer in the drawn encounter with Kilkenny. Their powerful display in that replay signalled that they have got all the dirty petrol out of the tank.

But this already seems like a different Clare team. They have beaten Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick and Wexford in the Championship. Waterford and Tipp have been on the outside looking in as the All-Ireland series kicked into gear. They have addressed their losing streak in the quarter-final and tomorrow will finally get back to Croke Park.

Maloney and O’Connor will need to show they have learnt from previous mistakes. The puck-out strategy of Donal Tuohy will be critical against Galway, as they simply can’t bomb balls down on their half-forwards and expect them to emerge on top against Gearoid McInerney, Padraig Mannion and Adrian Tuohy.

In last year’s Munster final, Clare’s puckout strategy malfunctioned desperately and that led to them being thrown into a quarterfinal against Tipperary.

In this year’s decider, a wonderful first-half display, inspired by Conlon, was erased by the secondhalf no-show.

Clare can’t afford not to show up again. They have been waiting almost five years to return to the stage that seems built for their flamboyant and energetic forwards. Now all they need to do is hurl like it is 2013.