I’M GERRY GRATEFUL
O’connor thanks Clare supporters for backing
GERRY O’CONNOR vows that there will be no repeat of last year’s Cork takeover of Thurles.
Clare went down by five points at Semple Stadium when the sides met in the Munster final last July and they clash again at the home of hurling in Sunday’s decider.
After that defeat, several Banner players mentioned how they were taken aback at the low-key reception they received when they ran on the pitch – as opposed to the roar that greeted Cork.
But O’connor, who manages the team alongside Donal Moloney, believes there has been a “reconnection” between players and supporters.
The outpouring of emotion after Clare’s comeback win over Tipperary was quickly followed by an electric atmosphere as the Banner powered to victory over Limerick.
O’connor (right) said: “For whatever reason there has just been a massive reconnection between the team and the supporters – easing the disenchantment of a barren five years since the county’s last All-ireland triumph.
“It’s hugely important because we recognise we are representing the Clare people – and we also reference the fact that over the past five or six weeks we’ve had a lot of tragedies in Clare across all the sporting divides.
“Kilmayley, Ennis Rugby,
Crusheen have all had a lot of tragedy through road or water accidents.
“As a group we felt the county was a little down and there was a responsibility on us to lift it. We felt the only way we could do that was to put in a really passionate and committed performance.”
That came against Tipp, when Clare’s hopes of reaching the provincial decider looked dead, only to be resurrected by Ian Galvin’s goal. O’connor explained: “We needed to show our fans and ourselves as a group and a team how much it mattered to us. “We would feel that incrementally we have been showing how much this matters and how proud we are to represent the people of Clare. That’s being reciprocated because I have never seen or felt emotion on any pitch like we experienced in Thurles. “There were very emotional people, it impacted on the players. “We made a promise then to ourselves that the performance was not going to be a spike – it was a standard we were going to try to maintain for the rest of our season.”