OLD FRIENDS REUNITED AS DAVY’S PLAN LIFTS ’BRIDGE TO TITLE
“SHOULD have been done years ago, your own ego doesn’t really matter,” smiled Tim Crowe in the dressing-room tunnel, his reconciliation with Davy Fitzgerald having just delivered the Canon Hamilton Cup back to Sixmilebridge.
An old row left them silently distant for years, these neighbours and old comrades trapped by the remnants of enmity long since parched of significance to anyone around them. It was January when club chairman, Paddy Meehan, got thinking it might be time for a handshake.
They’d nobody to take the senior hurlers and it just seemed irrational not to at least try tapping into two of the ’Bridge’s brightest minds.
For both men, the proposal took mere seconds of consideration before the absurdity of their unease with one another was called into colour.
And so that unlikely alliance delivered their fourteenth Clare senior hurling crown in Cusack Park yesterday, the ’Bridge gunning confidently away from a Cratloe side starkly handicapped by an ankle injury clearly curtailing captain Conor McGrath, and the struggles of Podge Collins to escape Barry Fitzpatrick’s brilliantly adhesive attention.
There was much more to it than that mind, the ’Bridge easing into gear after a slow start to completely dominate this game both tactically and physically against opponents who’d been in spectacular, free-scoring mode against Crusheen two weeks earlier.
Both sides deploying a sweeper, the ’Bridge’s use of Caimin Morey in that role proved the more accomplished, particularly with Noel Purcell and Brian Carey outstanding in their policing of Cratloe’s inside attackers, Rian Considine and Cathal McInerney.
Regularity
It meant Cratloe could never quite threaten Derek Fahy’s goal with any regularity albeit the outstanding Diarmuid Ryan did fizz a blistering 52nd-minute shot just wide after a fine run and offload by Collins. A goal then would have narrowed the margin to two points. Without it, Cratloe’s day was, effectively, done. They’d been outsmarted and outplayed throughout, the likes of Jamie Shanahan, Cathal Malone and Brian Corry always carrying the threat to a Cratloe defence anchored by one of Crowe’s sonsin-law, Mike Hawes. The tenor of the ’Bridge’s challenge was set from first whistle, Paudie Fitzpatrick making a brilliant block on McGrath by the toes of the stand. McGrath actually started brightly, but his effectiveness waned after going over on that ankle and he’d been re-sited to corner-forward before being hauled ashore, in clear discomfort, with just under ten minutes remaining.
Without their captain firing, Cratloe were always caught in that spider’s web set by the opposition’s coach.
“I think it’s down to Davy,” said the Sixmilebridge manager. “Tactically, he devised a plan that would beat Cratloe. We were here two weeks ago in the semi-final and after 20 minutes he said, ‘I’ve made up my mind!’
“We met last night, we went through it and I left that changing room very content. You saw today the fruition of his superb coaching and tactical nuance in hurling. Look, we should never fall out over hurling. It’s just too childish.
“But sometimes you get sucked into something that you imagine is bigger than it is.”
After a sluggish start that left them trailing 0-2 to 0-6 inside 11 minutes, the ’Bridge took complete control, reaching the interval two points up and never subsequently looking like surrendering that authority.
Between the eleventh and 22nd minutes, they outscored Cratloe 0-7 to 0-1, the game’s decisive stretch.
The ’Bridge have now conceded just a solitary goal in five championship outings, Fitzgerald’s stamp written all over that defensive stability.
This victory, their fourth of the decade, pitches them into Munster Club battle against six-in-a-row Waterford champions Ballygunner three weeks from now.
For Fitzgerald, it thus caps a momentous year in coaching, during which he also guided Wexford to their first Leinster senior title since ’04.
“It’s one of the best things I’ve ever done, coming back and getting involved with Tim,” said Fitzgerald after.
“Things don’t always go right and it’s nice, down the road, to put it right. Maybe that’s what life is about.
“You are born in one place, you grow up in one place. Your club is extra special. This means the world to me.”
SCORERS – Sixmilebridge: A Morey 0-8 (7f); C Malone 0-4; J Shanahan, C Deasy, B Corry 0-2 each; B Fitzpatrick, S Golden, J Loughnane 0-1 each. Cratloe: S Gleeson 0-5 (3f); D Ryan 0-3; R Considine, C McInerney 0-2 each; C McGrath, E Boyce, B Connors (f) 0-1 each.
SIXMILEBRIDGE – D Fahy; B Carey, B Fitzpatrick, N Purcell; S Morey, C Morey, E McInerney; S Golden, J Loughnane; J Shanahan, P Fitzpatrick, P Mulready; C Malone, A Morey, B Corry. Subs: C Deasy for Loughnane (h-t), A Mulready for Corry (59), C Lynch for McInerney (60), N Gilligan for Shanahan (60), K Lynch for A Morey (60).
CRATLOE – G Ryan; O Murphy, M Hawes, S O’Leary; D Browne, L Markham, D Ryan; C McGrath, E Boyce; S Collins, R Considine, S Gleeson; B Connors, C McInerney, P Collins.
Subs: S Chaplin for Connors (h-t), D Collins for S Collins (39), J McInerney for McGrath (51).
REF – N Malone (Éire Óg)