Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
Clare bodies were in a bad way, it took its toll
O’CONNOR RECALLS SCEN E AFTER EPIC LIMERICK CLASH
PATRICK O’Connor recalls the Tuesday night at Clare training after last year’s Munster hurling final — a ferocious epic for the ages which they came out on the wrong side of.
The 2013 All-Ireland winner was sidelined with a ruptured cruciate ligament — sustained in May 2021 — which his surgeon at the time likened to his knee being“caught in a lawnmower.”
Two days previously, Limerick and Clare had fought out a battle many observers felt was more intense than anything they’d ever seen on a hurling field.
Tony Kelly’s outrageous sideline cut would have been a fitting winner but that merely sent a pulsating encounter to extra-time as Limerick dug in hard and powered home in the end.
The sides had also drawn in the Munster group stages, but from that provincial final their seasons went off on very different trajectories.
Limerick went on to land an All-Ireland three-in-arow as Clare stumbled past Wexford before being obliterated by Kilkenny in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Mentally and physically, a gruelling Munster campaign appeared to take a toll.
“God, lads’ bodies were in a bad, bad way,” recalls O’Connor (32) of that Tuesday evening following the Munster final.
Everyone
“Now having said that, everyone was able to get up and train.
“There are so many times you can go to the well.
“If you had asked Limerick to go out two weekends after that, they would have struggled too.
“Definitely, they (Clare) left an awful lot in Thurles that day and to come up with nothing like, was a sickener.
“There was that stuff with Peter Duggan and Rory Hayes — the suspensions. They ultimately got off.
“When you are in camp and this is going on, you are doing everything to convince yourself this isn’t sucking energy out of it.
“Ultimately, when it’s all over the national media, you put a shell up around yourself, but that does take energy out of the group, the stuff that’s going on.”
Tubber man O’Connor was hoarse from roaring the team on from the stands at Thurles that Sunday, as they went in search of a first Munster title since 1998.
Instead, they left emptyhanded, with a third provincial decider defeat in six years.
“You would have loved to be able to say you played that day,” says O’Connor. “I am jealous of the lads that got to play.
“But the simple fact is I wasn’t able. I faced that off in my mind.
“My body wasn’t in a position to play. What can you do really?
“It looked like Clare might get up the Semple steps.
“I would have been so, so happy for these guys that I soldiered with for a long number of years. It’s the medal that has eluded a lot of them. They have a League and an All-Ireland. They (Munster medals) are hard come by.
“I would have been so happy if it was to be Tony (Kelly) going up the steps. Alas, it wasn’t to be.”
O’Connor rated the game “an absolutely incredible spectacle.”
He continues: “I don’t know if the weather on the day added to it or took away from it.
“It probably led to balls being spilled and mistakes when possibly otherwise there wouldn’t have been.
Sustain
“Hats off to both sets of players. Amateur players, but amateurs in all but name at this stage, to be able to sustain that.
“The fitness level of them. There’s GPS data but there is no metric to say how much Limerick wanted to beat Clare or how much Clare wanted to beat Limerick.
“There was an awful lot of that in it too and lads were willing to go an extra mile to get one over on their old rivals.”
O’Connor reckons the Wexford game a fortnight later, where Clare came good in the last 10 minutes, left a mark when they faced Kilkenny.
“It probably ultimately sucked even more energy out of what was already probably a tank that was running on empty,”he says.
“You are talking about the players that stood up (Wexford game), probably some of the best players Clare have ever produced.
“David McInerney, Shane O’Donnell, John Conlon, Tony Kelly. These are lads who are tried and tested and you would back them to stand up.
Team
“The Kilkenny game was a complete disaster. There’s no point saying otherwise.
“But at the same time everyone could see that wasn’t the Clare team that ultimately got to Croke Park.
“It was just a bad, bad day. Losing John (Conlon), and last year there was probably a lack of depth in areas due to a couple of guys being injured. Inexperience in certain positions.
“I think Brian (Lohan), in fairness to him, he has cast the net really wide. There is not a club game in Clare — senior, junior or intermediate — that he hasn’t his eyes on in some way, shape or form.
“He has built a serious panel and from what I can gather, they have a nice bank of work done.
“It’s exactly where you want to be. Guys are absolutely chomping at the bit to make the 15 and those that are on it are watching their back to make sure they
are on the 26.
“It’s a brilliant place to be and Brian is rewarding form and effort early season. He is giving lads a go”
Clare’s impressive consistency in topping the Munster round robin group with three wins and a draw from a position of being favourites to miss out on the All-Ireland series stood out a mile last year.
Encounter
It suggested they’d taken massive strides in Lohan’s third year — the first without Covid.
That’s why tonight’s encounter at the Gaelic Grounds has taken on far more significance than a regular match in a muchmaligned League.
“Limerick have a huge following but I think the Clare crowd have come in behind this Clare team,” says O’Connor.
“They really like what they see and obviously Brian is such a figure in Clare.
“If he doesn’t think a guy is contributing to the team, he will move them on, which really does keep guys on their toes. The more established players like that kind of cut throat environment.
Distant
“Brian has this persona of being distant, rules with an iron fist, but I’d be at pains to stress that he is not like that at all. He is a very approachable, very nice guy — very funny. He can have the dressing room in stitches too.
“Those kinds of fellas when they do make a joke it is so much funnier. And he has a really good management team in around him.”
Tonight won’t be a time for joking though.
“I don’t honestly think a League title is that important,”says O’Connor.
“But you will pin certain matches for the League and I certainly think Saturday is going to be one of them that Brian will be looking at.
“I don’t know could you call it much of a rivalry lately. Limerick have had the upper hand for the last while.
“Knowing the lads who are in that (Clare) dressing room I tell you they would like nothing more than to get one over them on Saturday.”
‘I don’t know could you call it much of a rivalry lately’