BANNER EYE
Clare 3-16 Kilkenny 1-20 ALLIANZ HL DIV FINAL O’Donnell would swap League glory for Championship win over Treaty
TOO STRONG:
Galway’s Paul Conroy with DJ O’Flaherty and Daniel Clarke of London
SILVERWARE is a rare commodity for Clare but returning hero Shane O’Donnell insists that a win over Limerick will be a far bigger prize than just their fifth ever League title.
Clare last won the League in 2016 and while an eight-year trophy drought is not especially lengthy in the context of their history, it felt as if it was given how competitive they have been in recent years without winning the biggest games having lost four Munster finals and three All-Ireland semi-finals, one of them after a replay.
Leading by seven points at one stage in the second half on Saturday only to be left hanging on as Kilkenny charged at them late on and even missed a penalty, a defeat in those circumstances would have felt especially damaging coming into the crunch Munster Championship opener when the five-in-a-row chasers come to Ennis on April 21.
“Yeah, I think it’s important but I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on it to be honest with you,” said O’Donnell, who came off the bench at half-time.
Talked
“We’ve kind of talked about it as well, if we looked back to 2016, the last time that Clare won the League, and then we went out in the first round of the Championship and we lost.
“I think anyone in a county set up at the moment would take that swap, losing the League final and then winning the first round of the Championship.
“So if that happens in two weeks nobody’s going to be remembering that we won the League and patting us on the back, so I think we need to keep it in context.”
But his manager, Brian Lohan, was, uncharacteristically, more triumphant after finally crossing the threshold in his fifth season in the job.
“It’s massive for us,” he said. “The group works really hard and you do want to get some reward for your effort. It was just massive for us, particularly with our results against Kilkenny over the last couple of years.
“We’ve had to deal with a lot of disappointment from Kilkenny, so we were very focused. The players have been working really hard for the last while and sometimes you get reward for your work and sometimes you don’t. We got that little bit of reward today.
“You can’t beat winning. It’s an old saying but it’s a true saying. It’s great for the group, it’s great for the county, it’s great for hurling within the county. We’ve put down a really good week.
“Our minors did very well on Thursday night, our under-20s did brilliant [Friday night], and the pressure was there for the seniors to do something tonight.
Burst
“Thankfully our seniors did do something, so we’re delighted with our group and delighted with the work they put in.”
Ultimately, it was a scoring burst either side of half-time that won the game for Clare as with Kilkenny having been in the ascendancy in the first half, though wasteful with 11 missed shots, 1-2 from Aidan McCarthy before the break saw Clare lead 1-8 to 0-9 at half-time.
O’Donnell, making his first League appearance in three years, played a neat one-two with David Reidy less than a minute into the second half en route to David Fitzgerald hitting Clare’s second goal.
“You wouldn’t dream of a better touch, someone just literally hands it to you, they take it off you, do all the leg work and it ends up in the net,” said O’Donell. “It really did settle me.
“You’re kind of thinking you do want to make some impact when you come on and without much effort from me, it had a big impact for the game so yeah, it was a nice way to start the second half.”
Wide
Typically, Kilkenny never gave in. Even when McCarthy batted in Clare’s third goal as Fitzgerald turned provider to put them seven points up with 16 minutes remaining, a score that looked to