This article is from page 85 of the 2007-11-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 85 JPG
THERE are always uncertainties when facing into a Munster cam- paign. The fear of the unknown and the precarious history of Clare football clubs in Munster contrib- ute to this feeling but this year, O’Callaghan’s Mills had an added point to prove. A year previous, they had qualified for the Munster junior quarter-final by virtue of the fact that Clare champions Kilmurry/Ibrickane had a senior team but the East Clare side went down disappointingly 0-8 to 0-3 to Cork side Adrigole.
This time the Mills were backed by an impressive run in the Clare junior A championship but after a five week absense since the county final against Kildysart, manager Mike O’Brien knew that they had would have to re- produce their championship winning form if they were to have a chance on Sunday.
“We are really delighted with the win. It was definitely a tricky one because we had to go down to their backyard and they had just won their county final last week while we hadn’t a competitive game in five weeks. So we didn’t really know how good or sharp we would be but it all worked out for us in the end. We had a great start and from there we controlled
the whole way through really.” Challenge matches against interme- diate champions Ballyvaughan and Galway side Gort certainly helped their sharpness as they hit the ground running from the opening whistle and opened up a Seven point lead. “The good start put any doubts to sleep really” admitted O’Brien “but again, going down we were confident that we would do it. Eoin Pewter’s goal after 3 minutes gave us a great start. Then we got a few points to go 1-4 to nothing up and it really settled iS Leading by 1-5 to O-2 points at the break, the Mills knew that all they had to do was continue playing to their strengths and frustrate their Waterford opposition but things be- gan to go against them as they con- ceeded a dubious second half penalty which was followed soon after by the sending off of Steve Donnellan. “They were two decisions which were crucial to the game in one sense. The penalty we felt wasn’t jus- tified at all. Their man even said it was no penalty but you have to live with those things and get on with it. Immediately after it, we went a man down when one of our lads got a straight red so we had to regroup, we got behind it and we kept them to a point after that before we got three
points ourselves to finally win out.
“Our fitness really told at the end. We had a few physical sessions done over the past few weeks with Ger Keane and he had them in tip-top shape going into it and that fitness really told in the end.”
Now O’Callaghan’s Mills find themselves in the unique position of being only 60 minutes away from a Munster junior final when they face Tipperary side Moycarkey-Borris in the semi-final in two weeks time. And with the added bonus of home advantage, the East Clare side are more than capable of achieving that momentus feat.
“It is a great opportunity to get to a Munster final.” stressed O’Brien. “It’s something that a Mills team has never done in the past and I suppose very few teams from the east have done it in football, if any so it’s a great opportunity to create history. It’s ahome game so we will look for- ward to it with good hope anyway.”
The rise of East Clare is confirmed with Clare’s only remaining repre- sentatives all coming from the east. Tulla and Clonlara in a final and the Mills flying the football flag for Clare in the junior semi-final. Vive la revolution.