This article is from page 77 of the 2008-01-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 77 JPG
THE rise in stock of St Caimin’s this year has made everyone sit up and take notice. With the restructuring of the Harty Cup in recent years and the reduction in the number of boarding schools, the traditional superpow- ers of the Harty have given way to a new wave of schools eager to take advantage of the changing face of the feyeel ole sisleyee
St Caimin’s demonstrated this new found confidence early in the group stages with victory over perennial Clare representatives St Flannan’s and as the group played out, it be- came apparent that neither Flannan’s nor St Colman’s were going to qual- ify for the latter stages. Confidence is soaring in the Shannon school at the moment as they look forward to Wednesday’s quarter-final against last year’s champions De La Salle and manager Alan Cunningham is the first to compliment his players progression over the last year.
“Things are going great for us at the moment. Last year we lost all our games, some of them not by a whole lot but we lost them and again the whole idea is about progression. The young fellas that we have in the school are getting better by playing Harty hurling. It would have been
much easier option for us to play B hurling, we could have played the B and maybe get to the final every second year. But in terms of the Harty, it’s the premier competition, the standard is way higher and its about preparing lads for the future. We have done extremely well and the lads have been fantastic. At this point we have nothing to lose.” Considering that Caimin’s lost all their games last year, this year’s tunraround has been something of a surprise to followers of the competi- tion but Clare selector Cunningham admits that most of last year’s team are there again this year and that ex-
perience has helped them immense- ly. However, by coming second in the group, it meant that they were always going to draw one of the big guns and unfortunately for the Shannon school, they drew last year’s Harty and Croke Cup champions De La Salle of Waterford who have already added a prestigious Dean Ryan Cup to their trophy cabinet this year.
“ld say we have drawn probably the best team in it but it’s a challenge, a test, an experience and it should bring our lads on. We won’t be found wanting but now is the time to meet the big guns I suppose because if we can’t beat them, we are as well out of
it. But we will give it a cut and see what happens.
“To be honest, I don’t know a whole lot about them really, but likewise for them, they wouldn’t know much about us. Now we have met twice in three years in the Dean Ryan so both schools would be familiar to each other but in terms of the group sys- tem, they weren’t down watching our matches and we weren’t down watch- ing theirs. I do know that they are a serious outfit and the investment they are putting in is phenomenal. They are on a different level to what most other schools are. I mean they are not long back from Newcastle, they went there on a training weekend. You know I’m trying to get a dozen shothars and they are going to New- castle for the weekend. But that’s the level they are at and fair play to them and that’s Waterford hurling trying to come good as well. But again they are red hot favourites and we have nothing to lose. If we win it will be a huge result for us and if we don’t win, it won’t be the end of the world because we have progressed and lads have had a fantastic experience.”
The new nature of the competi- tion means that instead of dwelling on such daunting opposition, Cun- ningham prefers to take the positives out of the situation and sees De La Salle’s success last year as something of an inspiration to his side as that
was their first Harty Cup success in the school’s history.
“We are very fortunate in Caimin’s that we are backboned by the Bridge, Newmarket, Cratloe and Wolfe Tones. In Caimin’s now, we are get- ting young fellas who have been extremely well looked after, well prepared and coached so our job has been made easier and easier. That would have been the difference be- tween ourselves and Flannans this year. If you take the county minor championship, really we would have had the stronger clubs on our side. A couple of years down the road with the Ballyea under 14’s and Crush- een under 14’s, things are going to change but at the moment, outside of Clonlara in the minor, we had the next best three with Newmarket, the Bridge and Cratloe so it’s really not rocket science.”