This article is from page 87 of the 2008-05-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 87 JPG
AMONG the joy that rattled among the management and players out on the grass in Cusack Park was a definite feeling that the victory over Donegal and the silverware secured would act as a spring to further suc- cess.
The championship remained in the front of the mind of Clare captain Louise Henchy and manager Deirdre Murphy.
“What we want is the champion- ship,’ said Murphy. We want to get to Croke Park. When we started out
in the league we said we would keep working for the championship and that’s still the aim.”
Henchy, too, was unswerving in her view that greater things could lie in store.
“We want to keep on winning but today was great,’ she said. “We knew Donegal were strong so we had to up it against them. We struggled at times, around the middle especially but the minute we got the ball into our forwards we looked dangerous. We knew if we could keep ball going in we would get scores.”
David Browne is tucked away in a
corner of the field as Henchy is walk- ing up the steps to collect the trophy and emotionally, he says he’s stuck for words to put perspective on the 200
“I’m delighted for the girls because for the past few years, football has been in the doldrums in Clare. Fair play to Deirdre [Murphy]. She came in three years ago and we got on board with her and things have taken off.
“We lifted the siege and a lot of the girls who weren’t there a few years ago have come back and fair play to them and it’s days like this that it’s all about.
“It was a tough game there at the end and it was touch and go for a while. But we wanted to win it. We knew we were getting Division | sta- tus next year but we wanted to go up as champions. This day is great for football in the county and hopefully we can go on from here.”
His fellow selector David O’Brien said Clare recognised early on they would have to work hard to win. “We knew it was going to be a difficult game but when we heard it was on in Cusack Park, that gave us a boost.
“We didn’t give them many chances but we spoke about it all year. Once they have the ball, everybody filters back and that’s how we played. We worked very hard, but the goal is to win the championship.”
The first step has been taken now and the journey continues.