This article is from page 111 of the 2008-07-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 111 JPG
AT half-time in this Cusack Cup final, some of those watching the game on the bank beside the stand retreated towards the dressing rooms to take shelter from the squall. It was there they heard Kilmurry Ibrickane manager Micheal McDermott give vent to his fury.
The louder he roared, the more pro- nounced his Cavan accent became — he didn’t quite invoke the spirit of John Joe or ‘Big’ Tom O’Reilly, PJ Duke or Peter Donohue, but such was the power of his invective that Kilmurry Ibrickane — from captain Martin McMahon down to the very last man out of the dressing room — had a mean look about them in the on the resumption. In between the expletives, McDermott had roared: ‘How badly do you want it lads.” He got his answer as Kilmurry stormed back into contention in the second half, taking the game in extra-time before edging home by two points.
“It was a tremendously exciting game if you were neutral, but quite stressful on the line, especially as the game went into extra-time,” said McDermott afterwards. “We got that
bit of luck in the end, Doonbeg could have won in normal time, but things just went our way in the end and it’s great to win.
“We started very well, something we were determined to do because in recent games we have been slow to start. But we went out of it in the centre-field and the diamond around that area as Frank O’Dea came more and more into the game.
‘In the second half we played much more direct ball into the forward line. Mark McCarthy won some cru- cial ball for us and had a great game in what is his first year on the senior team. He really shone through for us, which was a reward for the effort he has put in 1n training.
“We couldn’t start Johnny Daly, while Noel Downes hadn’t trained for two weeks and Michael Hogan had a hamstring problem. Declan Callinan, Even Talty and Mark Kil- leen were out of the backs, so we had to readjust our team a lot.
“It showed the strength of our panel. Darren Hickey came in for his first game in seven weeks, Vinny Talty came in and did a job. It was a great boost to win it, especially the way in which we stood up physically
to the challenge and that’s why we came out on top.”
The victory was Kilmurry Ibrick- ane’s 18th of the season so far — they won nine on the way to winning the O’Gorman Cup and another nine in the Cusack Cup. Six wins at most and the championship will be theirs.
And, it’s the championship that McDermott and everyone in the barony of Ibrickane is demanding. “The league is over with now — it was great to win it, but the focus has always been the championship,’ said McDermott.
“Our first game is against Kilkee and that is vital. Kilmurry Ibrickane’s record against Kilkee isn’t a good one, so we have to get that monkey off our back. That’s the only game we re thinking of now,’ he added.