This article is from page 47 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 47 JPG
AND so the wheel of hurling fortune has swung around to 70 minutes in Limerick. Ould enemy stuff – Clare versus Tipp in a Munster final. Hard to believe really, because such a pair- ing seemed very unlikely just a year ago.
Tipperary were beaten by Wexford in the All-Ireland quarter-final; Clare were taken down by Limerick at the same stage. Back then you couldn’t say, with hand on hurling heart, that either team had contended.
They just made up the numbers.
What a difference a year has made though. From the ashes of contro- versy Mike McNamara and Liam
Sheedy have worked furiously at their craft — their greatest achieve- ments thus far being to have sent out teams that are marked out by their unity of purpose.
There are no sideshows which over- shadow the real business of playing the game — those fulminous contro- versies like Considine v Fitzgerald, Babs Keating v Cummins, or to a lesser extent Babs Keating v ‘Man Wonder’ himself Eoin Kelly.
Instead, McNamara and Sheedy have moulded teams in their own 1m- age — hardworking and honest, with fitness levels that Waterford, Limer- ick and Cork could not match up to when the heat came on in the final furlongs of games.
And, both managers have served their apprenticeships before land- ing their big jobs. McNamara with every Clare team from under 16 level right up to senior, not to mention stints with both Offaly and Galway. Sheedy with the minors and inter- mediates, plundering All-Irelands in both grades.
It’s definite advantage Tipperary if you re going on the 2008 year so far. Unbeaten in Waterford Crystal and National League competition and winning both. Then their comeback against Cork showed how far the team have travelled in a year.
Last year Tipperary couldn’t close out games when they had Limer- ick on the rack at various stages
of their trilogy. This year they’ve grown stronger as the games have progressed: Kilkenny in the league semi-final, Galway in the final, the aforementioned Cork game.
What of Clare? These few days are the most important of their lives. So far the breezy outlook of everyone involved has been the most striking feature of their season. They’ve been told all along by McNamara that ris- ing to the challenge in Munster was all-important.
They’ve done that and now must close the deal. That brings with it way more pressure. Munster quarter- finals and semi-finals are a lot differ- ent to finals — for one thing the stay- away supporters will have jumped on
the bandwagon by Sunday, packing the Ennis Road to overflow. They’re expecting.
Such expectation has suffocated Clare teams in the past — the chal- lenge for McNamara and his sideline team is to ensure Clare leave it out on the field.
If they do they can win their seventh Munster title; if they don’t a 37th title awaits Tipperary.