This article is from page 135 of the 2008-09-30 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 135 JPG
CROKE Park is a place for winners — losers tend to blend into the back- ground, forgotten in the euphoria of others, save the post-match ritual of winning captains calling for those three cheers.
Those cheers and the stock in GAA trade of ‘is mor an ondir dom an chorn seo a ghlacadh….’ are two staples of All-Ireland finals days, whatever the code and whatever the grade.
So it was on Sunday afternoon when the Clare ladies inhabited this lonely existence. The week before it was Kerry who lost an All-Ireland they were supposed to win; Clare now knew how their neigbours on
the southern bank of the estuary felt, because this was an All-Ireland they were supposed to win.
But like Kerry, there were no ex- cuses. Only grace and humility in defeat.
“In fairness to Tipperary they de- Served to win,’ said team trainer David O’Brien. “We were talking about it during the week that you might dream all your life of having the game of your life in an All-Ire- land final, but it doesn’t usually hap- pen. World records aren’t usually broken in Olympic finals.
“But look at Tipperary. In fairness to them, probably eight, nine or ten players had the games of their life. We didn’t have anyone who could
come off the field and say that ‘that was the best game I ever played’.
“Things didn’t happen for us and a lot of breaks went against us, but Tip- perary still deserved to win. We’re not going to say that this went against us, or that went against us. The team that deserved to win won it — that’s being totally honest about it.”
There was nothing else that needed to be said. This was Clare’s darkest hour, but they have to look to the dawn and come back.
And, like Kerry they will be back.