This article is from page 102 of the 2008-11-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 102 JPG
MARK O’Connell was first out of the Kilmihil dressing room before the start of the game – it was the same when the side returned to the field after half-time.
You could call it the captain’s pro- tocol and prerogative, but there was no custom and practice dictating that he be the first player back in the room NACo) MnO OlomeeeD ONL oe
He was though – maybe it was by chance, or maybe he wanted to be alone with his thoughts for a couple of seconds before the storm descend-
ed on the calm of an empty room.
Once there he talked about the sig- nificance of the victory for Kilmihil, modestly eschewing any reference to his own barnstorming display that made him a shoo-in for man-of-the- match.
“We came back to Kilmihil after the Ballysteen game last Sunday, en- joyed ourselves and then were back training on Tuesday night and were determined to give it areal go against St Finbarr’s,’ he said as the first of the slaps rained down on his back.
‘Anyone who doubts this team got their answer out there today. What
we produced out there shows what this team is capable of. We knew it was going to be a very tough game, but we trained hard during the week and knew that were were going to be able to take them,” he added to roars of approval from the gathering crowds.
“Conditions were hard out there and every point we got out there was im- portant. They few we got before half time gave us a great lift and then we took from there in the second half.
‘“There’s great credit due to all the players. They really showed out there what this means to them. That’s all
of us who started and the lads that came on to play their part.
“They came at us in the second half but our defence held out. I thought we held on to the ball very well at times in the second half. We had to make sure we didn’t concede a goal. That was important as we tried to de- fend our lead.”
By now O’Connell’s fellow players and supporters had packed the dress- ing room to overflow – the celebra- tions that were destined to carry over into O’Connell’s public house called the Fiddle Head and McNamara’s house that gave the late Declan Mc-
Namara to the 1980 county final win- ning team had started already.
However, above the din, O’Connell summoned a few final words to put the scale of his side’s achievement in context.
“We started in early January, so we re coming up to 11 months train- ing and to be in a Munster final is absolutely fantastic.
“We’re 60 minutes away from win- ning a Munster final and it’s a great position to be in. We’re really look- ing forward to it.”
Happy days for football folk in Garett