This article is from page 93 of the 2009-11-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 93 JPG
THE county final against St Senan’s Kilkee was only a few seconds over and Micheal McDermott was al- ready casting an eye into his crystal ball – rather than dwell on the signifi- cance of back-to-back championship triumphs he preferred to talk more about Munster.
That meant Dromcollogher-Broad- ford – the team that brought the cur- tain crashing down on Kilmurry’s unbeaten year that December 7 day in The Gaelic Grounds.
“Tt will take very little motivation to get our lads ready for a game against Drom-Broadford,” he said.
How right he was, something that was hammered home in decisive fashion over this hour of football.
“Yes they’re worthy Munster cham- pions but we felt that we left it behind us in The Gaelic Grounds last year,” said McDermott seconds after this 0- 11 to O-5 victory.
“We wanted another crack at them and knew all week that there would be no better motivating factor for us than to have them a here in Pairc
Naomh Mhuire.”
Cue Kilmurry’s most impressive championship display since last year’s demolition job on St Senan’s Kilkee in the county semi-final.
“People say that we didn’t play well in the county semi-final, that we didn’t play well in the county final. People can say what they like, but the Monday week after the county final we went out and destroyed a top- quality University of Limerick side.
“That night I said to Gerard (Mc- Carthy) and to Martin (Cahill) that ‘we’re getting right for this game against Drom-Broadford on Sunday week. We knew that this perform- ance was in us — it was a tremendous performance by everyone out there. They all produced.
“It was the best 60 minutes of the year — what better day to do it than a Munster championship game in our home ground against the Munster champions.
“It was a very strong wind and the one thing I told them was not to be thinking that they had to hit score after score quickly. It was a case of concentrating and then whenever the
scoring opportunities came it was a matter of taking them.
‘They took enough of those chanc- es in the first-half to give us a good lead. When we played in the Munster final we didn’t take our chances and that was the difference between the two sides.
“The most important was not to concede a goal in the second-half — we achieved that and the most sat- isfying thing was once we sucked them into a battle we knew we’d be able to turnover ball and get our own chances.”
It means that Kilmurry now go on the road to Stradbally in two weeks time – in what will be a repeat of the 2004 Munster final that went to a re- play in Tipperary Town before Kil- murry won the day.
‘Tough assignment,’ was McDer- mott’s initial reaction. “Waterford club football is very strong. We’re under no illusions as to the task fac- ing us down in Waterford. We’re up there to be knocked after beating the Munster champions. We have two weeks to prepare and try to get to a Munster final.”