This article is from page 43 of the 2011-10-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 43 JPG
THE PLAYERS come from far and wide back to Quilty for training. Captain Peter O’Dwyer travels back from Athlone, students Niall Hickey and Seamus Murrihy come down from Galway while Martin McMahon makes the long trek from Dublin. And all those miles on the road are wholly necessary considering the immense fight for places in such a large squad that has achieved unprecedented success in recent years.
McMahon was linked with a transfer to Dublin side Oliver Plunketts not so long ago which made sense in geographical terms but the sacrifice to journey down to Quilty from his Dublin base has been made all the more worthwhile as his native side closes in on a third county title in four years.
“You don’t really mind the journey once you are winning. When you are on a winning team like we have been this year with the Cusack and O’Gorman Cups as well as going well in the championship, you don’t mind the travelling. It would be a lot harder to be making the trip down every year if we weren’t getting there so thanks be to God, we are lucky enough to be successful and that we have won a few county titles. But we won’t be taking this one likely because Barefield are going to be a tough game too.”
Kilmurry will point to their vast experience at this level in not only getting to county finals but actually winning them in recent years as the key to success. And after exiting last year’s championship race at the semi-final stage, there is no shortage of appetite either.
“The bit of experience that Kilmurry have had in county finals over the past few years maybe does make it a bit easier going into this game. Last year we were very disappointed not to be back in the final again and maybe the pressure of trying to go for three-in-a-row as well as the long stint of the All-Ireland campaign got to us in the end. But it’s a great feeling to be back in the county final again. It’s where we want to be and hopefully we can drive on and bring back the Jack Daly home again.
“The most important thing that we had to get back this year was our intensity and hunger for it. Maybe last year we still had a h a n g o v e r from the Al l – I r e land final but t h a t w a s still no e x c u s e because at the end of the day in the semi-final, we had chances to put Doonbeg away and we didn’t do it.
“So this year we were determined that every game that we went out to play whether it was a league game or O’Gorman Cup game that we were going to go out and try to win every game as hard as we could. And fingers crossed, we have been lucky to have stayed injury-free and with the squad being fairly big, lads that have hit form have been playing but if you’re not on form, we have been lucky enough to have fellas there to come on and make a difference.”
So as the form player of Kilmurry’s season, how does he rate opponents Doora/Barefield?
“The way we are looking at it is that they are the team that dethroned the champions. It wasn’t Kilmurry Ibrickane that dethroned Doonbeg of their county title, it was Barefield. They went along then and beat a good Wolfe Tones team. We were possibly lucky that when we played Wolfe Tones, there was nothing at stake in the game because whoever won or lost were still going to go through from the group.
“Everyone has been taking about Barefield’s Under 21 winning team of 2008 but back in 2003, there were in the final then as well so everyone remembers the one final that they won but they have been there or thereabouts for a numbers of years and won a minor last year.
“As well as that everyone points to our experience but Doora/Barefield are an experienced team too and have guys that have played for the county team so they won’t shy away from it and will know what to expect. But hopefully the fact that we have been to two county finals in the last three years, maybe that can help us to get over the line.”
Getting over the line once more will make the eventual journey back to Dublin that bit sweeter.