This article is from page 71 of the 2011-12-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
REGRETS. There are a few, given that Clare’s brave assaults on All-Ireland minor honours came up agonisingly short in 2010 and 2011.
But Tony Kelly doesn’t dwell too long on those regrets as he looks forward with confidence to the under 21 and senior challenges that lie ahead, while always remembering some stirring days in the minor ranks.
“At the beginning if someone had told me that I’d have two Munster medals in two years, I’d have bitten their hand off,” he says.
And, it’s no wonder, for the Ballyea clubman has been Clare’s star per- former over those two years. Midfield on the 2010 Munster winning team, midfield and captain in 2011 as he emulated his clubmate Paul Flanagan who was captain in 2010.
“We set out at the start the year to retain Munster,” he says, “but the aim for the overall year was to go one better than 2010 and try and win the All-Ireland.
“Other teams in Munster were probably thinking that Clare won the Munster final in 2010 and they won’t win another one, but winning it again proved that it wasn’t just a flash in the pan.
“There were about nine of us on the panel from the previous year and management were looking to us to motivate the team this year and help the new lads along – there wasn’t that much extra pressure put on us. We were just told to go out and hurl. We’re just as motivated because we knew that if we came out of Munster we would have a chance of winning the All-Ireland.
“What’s the highlight of the year? It was definitely going down to Thurles and beating Tipperary. They came up to Cusack Park the previous year and were favourites, but we beat them. It was said that it was a once off and that Tipp didn’t take the game seriously – going down to Thurles and beating them was great and it really set us up to retain Munster.”
When the job was done against Waterford, attention then turned to the All-Ireland – time for those regrets again as a great opportunity was lost, agonisingly so at the death of the semi-final.
“We knew that Galway were one of the best teams in Ireland,” says Kelly.
“We knew that whoever won the Clare/Galway match were probably going to go on and win the All-Ireland.
“Being honest, we thought we had the game won when we were three points up. I suppose it was a lack of concentration that cost us in the end with that goal going in, while when it came to extra time they were physically stronger than us. We had no complaints in extra time but that lack of concentration in extra-time got the better of us.”
But with that the regrets about AllIreland opportunities lost are over, all because of what Clare minor hurling’s historic achievements in 2010/11.
“The two years were very successful and contesting an All-Ireland final and semi-final has been a huge achievement as regards Clare hurling. Things are looking good for the future.”
Tony Kelly is that future.