This article is from page 70 of the 2011-08-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 70 JPG
AFTER the ball game and Niall Romer is gathering up hurleys – as you do, but on this occasion he’d have been forgiven for neglecting this chore in favour of celebrating with those around him.
But no, why be caught up in the fervour of a remarkable victory, when he knew it was going to happen and had taken it as a given – before a ball was pucked, even after a couple of balls were pucked and Galway had two goals up on the board.
“We had great faith in them,” says Romer, “and straight up, I’ll tell you that I had this field booked for training next Wednesday night.
“Ask the groundsman Martin Flanagan. He’ll tell you that – that we had the placed booked because we were very confident of winning this game. We knew we would win this game and that’s the confidence we had in these players to deliver.
“We played against Galway in a challenge match back in June and they scored seven goals against us. That’s why two goals, even coming so early wasn’t going to beat us,” he adds.
With that he drifts away to pick up some more hurleys and a few training cones, before revealing the real secret to Clare’s remarkable comeback from the double whammy of those opening goals from Brian Murphy and Kevin Keehan.
“It’s the character of the lads,” he says. “They have awful character. They’re tough men. They just wouldn’t give up and people don’t realise how good they are.
“Galway could have been further ahead at half-time, but I’m a big believer of giving lads a second chance. We could have made changes, but we didn’t.
“I asked them at half-time, and so did Kevin – we asked them to give it everything and leave it out on the field and walk off htat field with heads held high.
“Those players did that. They did themselves proud. They did Clare hurling proud and they did the county proud in the way they came back to win that game.
“Look at some the performances out there. Padraig Hickey was unbelievable – he didn’t even have to look at the posts. He just had the ability to pop them over. It was great to see Joe O’Connor come on and get a great goal. Niall Gilligan’s leadership. Everyone was brilliant,” says Romer.
It brings him into a familiar parish. Kilkenny in an All-Ireland, as it was when Romer captained the Clare juniors back in 1993 when they scored a famous win in Croke Park.
“It’s onwards and upwards,” he says. “It’s great to be in an All-Ireland. Kilkenny are raging hot favourites, but we’re going up to win. End of story.
“We have that confidence in this team. Kevin Kennedy has a way of working with guys and getting the best out of them. Tommy O’Donoghue is very underrated, so we’re confident. We’re looking forward to it. We can’t wait for it, wherever it’s on.
“As I say, Kilkenny are favourites because they always are, but we don’t mind about that. We’ve come this far and we want to finish it off.” ALL- IRELAND INTERMEDIATE HURLING SEMI- FINAL