This article is from page 45 of the 2013-12-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 45 JPG
AUGUST was the month when Clare’s dreams of capturing an historic All-Ireland double started to gather real momentum.
The Banner’s golden year took flight in Thurles on August 7 when they swept aside Tipperary to win a second successive Munster under 21 title.
Clare’s 1-17 to 2-10 scoreline was built on a solid defensive performance from man of the match, full back David McInerney. The Tulla man was imperious throughout, illuminating his hour with spectacular catches and launched clearances. Tipperary’s much vaunted forward division never got going thanks to dominant displays from Clare’s half and full back lines.
The victory marked the completion of an historic ‘double/double’ for joint manager Gerry O’Connor and Donal Moloney. Having guided Clare to back to back Munster minor championships in 2010 and 2011 the pair followed that achievement with Munster under 21 titles in 2012 and 2013, not to mention and All-Ireland title in 2012.
“I have never seen a bunch of guys to set out a standard in terms of behaviour and in terms of how to work, and anything that strays from that standard, to them is totally unacceptable”, joint manager Donal Moloney told The Clare People afterwards.
Ten days later Clare’s journey to hurling’s summit hit top gear as they produced an outstanding performance to beat Limerick in the All-Ireland senior semi-final.
The brilliance of Tony Kelly, Podge Collins and Colin Ryan inspired Clare to a 1-22 0-18 win over the Munster Champions and prematch favourites.
Captain Patrick Donnellan was hugely influential in a sweeper role that was the platform for Clare’s dominance.
“The way we have to rank this is that Clare have only been in six finals over 120 years and that’s a pretty big achievement whatever happens” said jubilant Clare manager Davy Fitzgerald afterwards.
“I’m so proud of these young lads. They are an example to everyone playing the game because they work so hard and never die,” added Fitzgerald.
“It’s great to be here, great that we played well and great that we have another day to look forward to,” said Patrick Donnellan.
That win sparked a rush for AllIreland final tickets. The hunt began in earnest when clubs across the county received an initial allocation of 9,000 tickets.
The second allocation of tickets to be administered by the Clare County Board via the clubs was predicted to be 3,000, which meant that a total of 12,000 were made available to GAA clubs.
With tickets proving to be scarce many fans took to the internet to source tickets.
Clare fans got the opportunity to meet their heroes when the gates of Cusack Park were thrown open for an open training session.
On the field, Clare kept on winning as the county’s under 21s beat Galway 1-16 0-7 in the All-Ireland semi-final.
Clare blew away the Tribesmen thanks to another dominant performance at full back from David McInerney and a 1-6 haul from corner forward Cathal O’Connell.