This article is from page 75 of the 2007-10-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 75 JPG
THE bottom line? Tulla hit harder, scored easier and devoured posses- sion when it mattered.
It was raw, powerful hurling and if this game was ever to develop into an intense battle, it was clear where the advantage would fall.
Crusheen simply lost their way. For three quarters of the game, they played with ferocity but in the end, the wides added up and chipped away at their confidence. By the time Ger- ry O’Grady slotted their first score of the second half, 46 minutes into the game, Crusheen were already look- ing like wolves on the prairie who had lost their scent.
Tulla smelled strengthened.
Sean Torpey gathered a couple of raking balls in front of his goal, Ean- na Torpey sped around the midfield area like a cannonball, Michael Mur- phy broke every ball in his orbit and Mark Quinn was his now familiar self at centre-back, dependable and unflappable.
For a second, it looked like Paddy Meaney was about to crush Tulla’s slender lead but his kick skidded left and wide and Crusheen were left with nothing.
It was another tough dose to swal- low and another painful descent from the climb just as the peak was in sight.
This year they got closer than ever — a Stroke of a hurley — but when, in decades to come, last Sunday after- noon is dusted down and recalled, they will realise that Tulla simply out-fought them in the last quarter.
All year, the champions of 2007 have been strong of body and strong of character. Back in Scariff as the summer was ending, they lost to Smith O’Briens and it hurt. Last
the fear. They
week before the final, when they were asked where was the turning point of the season, a few Tulla men pointed their finger east and highlighted that game.
A couple of hundred people sat in the stands that day, looking on as Tulla struggled with minutes left to salvage something. They failed but since then momentum has been with them. They walked away from Scariff quietly and set about turning things around. One main theory has subsequently surrounded that day, that Jim McInerney, in a stroke of genius, over-trained the team before the game to set up a straight knock- out against Scariff.
But according to the Tulla boys, there were no special preparations against Smith O’Briens. They trained as normal and may have played an extra challenge game earlier in the week, but nothing to put lead in their
legs.
It doesn’t matters now, but the loss against Smith O’Briens and the win against Scariuff put them on the way WOR And on Sunday, in front of thou- sands, they followed through on the pace they had gathered, becoming the only team in the county to win championships in three centuries. History makers now live among the locals on the hill of the apostles.
All year, the approach to the sea- son has contrasted between the two. Crusheen sat down in the winter and mapped out their route. They said a final had to be reached and noth- ing else would matter. They were deliberate and steady in everything. On Sunday, they gathered and went to 11:45am mass together in the vil- lage. They stood together and they focused.
In Tulla, they’ve gone about things
the other way. Took each game as a single battle and didn’t look down the line. Before their games in Cu- sack Park, they travelled separately and met a little over half an hour be- fore each game. It’s worked.
With the drape of darkness sinking in above Ennis on Sunday, as they ac- quainted themselves with the Canon Hamilton for the first time, this band of Tulla men could reflect and take heart that simply and in the most ba- sic tradition of the game, they stood up when it counted.
The game was no classic. At one stage Crusheen averaged a wide eve- ry four minutes but as it played out, strangely and suddenly the quality of hurling hardly seemed to matter.
We expected a good old Western duel, back to back stuff and first to fall wouldn’t get to their feet.
It didn’t play out like that but it did eTocs DOA OTALMAY hs
Take this handful of sketches: It took nine seconds for the first hurley to break, 32 seconds for the game’s first moment on the edge when Alan Brigdale planted the boss of his stick into the gut of Brian Quinn.
Then, 55 seconds later, with just over two minutes on the clock, Quinn had dusted himself down and had the netting billowing.
He picked up the scrappy ball that fell before him, turned and over his Shoulder, lassoed the shotar into the net.
For the rest of half, when they could, Tulla looked to find Quinn with long, high ball and though the full-forward won most of what came his way, he didn’t create another clear-cut goal chance.
But just after his goal, the fuse was lit and we sat back and inhaled and waited for the explosion but the fire began to fizzle out.
Crusheen hit some terrible wides, O’Grady failed to get into the game but Tony Meaney and Paddy Vaughan were moving well in midfield.
If Tulla were to win, it looked like they’d have to score at least another goal to stay in contention. But those Crusheen’s wides just kept mount- ing.
Kieran Brennan bounded onto the field from the bench in the second half and within seconds, he had stretched Tulla’s lead to two. Murphy broke a ball on the half-forward line, Torpey picked it up and passed to Brennan and Tulla were away.
It was a simple, effective move and it summed up the champion’s sea- son.