This article is from page 91 of the 2009-12-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 91 JPG
EXPERIENCED Kerins O’Rahillys defender Barry O’Shea has played in plenty of big games — All-Ireland senior football finals, Munster decid- ers, National League finals, Sigerson Cup finals and two county senior football championship finals — but Sunday’s Munster senior club final against Kilmurry Ibrickane is prob- ably the most important of them all.
O’Shea, who is playing some of the best football he has played in the last two years when he was plagued with injury, admits that this Munster club final will be the biggest day in his ca- reer to date.
“Tt’s always great when you achieve something big with your club and I would think that if we could beat Kilmurry Ibrickane in Sunday’s fi- nal, that would top anything else that I have achieved so far,’ O’Shea said.
‘IT know we won the county final in 2002 but a Munster final 1s another couple of notches higher again so winning would be massive for eve- ryone involved and the entire Kerins O’Rahillys club.
“Anything you win with the lads you grew up with and _ socialise with beats anything you might have achieved with your county or with your school or college.
‘“That’s why there is such a big buzz
around the Strand Road area at the moment because everyone realises that the club stands on the verge of history, but getting across that win- ning line is not going to be easy.”
O’Shea is quick to dismiss the fa- vourites tag and maintains if any- thing Clare opponents Kilmurry Ibrickane should be favourites.
“TI think that the 4/7 being offered about Kerins O’ Rahillys is a joke and in no way reflects the even nature of the contest that will probably go right
down to the wire,’ O’Shea said.
‘The only reason we are odds-on 1s because we are a Kerry team play- ing a Clare team, so they assume that it’s a similar story to the inter-county scene where Kerry would always be favourites to beat Clare.
“Look at the facts — Kilmurry Ibrickane were in last year’s final and only lost by a point and they are also county champions in Clare.
“We were never in the final and didn’t win a game in Munster until
we beat Clonakilty this year and we did not win a game in our county championship — we qualified via the club championship, so how could you make us favourites.”
O’Shea, who did a superb marking job on Declan Browne in the Mun- ster semi-final, also points to the fact that of all years for O’Rahillys to reach a Munster club final, this is the year when they have haemorrhaged WEN ace
“T can tell you one thing — if there is a god of football there, then he is not from Strand Road,’ O’Shea laughed.
“When you look at the team that finished the last day against Moyle Rovers, we were missing seven from the team that lost last year’s county final in injury time.
‘Just look at the year we have had. We lost the lads (Tommy Walsh and David Moran) to Australia, Brian Moran and his dad have been sick during the year and now Brian is doubtful for the final having popped his elbow in the semi-final.
“Danny O’Sullivan is out with his cruciate, Pat Madden has emigrated and Giles O’Grady had to miss the semi-final and is an injury doubt for the final.
“T think any club that would have to play without that number of qual- ity players would struggle, yet we are still in there and preparing for a
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“I think that it shows the battling qualities and the resolve of the squad to be able to overcome such adversity and we will be giving it our all the jie. ¢ me rh Val
How does O’Shea, who will be lining up with his brother Morgan alongside him, think O’Rahillys will do in the final?
“It’s winter football this time of the year so it will be low scoring and a battle all the way,’ he pointed out.
“We need to hold onto possession more than we did the last day and also make better use of the ball when we have it.
‘“Kilmurry Ibrickane are a strong side with a good record in this com- petition and they will know that they are only 60 minutes away from win- ning a Munster final.
“We will have to play at the top of our game, take all our chances, work hard as a team to back each other up and hope that we get a break on the day.
‘As I said earlier, the gods have not been on our side since last year’s county final almost 12 months to the day so let’s hope we are back in fa- vour. I would take a one point win this minute,” he added.