This article is from page 84 of the 2009-07-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 84 JPG
DAVID Browne can trace a series of events that provided him with the right amount of optimism for this year’s crop of minor ladies.
The first arrived in 2007 in Balli- nasloe. Browne was involved with the Clare Under 16s that day and watched from the sideline as his side captured the All Ireland B title. Af- ter the game, he lingered for a while to catch some of the game that fol- lowed, the A clash between Cork and DYeyterex0
The opening 30 minutes of that game provided enough evidence for Browne to conclude that his group of players could compete in the top tier two years down the line.
So it has come to pass but even be- fore this, Browne was sure the graph was moving in the right direction. The win over Kerry in Kilrush at the beginning of the summer, he says, was proof that his side could turn po- tential into something tangible.
“That win gave us a lot of confi- dence, particularly coming after we were beaten by Cork,” he says. ““When we played Cork once more, we had that little bit extra. We played them down on their own home turf and though they got off to a good start, we dug in and found our rhythm.”
That good start for Cork came in the form of a flurry 1-2 early in the game but the response from Clare points to a team that has a strong backbone.
‘There was only one point between us at half time and I knew by the way the girls took to the field for the sec- ond half that they weren’t going to be beaten. They came back out before
Cro d ear TilC Meet AW KomRN EDU eri rcamyalinl purpose, they were talking to one an- other and you could sense that they were going to dig in and carve out a Then E Dn
Clare controlled the tempo of the game and at one stage led by seven points. Against a strong Cork side, though, they couldn’t allow them- selves to switch off and eventually, Cork did claw themselves back into the game. Still, Clare hung on and kept their heads to come away with a one-point win.
“In our last outing against Dublin, you could see again that we were strong. They went ahead on us by four points but we didn’t panic. When N1-
amh O’Dea blasted home a goal from 20 yards that was the turning point. The game was there for us once more in the second half and we went out and took the opportunities.”
Some of that steel, Browne says, is due to the fact that a number of the panel were involved with the cam- ogie minors who were defeated in the final last year.
‘They have shown great resilience and have bounced back brilliantly. We’ve seven girls involved with the camogie set-up this year and we en- courage them to get involved in both codes. They’ve always been available to us when we’ve needed them.”
Browne is now looking to an im-
portant week in terms of the future for the GAA in Clare.
‘“There’s a big game on Wednesday with the Clare Under 21s involved in the hurling Munster final. ’’d wish all the lads the best of luck in that and I’d hope that a win would set us up for another positive result. It would be great to get the people of Clare behind both sides.”