1. Dark moments before this year’s glory
“I doubt myself I’d say most days! Whether it be not collecting the kids in time. Look it, do ye not doubt yourselves at all? You know like you write a piece and say ‘Jaysus, what am I doing this for?’
“We’re human. When you have a bad day, you have to look at yourself and say God this is not working. Look sure we’ve had plenty of dark moments as well. It’s easy talking here when we know we are in a semi-final and we are Leinster champions.
“But there has been plenty of times you’d be driving home saying, ‘Go way back to you and fill porter will ya’. But if you give up, that’s the end of that then. We are only on this planet for so long.
“This time last year I didn’t know if it was worth it for us (management team) on our side of the table and for the players, would a fresh voice be the world of good for them? They wanted us to stay and we in our souls wanted to stay and we are glad we did now.
“In some ways, the long break can be a help. We were out early in July last year, most of them spent a lot of the summer in the States. They were actually mad for road this year. They had their own meeting here in the Castleknock Hotel and decided they were going to buy in 100 per cent. They tore into the winter training.”
Pic: INPHO/Donall Farmer
2. Changing the backroom team for 2013
“When we decided to come back, we felt maybe that we needed to freshen it. Ross (Dunphy) brought a great freshness. MK – Martin Kennedy – was very good, great for a couple of years. And that was a bit of blow when he went to the footballers. But Ross had his own ideas and that really helped.
“Vinny (Teehan) has been outstanding for the Dublin project. So was (John) McEvoy. But we just felt a fresh voice would be good and we took our time. We didn’t ask Shane (Martin) until after Christmas.
“But he’s been great. He’s been a breath of fresh air in terms of enthusiam and wanting to do other stuff. He loves the video work and eating up that side of it. Whereas I’d prefer to be outside with a whistle and stop watch and telling fellas to go faster.”
3. Struggling in the draw against Wexford
“We just try to be as honest. We had a good meeting the night after the first Wexford game in White’s Hotel and we got a room. I just said ‘good thing Michael Carton is a fireman’. We had only the one fireman that night.
“A lot of lads were jumping out of the burning building and the fireman was going in the front door. He went up the field that night and got a point and kept us in it.
“Mark (Schutte) and Trollier (Eamonn Dillon) coming off the bench. Mark set up the goal and Trollier got the goal. Fellas tried to be honest with each other and said, ‘look it, that’s not good enough and can we improve ourselves for next week’. I think we improved a lot more than we got credit for the second night.”
Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
4. Getting confidence right for the lesser lights in hurling
“I’ll tell you a good one I read in some book when it was all over in the early part of the 2000′s. Damien Quigley of Limerick, who I often marked in my early days at corner back and won an All Star in ’94, he would have said in ’95 they took us a bit for granted.
“They beat us in ’96 with late surge. He said he couldn’t believe the difference in the Clare guys, sure it was the same fellas, we probably trained less, we had probably celebrated all winter, a lot longer than we probably should have.
“We lost the match and we were out. I remember him saying he felt there was another All Ireland in Clare because of what he had seen that day.
“Do you know, I often said it going back on the Flannan’s team I expected to beat North Monastery or beat St. Kieran’s, but when I was on the Clare minors I’m not sure I expected to beat the Cork minors. Again, it’s in your head a bit, it’s your own confidence.”
5. How great has the 2013 championship been?
“Ah, great. Obviously our story has been an enjoyable part of it for me. But, even to go along to the games. the drama and everything in every game has been great.
“Speaking as a defender I often like the 0-16 to 0-15 games as opposed to the 4-25 to 4-23′s where everyone says what an epic shoot out. I love the tense dour epic, who’ll wilt first, type of championship match.
“I often said of the two All-Ireland hurling semi-finals in 2005, it was painful to be on the Clare losing manager against Cork that day. Remember Kilkenny and Galway had the massive shoot out the following week.
“I’ve watched both of those games since and I wouldn’t compare the matches even. I think the Clare/Cork match was a massive test of character.”
6. The significance of a provincial title in the modern game
“ I suppose the provincial titles have been a little diluted because of the back door. John Russell used to be centre back when I started playing with Clare, a great leader and captain in my early days.
“He used to say that Len Gaynor would be on about winning the Munster championship and Russell used to say ‘you’d have some job picking the team for the All-Ireland semi-final cause I won’t be around, I’ll be in Doolin’.
“That was the be all and end all. It’s changed in the last few years with the back door, and teams coming through that way like Tipp a few years ago. It’s changed. Players are mad for road and as hungry as ever. They want more out of it.
“But to win the Bob O’Keeffe Cup for winning Leinster was great. We’d mentioned Bob a few times over the five years so it was nice to have him in the dressing room.”
Pic: INPHO/Donall Farmer
