TEN YEARS AGO the Cratloe footballers appeared on the cusp of a momentous comeback at the Gaelic Grounds.
Facing a Dr Crokes team who were in their pomp in mastering the Munster club game, they had belied both their pre-match underdogs tag, and the gravity of the situation they faced at the interval of that provincial decider.
A seven-point deficit, 0-10 to 0-3, was chipped away at as that second half unfolded. Cathal McInerney’s attacking tour de force appeared to have been crowned with the 55th minute point that edged Cratloe ahead of their illustrious Killarney opponents.
With Colm Cooper dismissed after a second yellow and the momentum having been wrestled from them, Dr Crokes faced serious jeopardy but their 14 men somehow dug out the last two points of the game from Daithi Casey and Johnny Buckley to scrape over the line by one.
A decade on it still has the sense of an opportunity missed for the Clare champions. They were back in the fold the following year but lost a semi-final to The Nire of Waterford. That 2014 campaign was a dual odyssey as they juggled football and hurling commitments. They reached the hurling final where they engaged in an extra-time epic before losing to Kilmallock.
It had been a pulsating couple of seasons, collecting Clare senior titles and embarking on Munster journeys, but then those good times ground to a halt.
It’s why a return this weekend to movement outside their local environs is something they will cherish in their pocket of south-east Clare.
And remarkably a long-serving group continue to underpin their challenge.
From the Cratloe outfit that contested that 2013 Munster final, six players started in last month’s Clare football final victory over St Breckan’s – Padraigh Chaplin, Liam Markham, Enda Boyce, Sean and Podge Collins, and Cathal McInerney. A seventh, Conor Ryan, came on as a half-time substitute recently to partner his brother Diarmuid, the current Clare hurler.
The elder Ryan’s return to top-level club football is a heartwarming tale after he was forced out of playing at the age of 26 due to an issue with his pituitary gland that severely affected his energy levels. It marked an abrupt end to a career that saw him reach the peak in 2013 in a collective sense with Clare’s Liam MacCarthy Cup triumph and on an individual basis with an All-Star award.
Their collective input can be traced back further. Markham, the Collins brothers, Ryan and McInerney all played as teenagers in the Cratloe side that contested the 2009 Munster intermediate football final, while Chaplin was also involved then. They were felled on that occasion by Spa, another Killarney club. It had been a season that was a template for handling dual responsibilities, making a major breakthrough with the club’s maiden senior hurling title win in Clare and pushing Ballygunner to the wire in a Munster semi-final.
Across that 2009-14 spell, Cratloe’s profile exploded with the feats of their teams on the club fields of Clare and also the achievements of their players on a wider stage. Ryan, Podge Collins and Conor McGrath starred in Clare’s 2013 hurling glory, while McInerney, Markham and Sean Collins were members of the wider squad. That same year Boyce tasted All-Ireland winning success with the Clare U21s, hurling alongside the younger Collins.
Cratloe did not exactly disappear from view after that 2014 season. They just couldn’t manage to get their hands on the Jack Daly Cup in Clare for football exploits or the hurling equivalent, the Canon Markham Cup.
In football they drew the county final in 2016 but were soundly beaten by 13 points in the replay against Kilmurry-Ibrickane. The Quilty club held them off in the 2020 final as well, 1-12 to 0-12, and notably defeated them in three other knockout games, the semi-finals of 2017 and 2019, and last year’s quarter-final. Throw in another semi-final loss in 2018 to St Joseph’s to heap on the pain. The Miltown Malbay club carved up the six titles between 2015 and 2020 with Kilmurry-Ibrickane, before Éire Óg Ennis carried off the last two championships.
Cratloe were forced to look on in football at other victors, while also left to stew over hurling final losses in 2018 and 2019 at the respective hands of the dominant forces of Ballyea and Sixmilebridge.
That backdrop makes this year’s victory in Clare all the more impressive. They prevailed by a point in the quarter-final against Kilmurry-Ibrickane and then saw off the title holders Éire Óg in a penalty shootout in the semi-final, McInerney notching equalising points at the close of both normal time and extra time.
After those displays of grit and resilience, Cratloe completed the task they had set themselves in the county final. Just like that herculean showing that almost landed the spoils against Dr Crokes, McInerney again pointed the way to swing over scores with his classy kicking style. The return of 1-6 set him apart.
Cratloe’s older brigade are still going on the path set out for them in football by current boss Colm Collins, father of Podge, Sean and David, and in hurling by Joe McGrath, father of Conor.
Success arrived in a constant flow in the early part of their career, now they have all pushed past the 30-year mark and continue to endure.
They are back on the Munster club trail for a quarter-final on Sunday.
A long trek to West Cork awaits, over 170km of road to be travelled to the home of Castlehaven, themselves back in the provincial limelight after a ten-year absence.
A new journey awaits.
