*Martin Donnelly presents the top scorer award to Cathal McInerney. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
AFTER THE PAIN of losing their last six senior finals with football and hurling combined, Cathal McInerney made sure to enjoy Cratloe’s turn in fortunes.
Paving the way in their success was the full forward who finished the hour with 1-6 to his name, ensuring he was awarded the MD MyClubShop.ie / The Clare Echo top scorer of the championship.
If that wasn’t enough, Cathal also walked away with the man of the match award while also holding his two sons in both arms.
Getting over the line to win their third Clare SFC was a relief for Cathal given their shortcomings in recent finals. “We’ve been here before but it’s a long time ago, we’ve had a lot of heartbreak, we’ve lost so many finals that I’ve lost count, this is excellent, absolutely brilliant, I can’t really describe it, we were hanging on but we saw it out thanks God”.
Their experience of the big day was a telling factor in the result as they held off a St Breckan’s side lining out in their first senior final since 1996. “It was their first final in a long time, they’ve some excellent young lads and we knew that coming in, we spoke about it and we spoke about our experience, we had to be patient on the ball and we knew how they would set up, they go at pace when they do turn you over so it was key to try keep that ball, sometimes we gave it away and they punished us when we did, they’ve excellent forwards like Jamie Stack who is a super player who you can’t give space to and Joe McGann, they are two vital cogs in their wheel so we were conscious of that”.
Reflecting on his forty third minute goal after he lobbed Mark O’Donnell, the secondary school teacher stated, “It was fortuitous in the sense of how it happened, I feel sorry for the goalkeeper to be honest, he is a good goalie, it was just one of those instances and it happens to the best players which we’ve seen at inter-county level on All-Ireland final day, he will come back stronger for it but it is just unfortunate for him”.
On his approach in the inside line, he said, “I was never blessed with pace so I rely on my movement, trying to create space, create pockets and then I was found by the lads outside a good few times so you’re obviously dependent on quality ball coming in”.
Nine years after winning their last football championship, he felt they got the rub of the green to get their hands back on the Jack Daly. “You need a lot of luck to win any championship, we had luck in the semi-final, Conal’s penalty hit both posts and off the back of the goalkeeper. The goal was a bit of luck today but you need luck to win a championship”.
