*Jerry O’Connor has been a leading light in Clooney/Quin’s run. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
IT’S been quite the turnaround from Clooney/Quin who have gone from contesting the relegation semi-final of the TUS Clare SHC twelve months ago to coming within sixty minutes of a county final appearance.
The Clare Echo’s online coverage of the Clare SHC is with thanks to The Temple Gate Hotel.
Reaching a first semi-final since 2017 “is a great position to be in,” Clooney/Quin manager Fergal Lynch acknowledged. Indeed he was captain of their side eight years ago when they went on to face Sixmilebridge in the county final, losing out following a replay in their first final since 1944.
On Sunday they face Ballyea in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chíosóg on what is exactly twelve months to the weekend since they overcame O’Callaghans Mills 3-18 1-18 in the relegation semi-finals.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Fergal recalled, “Last year was a very difficult year. Off the back of Clare winning the All-Ireland we I suppose gained a couple of guys with quite serious injuries, we went out the first day against Éire Óg and acquitted ourselves well, we only lost by a point with a skeleton team, it snowballed from there and we couldn’t get a run at it but that is the how the thing fares out, Clare’s win was our loss in terms of losing those players but we knew if we worked hard early in the year with our strength and conditioning with our younger guys after winning the minor last year that we would have a stronger panel. We worked hard with them in the Cup, we used the Cup for what it was, it was a great benefit to see the players, give them a good chance and blood them against real strong teams”.
Unbeaten in all their games to date, they drew with Corofin in the third round of the group stages, a game that Lynch said they used to try “a couple of new guys that day to see how they would fare out and what our cavalry was like, we know we’ve a great group of 28 or 29 guys”.
He was not getting overly excited with their nine-point quarter-final win which also saw them dethrone Feakle as county champions. “That was just a fixture of a quarter-final which we were aiming to win and we’re moving onto the next phase now is the most important thing”. He felt the game showcased, “it’s nearly harder to play with the wind in Cusack Park, it is easier to play against it”.
Workrate shown by Clooney/Quin’s hurlers has been pleasing, the 2013 All-Ireland winner said. “The workrate from our forwards in particular was pleasing, we pride ourselves on hitting the metrics of workrate and the lads do that and do it every day they go out, once they acquitted themselves in that respect we always knew we were going to be in a good foothold to try win the game. We’ve great leaders on the team, Cillian (Duggan) in goals wouldn’t be a natural goalkeeper but has really worked hard on his game and has proven to be a good one at the moment. John Conneally has been exceptional this year in championship for us, Conor Grogan has been another star player, we’ve Ryan, Jack, Jerry and Peter with leaders everywhere on the team”.
