*Tomás Kelly with Paul Rodgers. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
REACHING an All-Ireland final was where Clare’s U20 hurlers have been striving to get to since the current management were appointed in December 2021.
Tomás Kelly has been a selector and coach with Terence Fahy’s side over the past five seasons, their highpoint arrived in the Gaelic Grounds a fortnight ago when winning a first Munster championship at the grade in eleven years but now with an All-Ireland title in sight, they are determined to grab the opportunity.
Though Clare is a proud hurling county, annual appearances in All-Ireland finals is far from a guarantee, Tomás noted. “We’re not in this situation too often. It is about treating it like any other game, we’ll approach the same way we’ve done for all championship and challenge games, we’ll be thorough, we will prepare well, train well, rest well, we’ll have our analysis done, the key thing is not to big it up too much, the players take it all in their stride and it will just be another game of hurling for them, it is one to be savoured, one to be enjoyed and ultimately we want to win and we want to do everything we can to win”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Tomás outlined, “It is great, if we were offered this at the start of the year when we started at the end of November I would have bitten your hand off for it, it is a privilege to be in this position and preparing for a Clare team in an All-Ireland final that have shown a lot of good traits that you would want in any Clare team, we are delighted and we’re under no illusions about the challenge facing us”.
Clare had been in three of the last four Munster finals before making the breakthrough following a penalty shootout against Tipperary. There are very fine margins between success and defeat, Kelly said. “It boils down at the end of the day to a little bit of luck. Going back to the last two Munster finals, going down the stretch with Cork and Tipp, it can be like a ball bobbling around the field and if it goes to a Cork fella it is a point for Cork and if it goes to a Clare lad it is a point for Clare, it was coming down the home straight and having a little bit of luck going your way, we had that luck, we had it in Thurles in the third round and we had a little bit of luck in the Munster final, you will win nothing with just luck, you need everything going your way. They have shown the capacity to fight, Clare fans will respond to a team that is willing to fight, we’ve got great support from the public but the public might have rowed in behind us because they see the lads are willing to fight when the going gets tough”.
As the campaign has progressed, Clare have improved, aided by getting to play in big stadiums, the Irish and PE teacher at St Joseph’s Tulla felt. “It has been like two different championships when you consider the weather and the venue, we’re in a tighter pitch and colder weather where the ball doesn’t travel as much, it suits defences and going back to the first day in the Bridge that Waterford defence are one of the best sets of backs in the competition and they proved that because all their games were low scoring, the only thing they didn’t do was put the scores on the board at the other end, we really had to fight and scrap, show a lot of fight and character when we weren’t playing well if we call a spade a spade and we weren’t expressing ourselves but we felt if we could get over the line and get the two wins in the Bridge then we might have a little bit more capacity when it came to the bigger stadiums, we were delighted to get those two wins on the board and felt it would be like a new championship opening up for us then”.
It can be difficult to foster a level of fight and spirit within a team but it can only grow through hard work, the Inagh native explained. “It is about working on the basics, coming to training every night, being willing to put your shoulder to the wheel even when it is a wet mucky night in Caherlohan, being able to rock it out every night, we’ve lads that will turn up every night, they won’t open their mouths and they will rock it out, we really have a great set of players who are willing to do that”.
Along the way, Tomás and his colleagues in the management have not held back from shaking up their first fifteen. “We have the luxury of having a great panel of players, it is easy to make changes when you’re looking around and you see what is there. To go back to the last day, we used twenty two players in the final, the calibre of the player who can’t make the twenty four all the way down to number thirty eighth, there is a serious calibre of player, you go out and play a training game and everyone is sticking their hand up, everyone is more than good enough to be here and to come on, it is a really hard job to pick the team, to pick the twenty four and we have a lot of disappointed lads there who aren’t part of the twenty four and we wouldn’t be here but for those lads, we’re very well aware of that, we’ve used a lot of players but we have a lot of good players at our disposal”.
Extra time of the Munster U20 final began with a 20m free for Cormac Fitzgerald, it was awarded by referee Nicky O’Toole for dissent against Kelly. Speaking to The Clare Echo, Tomás confirmed he was not offering the Waterford official an invite to The Good House when he questioned him at full time. “I was just asking Nicky how he was going to face the journey home to Waterford that night! It was one of those things, the heat of the moment, when you feel a couple of decisions are going your way you will question them, in hindsight it is something I wouldn’t do again but I am just thankful to the lads for bailing me out at the end, the posts for bailing me out and Mark Sheedy for bailing me out, we live, we learn and we go again”.
Another Inagh/Kilnamona clubman not afraid to question referees is Nicholas Rynne of Clare TV and Scariff Bay Community Radio fame. Rynne’s presence at the media event in Caherlohan reminded Kelly that they were not far from the big day, “You know you have it made when you’re sitting down with Nicholas Rynne,” he quipped.
Penalties is a “very tough” way to decide a final, he acknowledged. “I’ve been on the wrong end of penalty shootouts a good few times, it is an excruciating way to lose, I did feel for the Tipp lads. The season is condensed, there is room for an All-Ireland semi-final in this, that is for the powers that be to decide, when you think Tipperary are gone and we were in the same boat when we lost Munster finals and were out, there is scope to play an All-Ireland semi-final at U20 level. Penalties are a horrible way to lose, when it goes your way it is fantastic but it is one of the things with the split season that probably needs to happen”.
Manager of the Inagh/Kilnamona senior hurlers in 2024 and 2025, Tomás is not double jobbing this season with his sole focus on the county U20 hurlers. “You never take it for granted whether it is being involved with your club and your county, it is great being able to represent your county and your club, sometimes it is a little bit busy but there is no point complaining, you do it because you love it. It’s great to be involved, building up to an All-Ireland final makes it all worthwhile and this is where we want to be and where we have strived to be for five years since we first started in 2021, it is all worth it at this stage”.
