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*Joe Lynch. Photograph: Páraic McMahon.
SENIOR HURLING final week has created great excitement across Kilmaley, Inch, Connolly, Inagh, Kilnamona and Maurice’s Mills with the Canon Hamilton the ultimate prize for whoever prevails this Sunday in Cusack Park.
In the thick of devilment is Kilmaley’s Joe Lynch, popular with all that know him and capable of bringing a smile to the dourest of faces with his wit and warmth while his iconic white locks distinguish him as the character he is.
From his home in Lisroe, county final fever has well and truly taken hold. “They certainly don’t come around too often, we’re certainly looking forward to it. It is a special one coming against our close neighbours Inamona who we’re very fond of, we’ve campaigned with them down through the years whether it was in a pub, a hurling field or whatever it was, we’d be dear close to them but we definitely feel this time that we need it, they have time on their side, they are a younger team. Sunday evening at 6pm we hope we’ll be celebrating and they will be very welcome to join us”.
Rivalry between the neighbouring parishes is healty, Joe felt. “There was never any animosity, there was always a good rivalry which should be there when clubs are participating but never was there anything that we could feel aggrieved on both sides, I’m sure they would come out with the same sentiments, we wish them well but we feel we need this one more than them”.
A proud supporter in 1986 and 2004 when Kilmaley previously lifted the Canon Hamilton, there have been near-misses in between despite it taking twenty two years to reach the decider. “We definitely have a couple that have gone through our fingers. A lot of clubs would have the same problems, it is never easy, I’m sure Éire Óg thought last year after getting it off their back that they would be there again and they didn’t participate in the final this time due to different factors but it is never easy to get there”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, the farmer is clear on where Kilmale have built the foundations for their run to the final. “I have a lot of thinking done. I think the performance that got us as far as this was the one against Clonlara, definitely Clonlara are one of the better teams in the competition, they have proven that with six lads on the Clare panel, they had us on the run, they were five up and they missed a vital one, it can happen to any club but we got on top of them, we had the big man up front (Conor Cleary) and you know what he can do whether it is a big ball or a small ball, he is sensational”.
Cleary has performed “immensely” in the forwards for the club, Joe said “I have yet to meet Brian Lohan about this one but instead of taking him off against Limerick he should have moved him up front and we would be All-Ireland champions”.
What he could have done against Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final isn’t the only piece of advice Joe would be willing to impart to Lohan. “It would be great to beat our nearest and dearest but we’d still be good friends, we’d love to get them but they have time on their side, they are a very exciting side, the man that we all want to see back playing for Clare is in sensational form, he got thirteen points in the semi-final, seven from play, he has to be a danger to anybody he is facing but we feel we have the tenacity and the drive to slow them down in a legal way. We feel we can do it, we’re going out to win it”.
After Kilmaley’s semi-final win over Scariff, Joe was one of the first supporters on the field to congratulate the team and management, showing a turn of pace that would rival midfielder Seán Kennedy. “I was probably out before my time, we’re maybe getting too bold, we were out there. It is a great privilege to be there, I think myself for any team to win, the vital line on a hurling team is the half-back line, we have the three boys in the half-back line that are hurling for fun at the moment, Aidan McGuane was sensational in the semi-final, our centre back Michael O’Malley always had it since I coached him first at eight years of age, he had it even then and then the great man from ninety yards I’ll have a go and put it over Daire Keane”.
Aidan McGuane at wing-back has been “sensational” all year according to Joe. “He is a beautiful striker of a ball, his father was on the 85 team, the great Noel McGuane, the full-back, Daire Keane’s father Tommy was there so we need the two McGuanes and Daire Keane representing their fathers who won in 85, we need this for them too”.
Not to be putting pressure on McGuane, O’Malley and Keane but he feels their area of the pitch will determine where the Canon Hamilton resides for the next twelve months. “The game will be won and lost in our half-back line, they are hurling well and if we can feed the big man inside, thirty balls went into him the last day and he gained about twenty seven possessions, whether it is hurling or football he is giving his all. He is a tough man, he has to keep hurling for Clare as well”.
Making it clear which line of the field that Joe places the most importance on, he pointed to the half-back line trio of 2004 as central to their success over St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield. “The 2004 team had a sensational half-back line, Eoin Burke, Alan Markham and Eibhear Slattery, that was the springboard that time but we had sensational hurlers on that team, there’s a lot of similarities in the way we are performing. We have six solid backs”.
Among the solid backs is U20 All-Ireland and Munster winner, Joe Casey. “Joe Casey has been a revelation, I feel he will go on to play for Clare, he is a no-nonsense hurler, he does his job and does it with panache and drive, I want to see him inside there, leave him where he is because he is doing the job”.
Joe’s own playing career saw him off corner forward before reverting to wing back, a transition similar to Daire Keane, a comparison which he is overjoyed with. “Daire was always sensational, I moved back along and enjoyed it, I went away to London when I was twenty, I spent six years in London and then went to Australia for a couple of years there, it has been a great lifestyle and following Kilmaley then between the guys and the girls. I started off in Brisbane, then moved down to Melbourne and them places”.
Reflecting on his playing days in the blue and white, Lynch recalled, “My own playing career was very limited, a rútáilí. Patsy O’Grady put us hurling, this side of the parish was looked upon as being a bit isolated and even on the mountain you can see the land we have, it is not subject to making a living out of it. We always felt that we could perform even though some of us limited, we were still making up for it with drive and hard work”.
He continued, “Unfortunately my time was a very lean time, Patsy O’Grady hurled a bit himself, he gave us his field around 1963 in front of his own house and he started coaching us, the first Sunday two of our men went over, Jimmy McGuane and Paddy Lynch, two great stalwarts, a great family up the road which is Noel’s crowd again. We hurled a bit with Kilmaley but had no success, it came right then in the late sixties, into the early seventies and they were sensational, the U21s and the minors, the whole lot came together, Tommy Keane, Martin Meehan and them great hurlers. The wheel always turns but we’d love to make sure the wheel has turned in the right spot and she’s staying exactly where we want it to be Sunday evening, we’ll enjoy it”.
On the coaching front, he was involved underage with Frankie Cahill giving young hurlers a fascinating introduction to the game. “They went on to better coaching to what we were giving, we were involved with Kilmaley down through the years, it was a privilege. The man that started it off and I’d love to see it be won for this special man in Kilmaley and that’s Patsy O’Grady, he has been sensational since the 1960s, I want to see him having this one now, he is hale and hearty he is gone into his eighties, we need it for him as well as the boys”. The next generation including Kilmaley’s U14 hurlers would be inspired by success over the weekend, he noted, “the kids need the win definitely so with the help of God everything falls into position. Inagh we still admire them, they have time on their side so they’ll wait another year I’m hoping”.
After returning from Australia, Joe took the Junior B side. “It was a lot of fun, a lot of great times with Kilmaley. The year we went down intermediate, unfortunately we were relegated but we came back, great times, we’ve represented our county with honour with the great men that came through down through the years”.
Current manager Brian Culbert has made the right impression on Joe. “Brian Culbert has been sensational, he has four years down with us, he has been very good, very positive, great attitude, the boys get on with him, I’ve never seen a happier bunch of Kilmaley hurlers, that is a sign that something is happening right. He deserves it just as much as the boys”. Honorary Kilmaley man status would be secured by the Sixmilebridge native if the Canon returns, “he’ll be put up on a plaque anyway”.
If Culbert were to give Joe the call to give a pre-match speech in the dressing room, he would keep the message simple, “I’d say lads be yourself, give it everything because it is well in your ability to win this, ye have shown that this year from the word go, we can win it and we will win it”.
