*Poc Fada Hall of Fame 2024 recipient Denise Lynch, right, with Munster camogie Chairperson Christine Ryan. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
KILMALEY’s Denise Lynch has been inducted into the M Donnelly Poc Fada Hall of Fame.
A winner of the Poc Fada in 2005, Denise was this year inducted into the Hall of Fame alongside Tyrone’s Gerry Goodwin who made national headlines when winning the competition in 1982 defeating big names like Ger Cunningham of Cork and Limerick’s Pat Hartigan.
Strong Clare links are ever-present to the Poc Fada with Cooraclare native Martin Donnelly the main driver of the annual competition which is held on the Cooley Mountains while Newmarket-on-Fergus’ Christy Ryan plays a pivotal role in helping things to run smoothly. All-Ireland winners David Fitzgerald and Peter Duggan partook in this year’s competition as did Ellen Casey of Newmarket-on-Fergus.
Having lined out with the county’s top team at full-back and between the posts, Denise was goalkeeper of the side which won the 2008 All-Ireland Junior Camogie title when managed by the Hanley brothers, Colm and Eoghan and captained by Deirdre Murphy who is now the Head of Operations with Clare GAA.
One month prior to their final win over Offaly, Shannon’s Ciaran McDonagh was brought on board as a goalkeeper coach and it was the first time Denise worked specifically with a goalkeeper coach.
To get inducted into the Hall of Fame came as a surprise for Denise. “It’s obviously not something that I would have expected but it’s a nice pat on the back after nearly 20 years,” she said at a recent event to officially mark the recognition.
She recalled, “I just remember my time competing in the Poc Fada as being a lovely family day out. My parents were with me, my brother was with me, there were aunts and uncles and cousins. That’s probably the thing I remember the most about it. I played camogie for years and you would never have your family members almost within two feet of you when you’re competing. So, from that aspect it was nice. It was just a really nice family occasion and obviously really nice to win it as well.
“It’s nice to compete as an individual as well, I felt that back then too. As much as I always loved being part of a team and always hoped I was a good team player. It was nice to do something as an individual and achieve something as an individual too. From that point of view it’s a really good competition to enter because there’s nothing else really like it when it comes to sports. You don’t have a football or soccer equivalent or anything else. It’s just a really, really class competition and long may it continue”.
Since finishing up with the county side in 2016, Denise worked as a selector under Patricia O’Grady with the seniors and has since worked with the Clare minor hurlers.
There has been a noticeable change in the role of a goalkeeper, she outlined. “There are so many plays that start with the goalkeeper. In the Limerick Cork All-Ireland semi-final this year we saw 99 shots on goal so you’re obviously going to have a lot of puck-out restarts. The goalkeeper now is the person on the field who is going to have the most plays and possessions. So how your goalkeeper performs is huge. If they’re on song and performing well and the puck-outs are going well then your team is probably playing well. And if they’re not, then the team probably isn’t playing well so it’s huge, I think it’s massive. It’s such a communicative role as well. You would always hope that your goalkeeper is commanding and able to order people around. That’s massive now”.
This year, Denise worked with the county minor hurlers who lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Kilkenny and the county minor camogie team who were beaten by eventual winners Dublin in the All-Ireland B quarter-final. “I went in with the U-15s four years ago and from absolutely every aspect I think it’s being run exceptionally well,” she noted. “Last year I was with the U16s and I actually moved up with the group to minor this year. The difference between them then as young fellas and now in the space of a year was kind of astonishing really to watch. Compared to when they were U16s, you look at them in the final match they played this year against Kilkenny and they were just completely different lads and a lot of that is down to really good coaching and really good S&C programmes that are in there at the moment. It’s nice being involved with teams. When you’re not playing it’s the next best thing really. Especially with that age-group, it’s very formative so you hope that you’re imprinting something for the future in these guys.
“It’s always nice to think, ok, how many might make the senior team at some stage. I know the percentages are quite low given some of the research that Rob has done, but hopefully that might increase over time and we can get more guys through the system that will actually hopefully line out for Clare in a Final at some stage. That would be the dream really,” the two-time Ashbourne Cup winner added.
