*Aiden ‘Horse’ Moloney. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
He has captained and managed his club to senior championship success before but Aiden ‘Horse’ Moloney maintained their 2020 victory was as merited as successful campaigns in years previously.
Winners of the ‘COVID championship’, Aiden rightfully pointed out that their glory was hard-earned given the opposition they accounted for en route to taking the Jack Daly back to West Clare. “It’s a good a championship as we’ve ever won. When you beat Miltown, Éire Óg, Lissycasey and Cratloe I think we beat the cream of the crop.
“The game started slowly today, we didn’t make the best start, I think Cratloe went two points up, the goal from Mark Killeen was a major changing point in the game, we kicked five points after that and it set us up for the game, Cratloe were chasing it a little after that. A bit like the semi-final, I think we took our foot off the pedal but we finished strong again, overall it was a fair result”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, the Munster championship winner of 1992 outlined that they fully expected Cratloe’s resurgence which arrived in the second half when they fired over five unanswered points. “Our lads were set well, we rowed our luck here and there a little bit there is no doubt but realistically with five or six minutes to go we were fairly well set defensively but there was always the option of a counter-attack which got points”.
Singled out by winning captain, Michael Hogan in his acceptance speech for staying on as Bricks boss after the club failed to retain their title in 2018 and lost to neighbours St Josephs Miltown in last year’s decider, Horse admitted that the mutual respect between him and panellists was central to him remaining in the role. “I feel I’m part of this team, I played with some of these fellas in the past when they were young lads, they respect me and to be honest if they didn’t I wouldn’t be there.
“We all come from the same place and we all want to achieve the same thing, last year didn’t go great, maybe we have to lose one to win one back. I’m really delighted for all the younger players we brought on this year, we made some big changes from our goalkeeper outwards, we blooded some new players in Diarmuid King, Andrew Shannon, they had the legs and in Cusack Park you have to be able to run and we had those great runners in the middle of the field with Aidan McCarthy and Dermot Coughlan, when you give them the ball in open space they are going to hurt you,” he added.
