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*Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP winning Clonlara manager, Donal Madden is hopeful their success can be the catalyst for further glory across the club.
Madden’s charges were crowned Clare SHC champions on Sunday recording a five point victory over Crusheen to win the title for the third time in their history.
Ending a fifteen year wait to lift the Canon Hamilton was an occasion to treasure, Donal said. “It means so much to so many people, I just want to pay due respect for everyone who has put on a Clonlara jersey over the last fifteen years to try and do this, lots of things have been said about all of us, I was one of those players and I tried many a time to win this both as a coach and a manager, eventually we’ve done it and those people deserve a lot of respect because we’ve tried so hard as a club because this is massive for us”.
Prior to the final, the secondary school principal noted the importance of letting the players embrace the build-up including interviews with the media and sampling the local atmosphere in Clonlara. The anticipation to their first county final since losing the 2016 decider following a replay to Ballyea was something they tried to relish. “We’re training so November so why can’t you enjoy this because this is what the training is for. We enjoyed winning every game, we partied, enjoyed it and then went back down the following night to train again because what is all about if you’re not going to enjoy it, we’ll enjoy the next couple of nights and prepare again. My young fella told us we’re playing the Tipp champions, I hadn’t a clue and that is being honest”.
Top scorer in the 2008 final when they defeated Newmarket-on-Fergus, Donal was also part of the side which relinquished the title in the 2009 final against Cratloe. Speaking to The Clare Echo, he referenced the pain associated with that loss and particularly the sequence which led to Padraigh Chaplin’s goal, he opted to give a backward pass which was intercepted and ended up with Chaplin netting past fellow selector Ger O’Connell. “It’s funny where we’re standing, I stood over there with the ball in my hand in 2009 with thirty seconds to go and I had to live with that for the next fourteen years. Ger O’Connell is one of my best mates, he was there, we chatted this morning and I said ‘look it hopefully we can make up for that’, it has always been in the back of our minds like every day you think about it and say if I had that moment over again I’d do things differently but I can sleep tonight”.
When Jathan McMahon referenced Donal in his speech, the Clonlara manager was in tears and he was also visibly emotional at the sounding of the final whistle. “People see me going nuts on the line because I care about the lads and they care about me but I’m actually very chilled in general, with my family, wife and friends I’d be horizontal in a lot of ways, in my job I am very chilled but when I go on a hurling field I care about our club and everyone of those individuals and every single person in our parish who is involved in our club. Whenever we finish up as a management I’ll be involved with the U8s and U10s because I just love hurling”.
Wins over O’Callaghans Mills, Sixmilebridge, Éire Óg, Feakle and Crusheen on the double saw Clonlara remain unbeaten on their journey to becoming county champions. “It is not me being arrogant but in 2023 Clonlara were the best team in the Clare championship but next year is a new year and we’ve a target on our backs for whoever is involved but we can’t let this slip now because of the structures we’ve put in place and the standards in our club, that has got to continue, this has to be the modus operandi for us as a club in all ways, our committee and everyone in the background has been absolutely phenomenal and we’ve got to keep that going”.
“I’m not talking about going winning loads and loads of championships, I’m just talking about hard work. We’ve a fantastic underage setup in our club, everyone involved deserves huge credit, we get the glory here today but I’d argue there’s a lot of glory when you’re training the U6s on a Friday night because if you don’t have U6s you don’t have seniors and every kid in our parish has got to be able to get involved and play the game, every kid, we need more John Conlons and Colm Galvins coming through,” the Tulla native stated.
Crusheen’s ability to form strong starts was central to their wins over Newmarket-on-Fergus and Scariff which booked their place in the final. Clonlara were conscious to limit their influence at the beginning of the tie. “I listened to all their interviews this week and I know Michael Browne well enough, he is a fantastic coach and Aidan Harte is a fantastic guy, they care about their club, they felt very hurt by the way they played against us in the third round and they wanted to make up for that hurt so we knew they were going to come like a tonne of bricks and we targeted that, we had a lot of hurt too and fifteen years of it so that was our mantra, we were coming here and going to perform, they thrown the kitchen sink at us but we kept coming back, we kept our heads and there was no panic, lads went down cramp, we had lads come off and on, it was a huge panel effort”.
