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*Sean Stack. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
SIXMILEBRIDGE’s efforts to blood new players at senior level this year is an experience taught to manager Sean Stack by the dominant Newmarket-on-Fergus side of the 1960s and 1970s.
From 1963 to 1981, the outstanding Newmarket-on-Fergus side of the era clamed thirteen Clare SHC titles. However, the Blues would have to wait 31 years from their 1981 success to get reacquainted with the Canon Hamilton and they haven’t won the championship since.
Sean Stack was ten years old when Newmarket won in 1963, an All Star in 1981 he was part of the Sixmilebridge side to win the club’s first Clare SHC in 1977. This year he has taken up the mantle of Bridge senior hurling manager.
He told The Clare Echo one of his aspirations when taking on the role was to blood more younger players at senior level. “Most of the lads there have five championships in the last seven years. If you stay with the status quo you will finish up going backwards”.
Stack added, “They’re good lads, you have to encourage the young lads and the only way to encourage them is putting them out on the field, there’s no point telling them they are great below at home, they won’t believe you until you give them a jersey”.
David Kennedy had a memorable senior debut scoring 1-04 against Whitegate while Leon Kelly pointed from corner back with Luke O’Halloran also entering the fray in the second half. “We’ve prepared well, we were taking no chances, Whitegate can bring a challenge if you allow that, we went at it intently and we got three points in the first minute, that set the tone I think”.
Giving them the chance is one of the lessons he has learned from a lifetime in the GAA. “I’m lucky enough to have lived through an era where Newmarket dominated the Clare scene but they played with the same fifteen for what twelve years or something. When the boat started leaking then it sunk. Life’s experience will teach you a few things”.
Having stormed through their group with seven, twenty one and fifteen point wins respectively, The Bridge are among the favourites to win this year’s championship. The two-time National League winner felt there was little they could do to abate concerns they haven’t been tested, “What can you do, you’ve to play what is in front of you every single day, we’re very aware there’s bigger fish to fry down the road, they are queuing up for us”.
Along with The Bridge, Kilmaley also tasted victory in Dr Daly Park on Sunday last, however their victory was not enough to seal their place in the quarter-finals with the scoring difference from 0-26 1-09 loss to Clooney/Quin proving fatal.
“We’re disappointed that we’re not progressing but delighted that lads rebounded and responded to get a result, all we could do was win our own game and we did that, we realise that we didn’t do ourselves justice the last day and that is what cost us,” Killmaley manager, Conor Clancy acknowledged.
He stated, “We knew what we had to do, the last day the nature of our defeat was a huge concern for us, we were only six points down at half-time and we couldn’t get it going, we let ourselves down. All year between Clare Cup and everything else, we’ve been hugely competitive but unfortunately that one bad outing has cost us dearly, that’s on us”.
It’s certainly a case of mixed emotions for the Clare Cup champions who only lost two competitive games in 2022. “We knew coming down here was going to be difficult, Scariff are more familiar with the pitch than us, we knew they wouldn’t go out of the championship lightly today, they had an opportunity to avoid relegation and they were going to fight to the bitter end and they did. We’re delighted that we fronted up in the last fifteen and got the result, it was a good finish to the year, our emotions are mixed, we’re happy we won but disappointed our hurling year is over”.
They have now qualified for the Senior B but Clancy admitted they had no interest in the competition. “Senior B is not for us, any senior team playing this competition, we’re looking at going further. There’s not huge merit in contesting that. We’ll see how it goes, we won’t make a decision on that just yet”.
