*Ger O’Connell. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
AN ALL-IRELAND minor winner in 1997, Ger O’Connell is bidding to become the first Clare man to taste success at the grade as a player and manager.
He leads Clare from the sideline on Saturday as they take on Waterford in the All-Ireland minor hurling final from 17:15 at FBD Semple Stadium, Thurles.
Preparing for an All-Ireland decider “is where we want to be. We have had a few ups and downs along the way. The boys have shown tremendous character throughout the year”, he told The Clare Echo.
O’Connell and his management have a full squad to choose from for Saturday’s final, he confirmed. “Our S&C has done a tremendous job to get these boys ready. It would be brilliant if there will be a big crowd, these guys have shown that they are a team one can follow, you are going to get full commitment, I am so proud of the group and all behind us”.
Reflecting on the team’s journey to the final he said “when we started the trials we had eighty players and everyone had to fight to get into the final group of thirty one. We have thirty five now because we brought up two from the Celtic Challenge team and two from the under 16’s”.
According to O’Connell, the serious injury sustained by Corofin’s Joe Slattery who had been a member of the group for the past few seasons “galvanised us and once we got going the Tipperary game here was huge to win when we were without a few guys who weren’t available. We have had our couple of defeats and we have learned an awful lot, you do learn more from losing than winning and we have learned loads”.
While it has been said in jest that his management team is so large that any decision is delayed due to the amount of consultation required, Ger pointed out that they place a strong emphasis on developing coaches as well as players. “The management are top class from the analysis group to all the coaches, we nearly have an army but it’s really important for the development not only of the players but the coaches as well. We have young coaches here who are learning from Damian (O’Halloran) and Barry Corbett who are mad keen to show them the ropes. Hurling in Clare is in a really better position”.
Though it is his first year in charge of the Clare minors, his involvement with the county U16 side last season ensured a sense of familiarity. “We had the majority of this group last year, they knew us and I didn’t have to get to know their names. We had seven under 16s came up and four have been starting in the majority of games. Everybody is doing their part to put the lads in a position to compete with the best teams”.
Clare’s goalkeeper on the 1997 All-Ireland winning minor side said he has plenty of fond memories from their campaign twenty eight years ago. “I have unbelievable memories. My Mam was alive then. Then she was sick for a long time and died in 2002. It’s not just because we won the title. I have unbelievable memories of family ties that I will never forget”.
After three seasons he stepped down as Clare senior camogie manager in August 2021, he wasn’t left idle for long. “When I finished with Clare camogie, I didn’t know what direction I wanted to take. Peter Casey messaged me and asked if I would get involved. I met him and got in with the under 16’s. The majority of this management group was just thrown together, I didn’t know Barry Corbet or Kev Mac (Kevin McNamara) or Kev Sammon, I didn’t know any of these guys but we have really gelled and been together now for four years”.
He continued, “after the Waterford game it was a real reset for us. I said it to the boys, every position is up for grabs and go and win your position, that’s the way it has to be, if you are flying it you deserve to be on the pitch, you just can’t go on previous performances. We have always focussed on us. We have got better, that Dublin game was a great tonic for us and helped us over the Waterford loss. The big one then was the Galway game, we had lost to Cork a week after Tipp, we had lost to Waterford a week after Limerick so the Galway game was a big one. In the last fifteen to twenty minutes against Galway we were brilliant and you could see then that the lads were really coming into their own, gaining confidence. It was a full 60 minutes display, we eventually wore Cork down and were the better team on the day”.
Looking to the final, Clonlara’s Clare SHC winning goalkeeper of 2008 stated, “you can only prepare so much, you don’t know what an opposition is doing, they are a very good team a physically big team but we will focus on us, they can all hurl, they will do their own thing, we will try and be better, there are areas we can improve on from the Cork game”.
Clare contesting a minor All-Ireland final for the second time in three years “shows that we are doing things right in Clare. the process that has been put in by Donal Moloney, Kieran McDermott, Peter Casey is working. They had some hard decisions to make, it’s never easy pulling teams out of the Tony Forristal (inter county under 14 tournament). I would have grown up with that. It was a massive call and they made those calls for the betterment of Clare hurling. We are not always going to get to finals but as long as we are competitive it’s the main thing. It’s a dream come through for these players. Its brilliant to be in the position we are in”.
While all involved will be doing all in their power to win next week’s All-Ireland minor hurling title Ger agrees that “our role is to develop players, it’s our job to get senior hurlers and that is why we hold on to so many players, because of what teams competing at underage level in recent times have done, we will be strong at senior level for the foreseeable future”.
