*Tubber captain, Patrick O’Connor. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
IT’S been forty eight years since Tubber last won the Clare intermediate hurling championship.
Members of the team on that occasion were Pat O’Connor Snr and his brother Enda, Mike and Jamie.
Pat’s son, of the same name, will be striving to end that long wait on this Saturday when he leads the North Clare side into the 2024 Clare final against competition favourites Wolfe Tones at Cusack Park where the throw in time is 3.30p.m.
As expected this week’s final “is all that has been talked about throughout the parish this week. Hurling is always been talked about here, whether it’s the fortunes of the county team or our own teams. The love of the game is here and will be here for many years to come”, Patrick explained.
After over a decade as a key player with Clare at senior level having come through the minor and under 20 grades, Pat called time on his inter county career just over a year ago having won under 20 and senior (league and championship) honours with the team.
He has been a key player in the club’s march to Saturday’s final. “Look, there is no getting away from the fact that we have our challenges in relation to numbers but I don’t think that the number of members in each club will have much to do with Saturday’s game. Tones have a quality team but we know what we have to do and we are under no illusions as to the task we are facing. They have been tipped for success from day one and there has been very little in their campaign to date that suggests otherwise but we are giving ourselves a chance”.
The team captain told The Clare Echo, “we have a very good management team in place. Our coach Rory Gantley from a neighbouring parish, has played at the highest level. This year we got a few new players into the squad and that youth has given us a bit of a lift and it has given enthusiasm to the regulars who are there and who continue to be key players”.
O’Connor believes that the addition of those new young players played a big part in the team’s win over a fancied Clarecastle side, “In the quarter final Clarecastle were coming at us hard and we were able to bring a few off the bench which we weren’t able to do before. That bit of youth along with the quality that has always been there and the management team mixed together has played a big part in our march to this final”.
“We are all well familiar with the surnames associated with the club over the years, the O’Gradys, the Taaffes, the Conroys, the O’Connors etc. The tradition is there and it has been for years. It’s a huge honour to be able to carry it on and to keep up our side. There was a really good team in Tubber in the seventies and eighties and it’s a big thing to be following in that tradition. We are trying to keep our teams at as high a level as we can. It’s important to leave something behind for the next group, keeping the thing alive is what we want. There is an appreciation that it’s not all down to just one day”, O’Connor concluded.
