*Ger O’Loughlin. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
A CHANCE TO return to the top table of Clare hurling is the prize on offer for Clarecastle this weekend.
Two years ago, Clarecastle were relegated from the top tier for the first time in their 136 year history. O’Callaghans Mills were the team to relegate them in 2023 and they are their opponents for Sunday’s premier intermediate decider.
Sixty minutes stand between the Magpies and a return to senior hurling but there isn’t a sense of pressure with the occasion according to manager Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin. “Funny enough there isn’t much pressue. This particular group got beaten in the quarter-finals last year, the year before we were struggling too, the work done by the managements in the gym has come to the fore, we’re able to compete better, we have some younger guys of nineteen and twenty that are slotting in well, if anything they are not hindered by coming onto an intermediate team in Clarecastle, in actual fact they are looking forward to showing what they are made of.
Expectations can be high for a club that was won the Clare SHC on twelve occasions but this has not filtered to the group. “There’s no pressure within the club but when you’re in the final you are hoping to get the result but we certainly don’t underestimate the task ahead of us, the Mills have been unlucky to lose important players over the last few years that emigrated which has an impact but they are back and you can see it’s no coincidence that they are in a final, they have a huge vision to get back up to senior and if they did they would probably hold their own up there and in saying that if we did we feel we would too. We played in the top tier for the Clare Cup, after a shaky start we settled into it and won three matches against senior teams so we can also build on it. It would be brilliant for the club and for hurling if we could get back up but we have a massive task ahead of us”.
Sunday is the first time that Clarecastle’s top team will line out in a county final since they last lifted the Canon Hamilton in 2005. Full-back on the side which overcome Wolfe Tones was current selector Martin Sheedy, the team was managed by Ger Ward and were coached by O’Loughlin in what was the last adult team he had been involved with in the club. “I haven’t been involved with Clarecastle’s adults since but I’ve been with the present minor team who are in the county final, I had them with Donagh (Murphy) when they were ten or eleven and anybody after that we had too, I’ve been with the underage for seven or eight years, I really enjoy that, I had to give them up to take up the mantle here but they are in safe hands, there’s a great club set-up at the moment, we are producing hurlers now which is important for the next ten years”.
Sparrow said he took time before deciding he was ready to become Clarecastle manager, succeeding Eric Flynn. “The past management had given great service, they were looking for new blood and I was asked if I would consider it, after debating it in my head for a month or two, I felt if I could get people that I would be comfortable with then I could have a think about it. At this stage of my life, if I was going to do it then it would have to be around now, when I approached Donagh Murphy and Martin Sheedy, Donagh had no hesitation and he is one of the best coaches in the game, I worked with him at U12 and U13 for a few years so I knew what I was getting in. Martin is a stalwart in the club. I felt I could give it a go, I’d be going to the matches for the last few years so I had it in my head that we could change a few things and that it might help the cause, that is what we have stuck by, we’ve had our ups and downs but I felt it was a time for me, a few lads in the club approached me and gave me their backing, when these people that you have respect for come calling then you think seriously about it so I took it”.
Time involved was the main barrier to accepting the role initially, he admitted. “The commitment is number one, you think about this in November or December and you’re ready to go training in February, you’re basically giving up a full year if you are lucky enough to get to a final or knockout stages, I’m not complaining that we are in the final but they are the barriers. When you are a manager, most of the backroom staff can go away for a week or two but if you are continuing training the manager can’t, that is the dedication you have to give to the club but if you commit you have to commit 150 percent, I’ve enjoyed it and as the fella says I’ve done it my way, we’re in the final and hopefully works out for us”.
Across the border, Sparrow led Adare to win three Limerick SHC titles in 2007, 2008 and 2009 while he was in charge when Kilmallock won county and provincial honours in 2014 before going on to contest the All-Ireland club final. In between, he spent two seasons as Clare senior hurling manager.
Commitment levels continue to increase for club players, he noted. “It is like everything else, if a player isn’t prepared to give what is required then he will be shown up fitness wise and hurling wise, that is the one thing from the very first day that I said to the lads ‘we’re going to have to dedicate ourselves to this for the next eight or nine months and see can we get to a stage that no excuse or obstacle can stand in the way’. For the majority they have bought into that, the game itself is based on running, fitness, dedication too, the players give up an awful lot and you admire them at club level, there’s no point having a management set-up in place if individuals decide it is come day go day, that doesn’t work, we’re lucky enough to have a very dedicated group at the moment, we’ll be bringing in another few lads next year that they will see what is involved, going forward most clubs realise that if you don’t put in the work you won’t get the benefits out of it. A lot of it comes down to natural talent but I just feel that if the structures and the set-up is right then you give yourself the best chance”.
A five-time Clare SHC winner, Sparrow said it has been a bumpy road for Clarecastle to reach the county final. “We started well, we beat Whitegate in our first game, we beat Bodyke in our second game and the wheels came off against Ruan, the following week we had to play the Sixmilebridge second team and lost to them, we felt it would have taken an awful lot of adjustments on scorelines for us not to qualify but we were at the mercy of other teams, in hindsight it was a wake-up call but one wake-up call would have been enough for me, two was too much but we hopefully have learned from that. Most importantly the quarter-final against Tubber in Ruan has been a huge benefit to us, it was the day that we had to stand up and be counted, we might have caught Tubber off-guard a little bit but we did play well on the day and we have pushed on, notwithstanding the gale-force wind and rain we had in Tulla, we only went up a point up with the wind at half time so I’m sure plenty of our fans were worried but I still felt we had eleven wides and two goal chances, I felt we were the better team but we had to take the wind into our calculation for the second half but we were good on the ball and playing it to hand, a lot of our older lads came to the fore in the second half and we played better against the breeze, we ran out comfortable winners but by no means were we certain about that, it did work out well for us, those wins are good for young fellas”.
Inward reflection helped them to put the wheels back on and they are certainly in motion for Sunday’s decider. “Being truthful we had to have a look at individuals and the decisions we were making as a management. We went with our gut feeling for that quarter-final, we tweaked our game a little bit, we put out a fitter and more ready championship team for the quarter-final”.
