*Clare’s U20 hurlers celebrate. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
AT JUST the right time, Clare hurling now has a cohort of talent threatening and promising to reinvigorate an ageing senior side.
FBD Semple Stadium was drenched in hope and optimism as Clare supporters among the 9,103 attendance of Sunday’s All-Ireland U20 final left the venue and they did so in high spirits following the commanding 4-20 2-16 victory.
Not that some of the senior stars are finished by any means but there is always a need for fresh talent and the production line with Terence Fahy at the helm certainly gives confidence that a new generation of stars are capable of making the step-up.
Success in winning the All-Ireland and Munster minor championships of 2023 didn’t go to the heads of this team that backed it up winning the U20 equivalents this season. If they can repeat the dose in terms of maintaining their focus and commitment to the cause, then their Clare careers are only really beginning as Fahy outlined.
“If you go back to 2009 and look at that team, you back to the 2012, 2013, 2014 teams, look at the power Clare hurling got off those. We struggled for so many years to win that title, the onus is on these lads, they didn’t fatten after winning a minor All-Ireland and hopefully they won’t fatten after winning the U20, we have a great senior team with great leaders but they are coming into the end years of their career and we need up and coming players to replace them down the line, if they can do that with All-Ireland medals in their pockets well that gives an extra bit of oomph for the county so it is a great result for Clare”.
Delivering All-Ireland and Munster titles has been a timely lift for Clare hurling. “In 2023 we won the minor All-Ireland and in 2024 we won the senior All-Ireland so the one we needed to win was the U20 All-Ireland, we have won it in 2026, it is a great reflection on the county as a progressive hurling county, the unity of purpose and driving the thing on. We’re all Clare men, we’re so proud of the way they represented our group and that is the biggest thing, the Clare supporters really responded to that, you could see it when Jamie (Moylan) scored the goal, it was a big moment”.
Praising the entire panel for their efforts, Terence spoke of how you could only but be proud of them. He noted that tough provincial campaigns can often take it out of teams. “It wasn’t a given that we brought huge fire to every other performance through the championship and the All-Ireland series is a different level, you can often win your provincial but it doesn’t always follow through into the All-Ireland series, that was the challenge there for them to bring it to the biggest day. I think the two and a half week break was important, we were running on fumes in the Munster championship going week on week off, they really relished the break, we took them down to bring them back up and they were excellent”.
Goals from Thomas O’Connor on the third and thirty fifth minute along with majors from Jamie Moylan on the half hour mark and Marco Cleary’s green flag on thirty seven minutes all provided huge energy, Fahy acknowledged. “The first half goals were massive, the first one settled us against the wind, the one before half time was a huge trigger moment, it was one of the few breaking balls we won off a puckout, we were struggling on our puckout, then Jamie took it on and took it on, the stadium shook when he scored, we had such immense support today, it was a huge boost going in at half time”.
To score 2-2 in the first eight minutes of the second half gave Clare a foothold that they never relinquished, the secondary school teacher at St Joseph’s Tulla outlined. “It was new territory for us, we never had a gap like that in a match all year, it was great we had it today. We were on those breaks today and the breaking balls, we got big scores at key moments, it was a powerful end to the season”.
Nervy and tight finishes have been par for the course with Clare’s U20s this season but as the game entered the final ten minutes and James Hegarty managed to save an Aaron Niland free, Terence’s troops led by eleven points. “It was the most unusual final ten minutes, we are normally used to buckets of stress but it was a credit to the players, they just brought it, they were so smooth and fresh, they were so slick”.
Whitegate’s Fahy added, “We were never worried about winning ugly, winning tight matches and winning them ugly is a great quality too, I did feel as the season went on and the weather got better and we got into stadiums that the graph would go up, athletically they are very sharp and fresh, it was great to see the final day ending like that”.
Emerging from the dressing room, saturated having been sprayed by ecstatic players, Terence told The Clare Echo that it was a special place to be. “That is the best of it, we’ve thirty eight players in there and they all had an immense part in it, we’ve two cups inside there and the moments inside the dressing room are the special times because it will get busier from now on, it is a special achievement for a special group, they are a great group of players, they made their mark on the field”.
