*Clare captain, Eoghan Gunning accepts the man of the match award. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE’S MINOR captain has pledged that there’s more to come from the side crowned All-Ireland champions.
Corner back Eoghan Gunning may have wrongly been denied the honour of giving a victorious captain’s speech when he received the Irish Press Cup off GAA President, Larry McCarthy but spoke with passion and maturity when in conversation with The Clare Echo moments after leading the county to their second ever All-Ireland minor title.
It was in the moments after accepting the Munster title that Gunning promised Clare supporters that they weren’t done yet and intended to bring more silverware home, so more’s the pity the Banner faithful weren’t treated to another address from the Scariff Community College student.
Not having long to bask in the success, Eoghan was once again looking to the future with optimism and confident that many of the minors would go on to achieve further success in the county colours. “It is incredible but hopefully there will be more to come for all of us, there is a special group, everyone in it is a super hurler, hopefully there will be more silverware in the future”.
Aged just seventeen, Gunning has firmly established himself as a fan favourite. Not since David McInerney lined out at full-back for Clare’s U21 sides a decade ago has a defender lifted the crowd as much but the Broadford man is striking a chord with supporters so much that it is resembling the Banner Roar that often accompanied a Brian Lohan fetch and distribution from his heyday.
On getting to experience this Banner Roar, Eoghan reflected, “Today was surreal, the stadium was packed out, I know it wasn’t all Clare fans but it felt like it was all Clare fans at times, they really got behind us and pushed us on to get behind the line”.
While it was Eoghan that had the distinction of getting to climb the steps O Riain Stand to collect the Irish Press Cup and the man of the match accolade, he pointed out that there was an army of people pushing him that direction. “This is special but it is representative of the work done not just by myself but everyone one of the panel members and the management team, this is for everyone”.
After winning the Munster minor title, Gunning and his teammates were together at TUS Gaelic Grounds supporting the county’s U20 hurlers against Cork in the provincial decider. He said they will be doing the same to cheer on the county seniors against Limerick this coming Sunday. “The seniors will be looking at this and getting inspiration off it, we’ll be all there every single one of us backing them and please God they can do the business”.
“It’s special, it is what you dream of when you are younger, lifting All-Ireland trophies and Munster trophies, we’ve worked so hard for this for months on end. Since early December we did a block of conditioning and tackling, we’ve focused on how we work on the ball, it’s just a super feeling to go up and lift the trophy on behalf of the clubs, the schools, our families and behalf of all the team and management,” Gunning the man with a big future told The Clare Echo.
