*Tony Kelly’s strike tests the durability of Ger Mellerick’s hurley. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Week on week games won’t be a complaint as far as Tony Kelly is concerned.
Though not clearly visible, three-time All Star Kelly was beaming beneath the surface as Clare kept their aspirations of a Munster Final appearance and qualification for the All-Ireland series well and truly alive by beating Cork on Sunday.
Attitude was hailed by the team captain as a main factor behind their strong start in Munster. “We pride ourselves on workrate and that’s what has been drilled into us. The hurling looks after itself. We were under pressure there in the second half but our defence was superb when we were under pressure. If you have workrate and honesty around the field in abundance, we are confident that our hurling is good enough to match anyone. It was a 20 man job today and we are delighted to have come out with the result. Overall, we are extremely happy especially after going down to fourteen for a long period in the second half”.
Kelly heaped praise on his teammates. “The backs were outstanding again today. We had a mighty contribution last week and it was the same again today, even from the lads coming off the bench, Shanagher and Domhnall McMahon gave us something different up front in terms of ball winning ability and showing the ball down coming to our defence”.
Staying in front throughout the tie was vital, the Ballyea man stated. “You are always trying to find an extra per cent to replace a player. We got a few great scores from Diarmuid Ryan and Fitzy. We always kept a five or six point lead heading down the home straight which was important”.
“Every day you go out you have to try and better your performance from the day before. Sometimes it does happen for certain teams or certain individuals but it’s the eveness, the workrate and the honesty you are trying to replicate from last week and the hurling follows, if you can turnover ball and get your tackle count high and we did that today and it was an improvement. We are playing Limerick next and we will have to come up another notch or two if we are to beat them. We all know that they are the standard bearers in the country for a reason”.
He added, “We backed up last week’s result this week. It’s all about getting results in this round robin. You can play all the lovely hurling you want and not get out of the group. You need to be in that three, whatever number you are and assess it then at the end. We have a good start made but we are only half way there”.
Clare will not get carried away with their two wins, he insisted. “We knew we had to win this game. We have our eyes on the Munster championship like every team in Munster. We are not going to get carried away. It was a great result. We are fortunate enough that we have a week to regroup. It’s in our own hands now where we want to go . Its all about trying to replicate those performances”.
“Playing games is mighty, We have played the old system and the new system. We would prefer to be playing more games than training. We won’t complain playing week on week”, he concluded.
