*Banner captain Eoin Walsh with club chairman Finbarr Coakley. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
WINNING a maiden Clare intermediate football championship and promotion to the top tier has “eclipsed” all the great days enjoyed by Banner GAA, victorious captain Eoin Walsh has said.
Banner withstood a Wolfe Tones comeback to prevail 1-14 1-13 in Saturday’s Clare IFC final ensuring Walsh would accept the Talty Stores Cup from Clare GAA Chairman, Kieran Keating.
Fresh from lifting the title, the centre back said their success eclipsed everything that had gone before. “We’ve had all milestone days over the last couple of years but I think every Banner supporter would say this is by far the sweetest. We knew we were in for a battle, we said it beforehand that Wolfe Tones are a great team, they are different to what we played in that they are very leggy, it was a big wide open pitch and they are very similar to us, they showed and they got on top of us, we were under the cosh in the first half, we had to regroup at half time and fortunately we got the rub of the green on a few kickouts, we moved the ball quickly and went back to our basics and worked hard, thankfully that got us over the line but it makes it the sweetest victory because we were really up against the pin of our collars”.
Darragh Leahy struck for 1-1 in three minutes to see Wolfe Tones lead by two points at half time but the Banner’s dressing room in Cusack Park was a calm setting, the twenty four year old captain admitted. “We didn’t panic too much, we had good spells in the first half. The goal was a bit of a sucker punch to take one before half time but we knew where we had to rectify things and where we were going wrong, we had to sharpen up a few things going forward and track our men, we did that. We got lads on at right junctures in the game, we were more aware of runners coming from deep and our full-back line were absolutely immense, Cian Ruane, Conor O’Toole and Cian Rynne were out in front of their men, they weren’t afraid if the ball went over the top of them, we defended for our lives in the second half, we got a number of block downs including one from Conor Dennehy with ten minutes to go, we went up the other end and got a point, they are the type of moments in big games where lads step up and they are nearly worth two points. It is absolutely brilliant, I am over the moon, it will be hard to capture your thoughts on the game for another few days”.
Ahead of the county final, Eoin spoke of the determination to prove they were dogged this year and to win tough encounters. Responding at the beginning of the second half with an unanswered 1-4 saw them go back in front and they never trailed for the remainder of the tie.
Walsh told The Clare Echo, “Games in the past we lost by a point but we knew we were good enough, in those games it is about getting over the line whatever it takes. Our pins were up against the collar there and we did manage to get a few points on the board, big moments in defence and we held on to a three or four point lead, it was very tight at the end but we managed to keep our cool, keep calm, keep collected and you could see the outpouring of emotion at half time from players and coaches alike, it means so much for this club. Seeing the crowd for a Banner game today, I’ve never seen a crowd like it, I thought last year for the Junior A hurling final that we had a massive crowd, this was nearly double, it is brilliant to see and some people said they would never see it fifteen or twenty years ago, it was absolutely amazing to witness as a player”.
