*Oisin and Fiachra Donnellan with their niece Sadhbh Ward. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
VAL Donnellan believes Feakle’s run to a 2024 TUS Senior Hurling Championship decider has been matched by development off the pitch.
“There’s fierce work gone on this year,” says the current club secretary. “Adam Hogan’s father Micheál is gone in as treasurer. Oisín Clune’s father Mark is gone in as chairman. They’re in their second year. We’re building a new clubhouse. At underage, the numbers are good”.
Val is a Canon Hamilton winner with Feakle from 1988 and his sons Oisín and Fiachra will get their chance on Sunday to get their own equivalent. “They were reared hurling,” he says. “There was nothing else in their life only hurling matches”.
It’s hurling’s circle of life and Feakle are massively proud of how they produce their players.
“In Feakle, everyone that plays hurling stays hurling. There’s only 63 boys and girls in the school so that will tell you how many boys we have coming through. That’s four a year at most. But they all keep hurling”.
Sixmilebridge’s national school enrolment is seven times greater than their opponents on Sunday but there was a time when both clubs enjoyed a decade of dominance in age-grade hurling and U21s in particular, and Feakle’s famous win in 1988 didn’t come out of nowhere. “We won U16B, U16A, Minor A and four U21s,” says Val. “We had a celebration every year up to ‘85. We won the Clare Cup in 1987. In ’88, we won the Clare Cup and the Championship. We were used to winning”.
Sixmilebridge won U21 titles in 1980 and 1981 before Feakle made the breakthrough. Three of Feakle’s titles were at the Bridge’s expense. Feakle’s run of four-in-a-row was broken by Sixmilebridge in 1986. The clubs were finalists twelve times between them in the 80s.
So, championship winning sides don’t arrive overnight. Sixmilebridge’s run of five titles in eight years of the 2010s is some going, but hurling experts will tell you the signs were there from a run of three U21 titles between 2011 and 2014.
If player numbers and underage pedigree are anything to go by, Donnellan reckons the signs are there for Feakle in 2024 too. “We’ve fierce numbers training now,” he says. “We haven’t had them since ’88. There’s thirty lads training every evening. It’s unreal.
“We’ve started to compete again. We won U21C and U21B, we were beaten in an U21A final and then won with Feakle Killanena in 2018. By that stage, you could see a core group of fellas there”.
While Sixmilebridge’s last U21 success was in 2014, six of Feakle’s current panel were winners in 2018 including Conn Smyth and three other starters. “Since 2018 we don’t really have any fella that has retired through age. The oldest there would be 35 or 36 and they’re still playing. All we’ve done is added each year. For the last four of five years, the lads coming up are all pushing for places. Great young fellas and you can see the team progressing.”
Ten of the current panel were U21A winners in 2022. They include 2023 Harty Cup champions Oisin Clune, Adam Hogan, Ronan O’Connor and Oisin O’Connor.
Val enjoyed his own days as a young gun. “I was 24 in 1988. We were beaten in ‘87 by Clarecastle. Ger Loughnane and Fr Harry were over the team in ‘87. Nerves maybe got to us in the final and we didn’t play well. The following year we got back and won the Clare cup in the spring of ’88. In the championship, we were playing Éire Óg in the semi-final and we were not playing well. We got a real Ger Loughnane speech at half time. He picked out a few of us, myself included, that weren’t doing the business. We were named and shamed inside in the dressing room and we won the second half. It got the response. He was inspirational”.
The current crop has their own way of doing the business. Val attended his first ever video analysis session as part of Feakle’s preparations at the weekend. “It’s huge these days,” he says. “You’d often be wondering what all the analysis is for but it does help fellas. If everyone else is doing it, you have to do it. Playing Cratloe, you know they play their hurling as a football team. There’s great support play and short play. You play the Bridge then and it would more traditional like ourselves.
“I expect this Sunday what you’ll have is more of a traditional hurling match.”
Both clubs may share the same traditions, but Val is hoping Feakle will be favoured by history on the day.
