*Shane O’Donnell. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
THE WHEEL turns full circle for Shane O’Donnell this Sunday when eleven years after his indelible All-Ireland Final debut as a carefree teenager, he faces the same opponents at the same stage in an almost eerie decider rematch against the Rebels once more.
The Éire Óg star etched his name into the All-Ireland Final history books in 2013 when after witnessing an ultra-dramatic ‘Holy Moses’ stalemate between the sides from the sidelines, he was catapulted into the starting line-up and completely turned the tide in Clare’s favour with a 3-3 man-of-the-match display to cement a first title in sixteen years.
Fast forward over a decade and the flowing locks are still there as is his passion and enthusiasm for the game but having just turned 30 last month, he returns to the gladiatorial arena a much different attacking threat.
“I think everything has changed since 2013, the way I play the game and the way I prepare for games. What I’m now able to do out in the field is now completely different and what I’m trying to achieve is also fairly different I’d say so there’s more different than there is the same essentially. At the same time, it’s the same game, you still have to beat your man and still have to win the ball and all that stuff bit the way I now approach it is completely different than it was back then. I think that there isn’t that much that’s the same as it was eleven years ago.
“Certainly, for myself, it’s so different how I prepare, how I think about these games. Even the position I was in. I didn’t think I’d start in that game so that preparation build-up was completely different. And therefore, there isn’t any really that much inspiration I can draw from it. The only thing that is kind of is similar is obviously the opposition and the size of the occasion. It never stops becoming something that you are so delighted to be in. An All-Ireland final is what you play hurling for,” he told The Clare Echo.
And yet this day might not have ever come for a Clare side desperate to back up that 2013 breakthrough as well as for O’Donnell himself who came perilously close to calling time on his inter-county career following a debilitating concussion in 2021 that kept him out of the game for almost a full year. “Just because of the trajectory of my career and the fact that I was very close to probably retiring a few years ago, it almost gave me a free shot at everything that came after that. So I feel no real pressure when it comes to big games. I would always put a lot of pressure on myself before the head injury.
“But now I become almost obsessed about getting the most out of myself but in a strange way I don’t necessarily think that there’s pressure associated with that, it’s just trying to do the best that you can. I think that’s probably my over-riding thought process in the last couple of days that the build-up to this All-Ireland Final is something to be enjoyed, it’s not to be winding yourself up on the what ifs”.
However, the burning desire of O’Donnell and the five other 2013 survivors (Peter Duggan, Paul Flanagan, Tony Kelly, David McInerney, Seadna Morey) to finally reunite with the Liam MacCarthy is still very much blazing. “One hundred per cent. As I’ve eluded to the strange trajectory of my career that maybe you do think after you win an All-Ireland in your first year that you’re going to be up there competing in semi-finals and finals every year. Obviously that hasn’t been the case as it’s the first time back there and it is definitely one that if we win, I can categorically say I will enjoy a lot more than I did back then. We were on a roll back then, we won minors, then Under 21’s and suddenly we won the senior and obviously it was a huge deal but it was also in a strange way just another year of success back then.
“Obviously it’s much different when more than ten years pass and you get back there again. Also I was close to not going back a few years ago and it was front and centre in my mind that I couldn’t believe how my career had gone from winning it in my first year and then having to through injury and never getting that opportunity to do so again.”
So is there even a feeling of finally putting the 2013 chapter to bed almost this Sunday? “There’s a very small part of me.” O’Donnell says with a wry smile. “But at the same time that would make it sound as if I wasn’t so happy how 2013 went. It certainly would be a nice way to – I won’t say book-end, as I don’t intend to retire this year but it would be a nice way to stagger, not just having one win at the start of your career but winning another after that”.
Asked if he has shared his experiences and imparted some advice from 2013 to younger players on the Clare panel, Shane said, “We’ve kind of chatted about it but just at a very high level, saying to just enjoy it and not to feel guilty about enjoying the build-up because this is why we play hurling to experience and enjoy these days.
“We’ve a brilliant panel and the younger lads are incredibly mature, far more mature than we were than we were their age so I think they’re capable of doing that themselves. Outside of being a Clare versus Cork final, there are few comparisons to be even drawn with 2013. I mean Cork are a different team, definitely so are we and even hurling has changed so much in the last ten or eleven years.
“Indeed, Cork are a very different team than when we played them three months ago so things change very quickly and we’ll have to do a lot of work to prepare for that game”.
Analysing what Cork did right against Limerick that Clare didn’t, O’Donnell outlined, “They certainly did a few things that we tried to do. In some ways, we are relatively similar in that we both rely a lot on pace in the forwards and try to get Limerick moving because they are such a structured team in defence.
“So there are opportunities there if you can get them moving so that’s a large part of what Cork got joy out of and also where they got joy out of Páirc Uí Chaoimh earlier in the year. We had seen that but certainly they had more success in doing so than we did in the Munster Final but there was a similar approach definitely.”
Having lost three Munster Finals in succession to Limerick, what ingredient keeps this Clare team coming back for more? “It’s a somewhat strange narrative that I often hear but I just don’t find it difficult. Maybe it’s because I just love playing hurling so when I have a bad loss, all I want to do is play another game so the fact that there’s another game in front of you is brilliant. To be able to jump back into training and prepare for another game with all your friends on the panel, there’s no better place to be.
“So the narrative is a bit skewed in some ways. Obviously you’re disappointed and crestfallen after a big loss but the best way to get out of that is just to get straight back at it and build for the next one.”
And they don’t come any bigger than an All-Ireland Final that may have taken eleven years to rediscover but what a journey it has been for Clare and more pointedly O’Donnell himself who despite his injury woes is currently level with his manager Brian Lohan on 54 appearances, a feat he will surpass on Sunday to become Clare’s sixth most experienced championship player behind team-mates John Conlon, Tony Kelly, David McInerney as well as 2013 manager Davy Fitzgerald and top-goalscorer Niall Gilligan.
“I did not realise that but it a real source of pride but I feel proud about so many things in hurling. I feel proud for what we’ve done as a panel, I feel proud for being able to play for that number of years, I even felt proud watching Cork play Limerick the last day. I mean it’s just great to play this fantastic game and to be able to watch it and experience such a brilliant match and occasion. It makes me proud to be involved and makes be feel proud to have the All-Ireland Final to come so there are a lot of factors that make me draw that emotion”.
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