*Paraic O’Loughlin. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Turning a Senior B title (or three for that matter) into a Canon Hamilton equivalent certainly isn’t an easy transition as Clonlara have discovered over the past few seasons.
Amidst a transition from the breakthrough winning side of 2008 and only less than half of the team still in situ from subsequent final appearances as late at 2015 and ’16, Clonlara have had to usher through their historic Minor A winning side of 2018 as they look to finally emerge to the other side.
Consequently, while garnering a hat-trick of Senior B crowns may not have been their goal, it’s still infinitely better that being embroiled in the relegation series, something that again concerns manager Donal Madden, particularly with two more clubs facing the drop in 2023.
“Being totally honest, the only thing that’s in our heads at the moment is trying to avoid the dreaded relegation,” admits Madden when quizzed about his side’s quarter-final ambitions.
“That’s where our focus is for the moment and that won’t change until we get a few results under our belts”.
“John [Conlon] is now the only one left from the 2008 winning squad that will be lining out on Sat-urday and that’s a fair testament to him so it’s a completely new team. Talk of the 2008 team is finished now and there’s a whole new group of players coming so the Senior B’s have been a help for them and we also got to last year’s Clare Cup Final but ultimately it’s in the championship that you are judged on so we simply have to go out and perform”.
Conscious of the strength of the group, Madden, who is in his second stint in charge of Clonlara, feels that his side will need to upset the odds in order to prosper over the course of the group stages.
“It’s an even enough group and all are tough challenges ahead but let’s not kid ourselves, Sixmilebridge are the stand-out team in it as they’ve won numerous county championship in the last ten years and have so much experience. Crusheen too have Michael Browne back over them this year and he has brought in a lot of past players into his management team who are all good guys so they will be well organised this year. And the Mills too have obviously had their own big success recently with the Clare Cup win so we’re probably coming in as the underdog in the group but let’s see where that takes us.
“I mean hurling and sport in general is so thrilling because it doesn’t always go to form so there will always be shocks. I mean if it always went according to form, then there would be no point turning up really. As we saw from last weekend, there will be surprises along the way so we can-not afford to switch off at any stage and will need our guys to be firing from the start this week-end”.
With the Mills in a similar survival-first siege mentality, it puts an extra emphasis on Saturday’s showdown in Sixmilebridge as the winner can breathe a little easier for the remainder of the group whereas the loser is in knock-out mode from there on in.
“The Mills are obviously the form team as they’ve won the Clare Cup and I watched the semi-final and final and I must say that they were mightily impressive. So it is a four pointer for us. We have a lot of hard work and good work done and I’m hopeful that we’ll get a massive performance out of the lads at the weekend”.
Clonlara
Management: Donal Madden (Manager); Niall Hogan, Mike Stritch, Ger O’Connell, Alan Murnane (Coaches/Selectors); Eric Finn (S&C); Claire Gilligan, Clem Nihill (Physios); John-ny McGuiness (Kit Man)
Captain: Jathan McMahon
Key Player: John Conlon
One to Watch: Daniel Moloney
Fresh Blood: James Carmody, James McCormick, Diarmuid Stritch, Tommy Walsh
Departure Gate: Cillian Fennessy (Transfer to Kilkenny); Oisin O’Brien (retired); Kieran Galvin, Paul McNamara (abroad)
Titles Won: 2
Last season’s run: Senior B Champions
Schedule
Round 1 – v O’Callaghan’s Mills at O’Garney Park Sixmilebridge, Saturday 5pm
Round 2 – v Sixmilebridge (Weekend of August 11/12/13th)
Round 3 – v Crusheen (Weekend of August 25/26/27th)
