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Clare and Wexford - a rivalry resumed

Ian Byrne and Patrick Donnellan collide during the 2014 All Ireland SHC Round 1 replay at Wexford Park.

Ian Byrne and Patrick Donnellan collide during the 2014 All Ireland SHC Round 1 replay at Wexford Park.

​By Cian O'Connell

Back in 2014 Wexford and Clare provided two gripping matches loaded with sheer suspense and drama. The reigning All Ireland champions were eventually toppled in the south east by Wexford in a fondly remembered Round One Qualifier replay.

Clare went down fighting, though, losing a dramatic encounter after extra-time. It was a defeat which hurt Clare, who had hoisted Liam MacCarthy following a thrilling campaign the year previously.

Patrick Donnellan was Clare’s captain and leader during that splendid burst and recalls the passion of the occasions in Cusack and Wexford Park.

“You would always have memories from games like that with replays, it grabbed peoples attention after the first day,” Donnellan recalls.

“The second day having to go down to Wexford Park was daunting. It can he a hard place to play depending on the conditions and not a place we would have played a huge amount in, but them games are great. They are the ones you look forward to.”

Donnellan felt that Wexford were a team on the rise and they have developed further under the shrewd guidance of Davy Fitzgerald in the past 18 months. “Wexford were a team coming at the time and they have been building since then,” Donnellan admits.

“They have added a bit more quality and a bit more fitness and drive since Fitzy has gone down last year. Every Championship game you lose you'd always have regrets and we would have perceived that we would have the quality to beat them at that time so losing was a fairly big blow.

“There were a couple of good moments in it, Colin Ryan put over a really clutch free towards the end. It swung over and back, there was real amounts of controversy, suspense, everything that you would want in those games.

“We will remember them, but ultimately we lost the game at the end. That is the most disappointing thing for Clare.”

Jack Guiney, Wexford, and Patrick Donnellan, Clare, during the 2014 All Ireland SHC Round 1 replay at Wexford Park.

Jack Guiney, Wexford, and Patrick Donnellan, Clare, during the 2014 All Ireland SHC Round 1 replay at Wexford Park.

With the Banner flag planted on the summit of the hurling world in September 2013 is it too simplistic to suggest that every other outfit simply relished a shot at the standard bearers when the Championship resumed the following summer?

“Not at all, that is exactly what it is,” Donnellan answers. “Once you win anything in whatever sport it is you are putting yourself up there to be knocked down. That is a good thing, you'd be hoping that it would bring the best out of the champions, the best out of the challengers.

“From Clare's point of view we won it in 2013, it was obviously hugely different to what had gone on before. We had probably won it from a point of view where nobody perceived we had the quality, even internally we always thought we were good enough to win something, but it probably came a little bit earlier than expected.

“The following year where we could have settled a bit more and focused on the performance element, improving, making sure we sustained what we had and being consistent maybe we lost the run of ourselves a bit in that we treated every game as an All Ireland Final almost.

“It probably wasn't realistic that we could sustain that level of competitiveness and consistency from the first round of the League all the way through. We probably fatigued maybe at the end in those games.”

Donnellan noticed that other teams were primed for battles against Clare. “When you are champions and the winners from the previous years every team you meet, whether it is a League game or a Championship game, they are going to up their performance to try to beat you, to get the most out of themselves which is great,” Donnellan adds.

“It just made the challenge for Clare that year and the champions every year even greater, but that is the great leveller and makes you find out if you are worthy champions two years in a row like Galway are trying to do this year and like Kilkenny were trying to do a lot of the time.”

It meant Clare had to deal with a heavy burden of expectancy and a predominantly young team was under pressure to deliver. “I think you are and that is why it is important - we would have talked about it afterwards - that after you win to take stock of where you are,” Donnellan comments. “You need to focus on what you need to improve the following year and focus on what your training schedule is going to be, what your expectations are going to be.

“The next year is going to be totally different in a lot of respects, you are going to be starting back a little bit later with teams gunning for you from the very, very start in the League, challenge matches, and obviously in the Championship.

“You need to approach it a bit different, freshen up the squad a little bit, you need to treat it a bit different.”

Davy Fitzgerald guided Clare to All Ireland glory in 2013.

Davy Fitzgerald guided Clare to All Ireland glory in 2013.

Valuable lessons were learned by Clare, who face another intriguing All Ireland Semi-Final against Wexford at Pairc Ui Chaoimh on Saturday afternoon.

“For us that year maybe '13 rolled into '14 without having a huge amount of analysis of what got us there and what we needed to amend a little bit,” Donnellan recalls.

“I don't think anyone had bad intentions, but it just happened all very quickly for us. In hindsight if you were to look back on it you do need to change a few little things, to tweak them, to make sure you ultimately are where you need to be in the Championship in June.

“Whatever happens before that is ultimately just to prepare you to make sure you are capable of defending your title well, to get the most out of yourself. There definitely is pressure, there has to be pressure, but there is pressure in a relegation game too at the other spectrum of it and it is just up to the players and management to handle that as best they can.

“You will use pressure to your advantage when you need to making sure you are getting the most out of yourself on the bigger days.”

That is precisely what Clare achieved under Fitzgerald in 2013 securing All Ireland glory on a sultry Saturday evening at GAA headquarters. It was amongst the popular Donnellan’s finest hours in a Clare jersey, but he stepped away from the inter-county beat last autumn.

“I miss the games,” Donnellan admits. “To be perfectly honest I miss the training element interacting with the lads, but I don't miss the winter evenings. If it was a case of just turning up to play a game on June 1 everyone would do it, but the lads have seven or eight months done before they get to that stage. In bitter evenings and the snow and rain we had this year the hard yards sacrificing the evenings and weekends.

“Everyone misses the games and until the day I die I will miss being out on the field playing for Clare, standing up with your team mates and being able to fight with them on the day. I will definitely miss that, but I'm acutely aware of everything that goes into getting you to that stage.

“I miss representing Clare, 100%, I was very lucky that I had a lot of good days with Clare, even the bad days I always enjoyed trying to get the most out of myself, trying to be the best I could be with my team mates and friends.” Donnellan certainly accomplished that particular mission.