Pictured is Clare senior hurler, David Reidy, who has teamed up with Allianz today to look ahead to the upcoming Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Final this weekend.
By John Harrington
The Championship might be around the corner, but the Clare hurlers are fully focused on Saturday’s Allianz Hurling League Final against Kilkenny.
Under manager Brian Lohan this Clare team has fallen just short on a couple of occasions of winning some silverware, and it’s an itch they badly want to scratch according to attacker David Reidy.
“We’re looking forward to it, if you look back at Clare’s history we don’t have enough medals,” says Reidy.
“As a Clare team we don’t have enough silverware so it’s a big opportunity for us to get national silverware in our back pockets.
“We don’t have too many of them in Clare so we’ll be going all out to win on Saturday against Kilkenny.
"We met Kilkenny earlier on in the year at home in Cusack Park so it’s something to look forward to so close to championship – a championship kind of feel before going into the Munster championship.
“It’s a massive game for us as players, the Kilkenny players, for both sets of supporters. It’s going to be high intensity, the tackles are going to be made, it’s going to be a blockbuster game.
“It’s the preparation for that to bring forward, our week will be train tonight, play a match on Saturday, recover on Sunday and then we’re back into preparation stage for two weeks’ time.
“So it definitely won’t do us any harm winning on Saturday.”
Clare’s unbeaten run to Saturday’s Final against Kilkenny has been all the more impressive considering they’ve done it without star players like Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell, David McInerney, and Ryan Taylor.
David Reidy of Clare scores a point despite the efforts of Ronan Maher of Tipperary during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-final match between Clare and Tipperary at Laois Hire O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, Laois. Photo by John Sheridan/Sportsfile.
A cohort of younger players have been given extended game-time with the likes of Conor Leen, Darragh Lohan, and Keith Smyth really catching the eye.
“I think the thing we’re most pleased about is the squad depth we’re trying to build,” says Reidy.
“We have quite a number of new young lads putting their hands up and [we’re] giving them an opportunity. Once they’re given that opportunity, in fairness to them they’re grabbing it with two hands.
“That depth is really driving each individual on to try and deliver in training sessions. Every time you have to be at 100% to bring the best for the team. There’s going to be five subs and you’ll need all five in any big game be it in the Allianz League or the Munster championship or further afield.
“That competition is very pleasing at the moment.”
At the age of 30 Reidy is very much one of the veterans in the panel now but is arguably playing some of the best hurling of his career.
He scored three points from play in the semi-final win over Tipperary and hit hit 10 points overall in the five matches he played in this year's campaign.
But there’s more to Reidy’s game than scoring. For someone of a relatively small stature he’s a very effective ball-winner, he can pull defences out of shape with his pace, and he has the vision to create for others too.
David Reidy of Clare in action against Bryan O'Mara of Tipperary during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 semi-final match between Clare and Tipperary at Laois Hire O'Moore Park in Portlaoise, Laois. Photo by John Sheridan/Sportsfile.
He’s also a real Swiss Army Knife of a player thanks to his ability to play in multiple positions which he puts down to different managers using him in different roles.
“I probably started off as a corner-forward,” says Reidy. “When Davy (Fitzgerald) was over us I was playing midfield, Donal (Moloney) and Gerry (O'Connor) I was playing in the half-forward line so I have had experience playing all over the field from number eight up.
“That alone, the experience of playing games, learning from team-mates that are specialised in certain positions and taking the positive aspects of them and trying to be a fully rounded hurler more so than a corner-forward and more so than a midfielder, it’s kind of worked out.
“If you look at the modern game as well, especially that Tipperary team of a couple of years ago, no-one knew where their forwards were playing, they were just constantly moving.
“So I suppose that builds on something they’ve done as well, it’s about being able to play in multiple positions.”
You’d imagine that winning a League title on Saturday would set Clare up perfectly for a Munster Championship that starts with an eagerly awaited first round clash with Limerick.
They’ve suffered agonising Munster Final defeats in the last two years and painful All-Ireland Championship exits at the hands of Kilkenny, but Reidy is hopeful those experiences have made them stronger.
“I think every year, whether you win or lose, you have to come away with learnings,” he says.
“We’re probably not that far away but we’re back onto an even playing field in terms of the championship side of things. We have played no games this year so far so every team has zero points.
“It we can take a couple of learnings from the last couple of years and build it into the performance and preparation for the rest of this week and the following weeks, you’d expect to be there or thereabouts.”
This year, during their 32nd year sponsoring the competition, Allianz has been campaigning for children and young people to #StopTheDrop and remain involved in sport when transitioning from primary to secondary school. For more information visit https://www.allianz.ie/stopthedrop