By John Harrington

Aron Shanagher’s memory of the day received a call-up to the Clare senior hurling team in late 2015 is still a vivid one.

He’d finished up playing inter-county minor hurling the same year, and he thought the next goal on his horizon was to establish himself in the Clare U-21 side.

Davy Fitzgerald had bigger plans for him though, and picked up the phone to make a call that left the teenager’s head in a spin.

“You couldn't even explain it,” recalls Shanagher. “I remember Davy ringing me one night and I was shaking.

“I went down and told the parents and they were like, 'Are you sure you're going to go for it?' And I just said, 'I have to'.

“And then walking into the dressing-room the first day and you see the likes of Tony Kelly, Brendan Bugler, Shane O'Donnell and all of those lads. They were my heroes and still are, so it definitely was surreal.”

Very few hurlers go straight from the minor grade into senior inter-county hurling and make the sort of impact Shanager did last year.

From the very start he looked like something a little extra-special as he scored a goal on his senior debut against Offaly in the Allianz League, and from there his graph just kept going up and up.

He immediately stood out on the hurling field thanks to his size, strength, speed, and skill, but what was most impressive of all was his mentality.

He backed himself to go for goal at every opportunity and played with sort of confidence you wouldn’t normally associate with a teenager in his first year in the senior grade.

When you talk to him for a little while the dots start to join up. Behind his laid-back demeanour is a steely win to win and hard-wired belief in his own ability.

“When I was going in first you'd chat away to a few of the lads in the club and there were a few of them who had experienced senior inter-county with the likes of Barry Loughnane and that,” says Shanagher.

“They just said to go in and enjoy and not to let anyone put you down. Just play your own game, and that's what I did. I tried to get on the team as much as I could because growing up at U-16 and minor I just never settled for being on the bench.

“I always had a mindset that I had to be in the team, so I just pushed myself and pushed myself and thankfully it worked out for me.”

Having a mentor like Davy Fitzgerald helped, and Shanagher credits the former Clare boss and current Wexford manager with really accelerating his development as a hurler.

“Davy really changed my game, to be honest,” he says. “I would have looked up to Davy as a player and as a manger just winning All-Irelands.

“When I got to work with him he really did change my game.

“He definitely gave me more confidence. He pushed me at times as well, but it definitely helped me out big time.

“When someone like Davy Fitz tells you that you can do it, then you're going to believe him. I think that's how it worked for me anyway.”

Shanagher says there’s a “nice vibe” in the Clare camp as they prepare for Sunday’s Munster SHC Semi-Final against Limerick.

He knows better than to read too much into the fact that Clare are favourites to win the match.

Living in Shannon right on the border with Limerick, he’s all too aware that the intense rivalry between the two counties means form or favouritism counts for little when they do battle.

“It (the favourites  tag) definitely means nothing,” says Shanagher.

“Limerick and Clare is just a different game. It's a different challenge, it's like it's own competition. It doesn't matter what sort of form you're in going into the game, it's going to be a battle.”

Shanagher was a surprise package for opposition defences last year, but on Sunday he’ll be a marked man. That’s not a prospect that seems to worry him though.

“I'll be definitely looking forward to it,” he says with a smile. 

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