Burning ambition to avoid one title wonders tag driving Cleary and Shinrone on

A BURNING ambition to avoid joining the ranks of one title wonders is one of the things driving Shinrone on towards more glory.

The incentive to win a Senior Hurling Championship is always enough motivation on its own but goalkeeper Eamon Cleary admitted that the need to add a second one is an extra incentive – something that has been spoken about in their dressing room and used as a challenge to the players.
Shinrone's emergence in 2022 when they won their first ever Senior Hurling Championship was a great, heart warming story and affected people in a positive way far outside their part of a parish that is split by county boundaries – Knockshegowna is the club in the Tipperary portion.

They returned to the final in 2023, an unstoppable Kilcormac-Killoughey home and dry at an early stage and went out in the quarter-final last year. It is a sensational run by a club who endured some fierce hardship before that 2022 breakthrough as they emerged as a real exciting team with potential but lacked consistency and endured tough defeats.

Their run in recent years means that their legacy is assured. Even without that second title, Shinrone deserve to be remembered for a long time. They have been remarkably consistent, a real force of nature and a very attractive side to watch.

However, history can be unkind. In another generation or two, their sustained excellence will be forgotten and the facts glaring out from history books will dictate the way they are remembered: Offaly GAA is littered with teams who won one title, especially in football, and then disappeared back into anonymity. Shinrone don't deserve to be there but without that second title, that is where they will be in fifty years time.

Cleary admitted: “Absolutely. It's really important. The one we did win in 2022, I suppose it didn't come out of nowhere but we were underdogs, we wouldn't have been in the top three to win a county final and then when we got the monkey off our back I suppose it was a huge relief. But then there was the thought that we don't want to be one hit wonders and we wanted to back it up. We got to the final and we showed we were capable but then in '23 our performance really let us down so I think it's really important we do back it up and win another. I think we just want to win more anyway, regardless. We just want to win county finals, that's the target every year from now on.”

The goalkeeper has been one of Shinrone's heroes. His puckouts have generally hit the sweet spot, whether long or short, while his long distance free taking has been a great asset to Shinrone. He has had his misses but got more than his fair share of spectacular ones – frees that only required a short jog from his goals and sailed arrow like straight over the bar.

Considering the distance of some of those, they have been essentially a “free shot” for Cleary with minimal repercussions for missing.

As he says himself, something has gone badly amiss if he has to venture beyond half way to take a free and he commented: “To an extent it's a free shot and I was lucky against Coolderry they all went my way but the last day in the semi-final against Belmont they didn't go to plan and I put a few wide. It's an element of a free shot and I think the big thing is to get it on target because if it drops short it will be on the edge of the square hopefully. I don't think about it too much. I just go out and practise my few frees before training for five or 10 minutes. I just put it down and hit it and hopes it goes on target.”

Like every goalkeeper, he has to quickly brush himself off if he lets in a howler and recovering from a missed free is simple in comparison.

“Absolutely. And I've let a few bloomers in myself. And I've missed plenty of frees. It's an element of putting it behind you, the same as anyone on the pitch if you miss a shot or a tackle, it's a case of putting it behind you. Being a goalkeeper is about being that bit more mentally strong and move on to the next one. Everyone makes mistakes and it's just about how you recover from that. No one ever has a perfect performance, everyone makes some sort of mistake, so it's an element of putting it behind you.”

In the middle of all this, he has done his primary goalkeeping duty exceptionally well, dealing with the high, messy ball that falls in near him and pulling off some sensational saves. One of these came in the second half of the semi-final win over Belmont when the normally lethal Oisin Kelly bore down on him with murderous intent on his mind. Cleary made a great save, one that effectively knocked the wind out of Belmont sails and ensured that Shinrone had a bit of room for error most of the way to the final whistle.

The mind went blank and instinct took over as Kelly raced in on goals and Cleary reflected: “Yeah, you don't even think about it, you just try read where he might going, what way his body is opened up or whatever but to be honest a lot of it is about trying to get your body behind it or get something behind it. A lot of is instinct. We have a goalkeeper coach, Niall Cleary, doing a little bit of work with us this year and we worked a little bit on shot stopping as well as everything else and we've been doing a good bit of goalkeeper work over the last few years. But I suppose instinct does take over at times. When it's one-on-one you just try to get something behind it.”

The goalie is the underdog in that situation. “Yeah and all the pressure is on the forward at that stage. There's no real pressure on the goalkeeper.”

He is in a fiercely competitive position in Offaly but wants to continue to stake his claim for the number one jersey on the county team. Mark Troy is the current incumbent with Liam Hoare breathing down his neck and Cleary also in the mix.

The quality of the goalkeepers has been reflected by Johnny Kelly's decision to carry three last year and Cleary spoke of his desire to keep fighting for his place.

“I've done a couple of years with Offaly and I've been second fiddle for the last couple of behind Mark and Liam but the two lads are fantastic goalies and I think we've a really good partnership the three of us, a really good relationship between us and we're always pushing each other. Look, my target is to take over from and get ahead of the two of them and they know that and there's a big element of 'we push each other' but my target down the line is to be number one for Offaly. I'd love to and I'll train as hard as I can to make that.”

It has been some few years for Shinrone, how did it happen?

“I suppose a lot of work went in underage and there was a very successful team there 10 years ago, won three out of four under 21s and there was a lot of expectation for that team to come through and win and it took a few years and then that team broke through with a few younger lads so it was three years ago in 2022 when we won that [senior]. Some really good hurlers came through.

This is my fifth year in goal. I did a couple of years on the second team, I won a junior and an intermediate and then I made my senior debut five years ago.”

It is your third final against K/K. Is it an advantage you know them so well, does it make any difference?

“We do know each other very well. We hurled each other in the league final this year as well. We've hurled each other a good few times in the last few years. They've brought through plenty of really good hurlers in the last few years as well that wouldn't have been there when we played them in '22.”

To talk briefly about the two finals you played, 2022 there was fierce momentum behind Shinrone and when you got on top in the second half and got a sniff of it you were nearly unstoppable?

“Yeah, I think everything went right for us that day. We just about got over Belmont in the semi-final and then when we got on top in the second half in that game in 2022, we hurled really well and everything went well for us but I suppose it didn't really go to plan the following year when we got back there. We were very disappointed with that.”

What happened in 2023?

“I don't know. That's the question that's been asked for the last two years now. I suppose nothing went right for us that day. K/K hurled fantastic that day, we didn't really get going at all. I don't know what the reason for it was. I don't think the occasion got to us, it was just one of those days more than anything.”

After winning the previous year, was the same hunger there?

“It was, we really wanted to back it up. It wasn't that we were complacent or anything like that. We were ready and maybe that carried into last year when we lost the quarter-final to Coolderry which was very disappointing as well, they beat us by six points. We really wanted to back up [the 2022 win] and prove that we deserved to be there.”

This year in the quarter-final against Coolderry you went in 10 points down, were you shouting and screaming at half-time or was it a calm dressing room?

“There was a bit of both. There was calm heads but there was a bit of shouting and roaring too. We had to figure out what was going wrong in a calm manner first and then we had to get ourselves riled up to play the second half because we knew we were a lot better than we showed in the first half. Coolderry hurled really well in the first half and I think when we sorted out what was going wrong and geed ourselves up again we came out of the blocks a lot better in the second half.”

Shinrone's passing system broke down in the first half. It looked to me to be a big decision to go out and play the same style in the second half”

“The system didn't let us down an awful pile. It was more a lack of intensity from us in the first half. It wasn't the style or the tactics because we were working it short and delivering from distance and it had been working for us for a few games. So it was more about intensity and workrate which was something we went after in the second half and let the hurling look after itself and the style look after itself. We didn't want to abandon what had been working either. But we did go a little bit more direct in the second half, we went a little bit longer but it was still fairly much and same and all about intensity. And it paid off for us.”

How important was your first win against Rynagh's?

“That was a huge win. There was a lot of pressure with the new system, four teams playing [home and away], there was a lot of pressure to get the first win at home because it's not easy going to any other club or for a club to come into a place and perform and I suppose there's an expectation to an extent when you're at home to perform and you put everything in. That's the first championship game we've hurled in Shinrone so there was a lot of expectation that day but we got over the line, we won by two points which was an important win because it kind of set us up and we went to” Kinnitty in the next game and put in a much better performance down in Kinnitty.

Drawing against K/K must have given you great confidence for the final?

“Absolutely. We came off a disappointing defeat to Belmont in the group by three points. We were very disappointed that day because it was our opportunity to give ourselves a chance to go straight to the semi-final by topping the group. It was somewhat of a free hit against Kilcormac but we really wanted to get a performance that day. A draw was grand but we were a little bit disappointed not to win that game too but it gives us loads of confidence now that we can put it up to them.”

It's a golden era at the moment but golden eras don't last for anybody?

“We've a couple of lads there in their late 20s and 30s now and they're probably in their prime but in a couple of years there'll be a new batch of young lads coming along and hopefully they can take over from where a few of the older lads are. We really need to make hay there now while we have a good side.”

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In Shinrone you'd always have an affinity with Birr but as a team it strikes me that you don't mind O'Connor Park and it probably suits ye in some ways?

“No, not at all, we don't mind O'Connor Park. We've haven't hurled in O'Connor Park in a couple of years. I think the semi-final in 2023 was the last time we hurled there. I don't think it bothers us too much. We hurled a lot of our games in Birr and that's just about where we are in the county, the geography of it. I don't think it affected anyone. The bigger pitch might actually suit us hopefully. We've a couple of nice quick hurlers that the space might suit as well, no more than K/K do I suppose. We wouldn't be too worried about changing it up.”