Joe Ó Muircheartaigh

Kilmurry Ibrickane 1-14  - Portlaoise 0-8 at The Gaelic Grounds, Limerick

IT wasn’t supposed to be like this.
It was supposed to be like this: The St Paddy’s Day parade was down for March 21, just so as all the good folk of Portlaoise would have a free run to be Croke Park on March 17 to support the town’s footballers in the All-Ireland final.
Thing is, Kilmurry Ibrickane were armed with this knowledge on the flight back from London after they’d beaten Tír Chonaill Gaels - at once they resolved to bring Portlaoise to ground.
However, in their wildest imaginations, they couldn’t have imagined the dramatic circumstances in which it would happen.
Winners by nine points after racking up 1-14 - that’s more that their combined total in the Munster final and All-Ireland quarter-final games.
Factor in Portlaoise being down to 14 men after 40 seconds and down to 13 after 38 minutes; the referee getting a Garda escort off the field afterwards, just before the suspended Declan Callinan was chaired off the same field and you have a melting pot of events on a remarkable football day.
Kilmurry Ibrickane’s day. It’s true that the red cards given to Brian Mulligan and Brian McCormack had a huge bearing on the game, but such was the driven nature of Kilmurry’s display over the hour, it’s hard to see even a 15-man Portlaoise team being able to live with them.
Of course, we’ll never know, but there’s no denying that Kilmurry Ibrickane were a different class on this day - something that manifested itself in the forwards, that much-maligned group who produced the goods thanks to explosive performances from Michael O’Dwyer, Noel Downes and Stephen Moloney.
They fired as Kilmurry fired themselves into the dreamland of an All-Ireland final.
The stuff of dreams yes, but dreams that came true spectacularly for Kilmurry, just as they blew up in the faces of a Portlaoise side that seemed shell-shocked from the second that Michael Duffy sensationally red-carded Brian Mulligan after a close-line tackle on Shane Hickey in the opening minute.
The Kilmurry Kop who had laid claim to most of the Mackey Stand roared and within seconds the team roared too and hit three points inside eight minutes to make early hay with their numerical advantage.
They’d been here before though - back in the ‘05 semi-final against Ballina Stephenites they led by the same margin after a fast start, but then lost their way.
Second time around it was very different, even though there was a lull when Paul Cahillane and Brian McCormack pegged back points after Michael O’Dwyer, Enda Coughlan and Ian McInerney had got Kilmurry off to a flier.
It was a temporary lull, however, as a booming 53-yard free from McInerney and then a brilliantly worked score finished over the bar by Noel Downes in the 18th minute had Kilmurry back on track.
And from there they never lost sight of the finishing line as they cut through a porous Portlaoise defence to build up a healthy 0-9 to 0-4 interval lead.
It was impressive stuff, with the displays of Downes and O’Dwyer especially catching the eye, while the selfless work of Moloney was at the core of their success.
Only Portlaoise captain Brian McCormack and centre-back Cahir Healy seemed to be taking the fight - Healy dominated his sector while McCormack’s second point in the 24th minute pegged it back to a 0-7 to 0-3 game.
However, the point scored by his marker Peter O’Dwyer two minutes later was way more significant in the overall scheme of things. The strong man of the Kilmurry team rode three tackles as he bulldozed his way towards goal, but at the end of it all still had the class and composure to drive over a great point from 30 yards off his left.
Portlaoise didn’t have the same drive and determination; they didn’t have the same class either, especially once their trump card in the forwards, Paul Cahillane, was mastered by Martin McMahon.
McMahon’s performance on Cahillane was the contest between the Clare backs and the Portlaoise forwards in microcosm - the space they were afforded in Laois and in Leinster wasn’t there against a set of backs who hounded them time and time again into cul-de-sacs and laterally across the field before they coughed up possession or kicked the ball wide.
It was the same by Kilmurry in the Munster championship and All-Ireland quarter-final - it’s never any other way with these backs, but the difference was with the forward display that subsequently pounded Portlaoise into submission long before the final whistle.
Michael O’Dwyer’s point one minute after half-time was nearly as significant as his older brother’s - he took a heavy shoulder that left his marker Eoin Bland on the deck and then flashed the ball over the bar to extend Kilmurry’s lead to six.
When Johnny Daly pointed a free five minutes later Portlaoise looked beaten, even though a Paul Cahillane point in the 38th minute gave them hope. It came just after Kevin Fitzpatrick’s speculative shot from 50 yards that ended up in the net was ruled out for a square ball infringement against Cahillane.
But before Portlaoise could mount another attack Brian McCormack was red carded after picking up a second yellow and all Portlaoise hope extinguished.
All that remained was for Kilmurry to apply the killer blow and it came with the next score of the game, Noel Downes’ goal  as he coolly sidefooted the ball home past the advancing Michael Nolan after a perceptive through ball from Mark McCarthy.
There were still 16 minutes on the clock, but this game had run it’s course long before the final whistle as Kilmurry slapped into cruise control for Croke Park long before the end.
 

TJ Flynn

ON one of those roundabouts outside Ennis and heading for Limerick, stood a sign painted in Kilmurry green and red. Do It For Callinan, it read.
The sentiment was simple yet clear. One of the club’s stalwarts had been hard done by and the west Clare club would use this as yet another reason to push past Portlaoise, favourites to emerge from the semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds having won their provincial championship for the seventh time earlier this season.
In the middle of last week manager Micheál McDermott was asked for his opinion on Declan Callinan’s suspension. On that occasion, McDermott also spoke of the binding and uniting affect the suspension of Declan Callinan would have on Kilmurry.
While McDermott was right to try and muster some positives from Callinan’s controversial suspension (remember, the GAA authorities only suspended Callinan on TV evidence, having received a letter from Tír Chonaill Gaels which pointed out that the Kilmurry Ibrickane man did not strike a player from the London club) the spark he aimed to find from the suspension wasn’t entirely necessary.
Kilmurry, simply, did not require further motivation for getting to an All-Ireland Club Final and making it to the hallowed soil of Croke Park.
When they went down to Drom Broadford in last year’s Munster Final, they re-grouped and set their sights on not Clare, but the province. Not too many clubs would be in the position to hit such a target and few, if any, would openly admit as such. But Kilmurry have had the courage to shoot for the top and not make any apologies for doing so.
It was that desire and drive that pushed them over the line on Sunday in Limerick. It wasn’t the early sending off of Brian Mulligan and any suggestion that the referee, this sending off or the subsequent dismissal of Brian McCormack helped Kilmurry over the line is pure wind.
On the television screens and on the radio waves, Michael Duffy, the referee, made the news for the treatment he received from a tiny sector of the Portlaoise crowd. Kilmurry will live with this.
If anything, should this incident continue to deflect from the utterly sparkling football they played, then there’s no harm in that. They came into this semi-final under the radar and if either the Ulster or the Connaught champions take Kilmurry for granted on March 17, then let them.
But back to the reasons why they didn’t just win on Sunday, but why they steam-rolled past Portlaoise.
This was one of the best examples of applied football anybody is likely to see. Each player knew his role. Each gave their utmost. It was a unified performance.
At half-time, you could sense this. Kilmurry lead by five but considering the possession and the territory they enjoyed, they should have been ahead by more.
Beneath the stand at Limerick two Kilmurry men stood outside the tearoom. Both had sons on the team. One slapped the back of the other.
“It’s there for us, horse. It’s there for us.”
That reaction to the first-half said it all. They were ahead, yet they would take nothing for granted. Croke Park and March 17 would never be taken for granted.
Had Portlaoise come out strongly at the start of the second-half, they could have asked questions of Kilmurry. That they didn’t was, once more, down to the determination of the Clare champions. Inside the opening six minutes they had stretched that five point lead to seven and the gulf was opening.
By the time Odran O’Dwyer stepped onto the grass, the game was done and when the final whistle went - just before the club support lined the perimeter of the field in anticipation of a moment they had waited and waited for – some of the most jubilant scenes in club football exploded over the Gaelic Grounds.
When they reached Ennis and nosed west past that roundabout once more, Kilmurry knew that they might have won for Callinan, but they didn’t win because of him.
They won because of their hunger, speed, sharpness, dedication, commitment to every ball. They won, because true to form, they never relented.

Joe Ó Muircheartaigh

KILMURRY Ibrickane had a Super Sunday all round.
In The Gaelic Grounds as they produced their best 60-minutes since the county semi-final win over St Senan’s Kilkee in Doonbeg back in ’08; in The Clare Inn afterwards when a hotel full of Yankee soldiers bound for Iraq or Afghanistan were shown that the red and green flag of Kilmurry Ibrickane is every bit as powerful a symbol as their Stars and Stripes; in the Quilty Tavern late into the night and early morning.
That was Sunday though – this is Tuesday and beyond. The now, where, even though the glory of their All-Ireland semi-final win and the sight of the green and red taking over the Ennis Road burns fresh in the memory, there is still an All-Ireland to be won.
It means that Kilmurry’s work really starts now – struggling to beat Tír Chonaill Gaels in Ruislip was a great thing, because it kept them under the radar and teed them up for a mighty asssault on Portlaoise, the favourites, the glamour team of Townies.
The Ruislip episode was a bit like Kerry’s experiences against Longford, Sligo and Antrim – it helped them go in against Dubliln, like Portlaoise, the favourites and a glamour team of Townies.
But once Dublin were taken to the cleaners, it was never going to be the same when Kerry faced Meath and Cork in the subsequent All-Ireland semi-final and final games. But, they still won the All-Ireland and Kilmurry can do the same.
But, Andy Merrigan will only come to Clare if a firm lid is put on things. Winning the All-Ireland semi-final by nine points could be a very bad thing unless the victory is parked straight away.
That’s not only in the minds of the players, but the supporters too.
Kilmurry Ibrickane have great supporters – the Kilmurry Kop are the stuff of legend now, but the best way they can serve the team from now until March 17 is to eschew backslapping.
Sure, it’s great and everyone loves to be told how great they are, but wait until March 17.
Maybe this is why Michael O’Dwyer politely declined an interview request from one journalist on Sunday – he’d already been interviewed by TG4, RTÉ and Clare FM, not to mind a plethora of print media hacks.
“Wait until we’ve the All-Ireland won,” O’Dwyer pleaded. “I’ll talk to you then, I promise.”
It was a great sign. O’Dwyer’s best performance in a Kilmurry Ibrickane jersey was only minutes old, but he was looking beyond Limerick to Dublin. It’s as if he was trying not to be sucked into the hype of this 1-14 to 0-8 success.
And, if the rest of the Kilmurry troupe, from players to supporters, take their cue from O’Dwyer’s focus, the All-Ireland title will be theirs and Andy Merrigan will cross the Shannon into Clare’s part of Munster for the very first time.
Management’s mantra should be two-fold – let the players enjoy and live the build-up to their greatest day, because by doing so they’ll be able to play with the type of abandon that characterised much of their semi-final display, but they have to be closeted from the fanfare at the same time.
Back in 2004, a great An Ghaeltacht team weren’t. They had five All-Ireland senior medal winners in their team and the All-Ireland was going to be theirs. A Céile Mór was even organised in the Burlington Hotel on St Patrick’s Day night, with a place in the corner reserved for Andy Merrigan.
It never happened. A team that included such figures as the three Ó Sé brothers, Dara Ó Cinnéide and Aodán MacGearailt lost focus between the semi-final win over St Bridget’s and the final against Caltra.
The result was that An Ghaeltacht lost and will probably never get near Croke Park again.
The same can’t happen Kilmurry Ibrickane, because as Micheál McDermott said on Sunday, “You get a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to an All-Ireland Club Final; you get a once in a lifetime opportunity to win an All-Ireland Club Final. For players and for management you can’t let that opportunity pass”.