Clare Island II - The Football

Distance travelled to play hurling and football is of no concern to European G.A.A. players. As a result, the 1000+km journey we had undertaken by the time we set foot on the pier on Clare Island, was of no consequence to the travelling party. Initially, as you walk from the boat, only the top of the uprights are visible over the top of the hill. As you get closer though, more and more of the pitch comes within sight. The setting is surreal but just as I imagined it. Here you are, standing on a football pitch on an Island off the west coast of Ireland, surrounded by the Atlantic ocean and the rocky island terrain. We had arrived at our battlefield and two Clare Island teams and another from Roger Casements stood awaiting our arrival.

Our travelling army was vastly depleted but as you can imagine, any lad who travels that far, does so with a belly full of fire. As you grow older and more experienced, you realise who you have does not matter so much, what matters more is what the fellas who are there with you, have inside them. We had some reinforcements in the former of Eoghan Kelly. I may read too much into it but I'm guessing the fact that Eoghan got into a car on Friday afternoon and drive north from Cork to play football with his former Belgian teammates, says a lot about his experience in Belgium and how he feels about the club. Kelly was a great lad to have on board and travelled religiously from Antwerp to train, he was an example to all.

We had one of the Keary clan in tow too but even with them, Clare Island A had too much for us in the opening game. We were very very poor to be fair and struggled to adapt to the big pitch and more crisp football of our All Island All-Ireland Champion opponents. We went down 3-5 to 0-3. However, the 0-3 we crafted were top notch moves so there was hope. Next up were Casements in what was likely to be the decisive game in deciding Clare Island's final opponents. Again, we laboured. The game turned on a disputed goal when we won a free on the 20. Casements argued it and we took it quickly, sending it to the back of the net. Victory would be ours.

Clare Island B were up next. We definitely didn't underestimate them but at the same time we didn't expect such prolonged resistance. Any arrogance was quickly knocked out of us. Big Jim's free taking may have lacked style but not accuracy. The Tipp man guided us home.

That set-up a finale with the hosts' A team. I'd been content all day with just making sure we got to the final. There is no doubt we were struggling with fatigue and the like but a final is a final and you must go out and give it a lash. I needed a pick-me-up. Olof Gill (in a Clare Island jersey) would provide it. His high fielding and piercing runs proved a thorn in opponents sides all day. I decided marking him would deprive me of a place to hide. Our tactics were simple, two of our forwards, Colin and Alan, would get behind the ball as much as possible when we were defending. When we attacked Big Jim and Ruairi would hold it up and wait for the support. It worked a treat. We had limited attacking possession but only trailed at half-time due to a last minute goal; 0-1 to 1-0.

By all accounts, there was an element of panic in our hosts half-time huddle. They'd squandered chances and were struggling with our crowding. Fair play to Padraic O'Malley though, they got it right in the second half. Our tactics were only going to work if we kept their score to a minimum as we would struggle to support our attacks with so many behind the ball. They hunted us down and when I kicked a free straight to their midfielder, he sent it straight back over my head and his teammate dispatched it to the back of the net. Game over effectively.

Still, I was not so disappointed with our performance. We executed the game plan and emptied the tanks. Conor, Keary, Colin and Jim had excelled. As for myself and Giller, well, we probably broke even. I managed to restrict his fielding by keeping him close to our goal for the kick-outs but watching his runs meant I could contribute little going forward. We had no complaints about the defeat and could be proud of our efforts.