{"id":89,"date":"2009-08-07T13:30:37","date_gmt":"2009-08-07T12:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/?p=89"},"modified":"2009-08-31T22:07:54","modified_gmt":"2009-08-31T21:07:54","slug":"waterford-for-all-ireland-or-another-kilkenny-mauling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/?p=89","title":{"rendered":"Waterford for All-Ireland or another Kilkenny mauling?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a member of the Clare team of ’95 currently at the helm of the Waterford senior hurling team, it’s timely to look back on the GAA background he came from.\u00a0 In the Dungarvan Leader in 1995, my father Ned Power, an All-Ireland Waterford hurler and subject of a forthcoming biography, reflects on the breakthrough achievements of the Clare hurling team 14 years ago.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

September 15, 1995<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

More has been written about Clare over the last week than about previous winners of the Liam McCarthy Cup.\u00a0 They have captured the whole nation\u2019s attention and the imagination of all hurling lovers by the magnificence of their achievement.\u00a0 Many people are now preoccupied with trying to understand how a team of ordinary hurlers was transformed into a super-charged irresistable force; how Clare have exorcised all the physiological hang ups and obstacles, the fear of winning as much as the fear of losing.\u00a0 Let\u2019s ponder the combination of talents, which is the Clare hurling team.<\/p>\n

By appointing Ger Loughnane as Manager the County Board ensured that a man of strength, honesty and integrity was in charge, a man too who sought the position.\u00a0 He was given complete freedom to nominate his helpers in management and he knew whom he needed to pursue the fulfilment his dream \u2013 every Clareman\u2019s dream; the Liam McCarthy Cup.\u00a0 He picked two men Michael McNamara and Tony Considine who were as he said himself \u201con the same wavelength\u201d as himself.\u00a0 Translated that meant that all three shared the same vision, agreed on fundamentals, were completely honest and open with one another and that each had his won particular talents in management to offer.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t his \u201cyesmen\u201d, his puppets to be manipulated, the expendables upon whose shoulders the blame for failure could be laid, men who could be used and aabused as has been the case with many management teams in many counties over the years.\u00a0 Heights of achievement cannot be reached with yesmen.\u00a0 A good manager needs very intelligent accomplices if he is to function effectively, not sycophantic morons who swallow his thoughts and ideas without the ability to digest them.\u00a0 Every worthwhile manager needs the corrective of sound-minded colleagues.\u00a0 Ger, Michael and Tony were consumed by a passion, a shared passion, which drove them relentlessly on.\u00a0 Clare would win the All Ireland and those three men knew the magnitude of the effort needed from themselves, form the County Board and form the panel they would choose.<\/p>\n

Michael McNamara was a sadistically hard trainer who was determined, like Kevin Heffernan in 1974 with Dublin, to make Clare the fittest team in the country.\u00a0 Do you know that training for the 1995 championships began on 5 September 1994, a year ago!<\/p>\n

Michael\u2019s punishing regime was only for the bravest souls, the most committed men.\u00a0 Sometimes sessions were timed for 7a.m.\u00a0 Often sessions lasted two hours.\u00a0 Just recall for yourself the dreadful weather of last winter and spring.\u00a0 The hills and muddy fields of Crusheen and Shannon could tell of torture and torment as the essential stamina work was pursued.\u00a0 How they must have hated the thought of such suffering especially during that most excruiating spell from Christmas to Easter.\u00a0 During this spell the dark grey aching, misery which was training, was lightened only by the bon-homie and cheerfulness of Tony Considine, a bubbly character who made the hellish punishment a little more bearable.\u00a0 Behind the levity and craic, however, Tony was shrewd and knowledgeable about hurling, hurlers and team requirements.\u00a0 His immensely likeable manner and easy sociability served to conceal a man driven by the same demons which drove his two colleagues Ger and Michael.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was all about passion\u201d, Ger is reported to have said afterwards, \u201cpassion and heart which have been our trademark this season\u201d.\u00a0 With respect it was about far more than that although without the driving enthusiasm which consumed management and was transmitted to the players the unforgettable deeds of Clare 1995 could not have been accomplished.\u00a0 As we know there comes a time in every game, big or little, when a team is rocked back on its heels.\u00a0 Sometimes that happens early in a game (Vienna last week), often it\u2019s later on when the game is perhaps delicately poised.\u00a0 The winners don\u2019t always dominate from start to finish.\u00a0 When Cork scored a sickening late goal on Clare last June former Banner representatives would have hung heads and accepted inevitable defeat.\u00a0 When Galway came within two points of Clare in the All Ireland semi final a crisis point was reached.\u00a0 Johnny Dooley\u2019s pointed freed 5 minutes from time in the All Ireland final sent Offaly tricolour flags dancing and gave the holders a 2-8 to 0-11 lead as we prepared to hail mighty Offaly and to applaud Clare\u2019s gallantry in defeat.\u00a0 On all three cases Clare\u2019s stamina, utter self-belief and mental strength lifted them and swept them on to victory.<\/p>\n

However efficient the team management no thoughts of glory could be entertained if the squad of players weren\u2019t men of character.\u00a0 Only lads of great character would sustain a gruelling training schedule over such an extended period.\u00a0 Only such ment could be infused with the passion of their mentors and not be satisfied with the hurling world\u2019s sympathy or honourable defeat.\u00a0 Seven of last year\u2019s Munster panel were dropped as the search went on for lads of character, trust and intelligence.\u00a0 Big, strong Ollie Baker, steady calm imperturbable Brian and Frank Lohan, rangy P.J. O\u2019Connell, indefatigable Jamesie O\u2019Connor are good examples of what were needed.\u00a0 And the powerful bond which knit the squad together derived from sharing the pain and suffering and bleakness of spartan training sessions.\u00a0 Playing in a Munster championship or All Ireland game was much easier than one of those McNamara training specials.\u00a0 When you have scaled Mt. Everest climbing Cruach\u00e1n is child\u2019s play and the accumulation of layers of resilience, heart and spirit banished negative thoughts and fears and allowed them to express themselves.<\/p>\n

I was in Thurles on Saturday last for the annual Hurlers Inter County Golf Competition and, of course, nearly all the talk was about Clare.\u00a0 Mick Hayes, Noel Pyne, Johnny Callanan, Seamus Durack, Sean Heaslip and Sean Cleary from the Banner were showered with congratulations.\u00a0 A constant rejoiner from those chaps was: it\u2019s Waterford\u2019s turn now for a break through.\u00a0 They were giving expression to the thoughts of All Waterford followers.\u00a0 If Clare who were humiliated in the Munster finals of 1993 and 1994 could overcome such traumatic experiences why not Waterford who are little behind them if at all.<\/p>\n

Now is the time for Waterford to take inspiration.\u00a0 Select a panel of manliness and character.\u00a0 Lads who have the commitment to undergo the harsh training required to reach the summit, the ambition to aim high and the potential to be top performers.\u00a0 Let them share the murderous hard work in the conviction that like Loughnane\u2019s men they know they will succeed in their quest for hurling\u2019s ultimate honours.<\/p>\n

Heights by great men reached and kept,<\/p>\n

Were not attained by sudden flight,<\/p>\n

But they while their companions slept,<\/p>\n

Were toiling upward in the night.<\/p>\n

“My Father: A Hurling Revolutionary, the life and times of Ned Power” is out on paperback at the end of November 2009.\u00a0 Click here<\/a> for further information, pre-order and excerpt.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a member of the Clare team of ’95 currently at the helm of the Waterford senior hurling team, it’s timely to look back on the GAA background he came from.\u00a0 In the Dungarvan Leader in 1995, my father Ned … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9kxa7-1r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/conorpower.ie\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}