By John Harrington

At the start of the year, of the three teams in the Longford Senior Hurling Championship, Clonguish would have been viewed as the outsiders.

Longford Slashers and Wolfe Tones contested the 2021 Final with Slashers coming out on top, and the consensus was that this year’s Final would feature the same duo.

Clonguish’s form had fallen off a cliff since winning the 2019 County Final, and there was no real reason to suspect they could suddenly climb back to the top of the mountain again.

But behind the scenes a collective effort was beginning to stir. A group of hurling afficionados in the club came together and resolved to work together as a collective for the good of the team.

John O’Brien and Paul Hession were nominally made joint-managers, but they were supported in the task by others like Ciaran Finucane, Fergal Daly, Fergus Darcy, Brian Crossan, John Finucane, Paul Melly, and John Minnock.

“We met last December after having two really bad seasons,” O’Brien told GAA.ie. “We won in 2019. I don't know could we put it down to Covid or not, but we then had two really bad seasons.

“We just weren't getting guys out, there wasn't a buy-in. Maybe there just wasn't the appetite there. It was a shame because we went on a really good run in Leinster in 2019 and there was a great energy about hurling at the time and we never built on it.

“We actually had a bit of a players meeting down in the local, our sponsors the Castle Inn, and we mentioned that we'd meet up on a Friday night just to see where the appetite was for hurling in 2022.

“We put a bit of a structure in place, we always knew we were going to be tight on numbers but if we had a core that could get out and train and play regularly, that was something to work with. In fairness, once the summer months hit and the evenings got longer, we had guys travelling from Dublin, Galway, and Athlone to get back for training during the week.

“There was just a good sense of camaraderie when guys see that the sacrifices being made by other guys it creates a bit more of a connection and a bit more meaning.”

A draw against reigning champions Longford Slashers in their first championship match underlined that Clonguish were a different prospect now than they had been in 2020 and 2021.

When they then snatched another draw against Wolfe Tones courtesy of a last-gasp sideline by Bart Hanley from over 50 yards, they were through to the County Final in pretty novel fashion, without winning a game.

Sunday’s Final against Longford Slashes was the classic game of two halves. Clonguish led by nine points at half-time but were then reduced to 14 men early in the second-half and had to withstand a ferocious fightback from Slashers who had reduced the deficit to just two points by the time the final whistle blew.

Clonguish had a lot to be thankful for to the long-serving Joe O’Brien, who produced a thundering display at centre-back that saw him score three points from play and another three frees in a Man of the Match performance.

“Joe started senior hurling when he was 16 and he's 37 now so he's a fair bit of service given,” says Clonguish joint-manager, O’Brien.

“He had an excellent game again. I think he probably has three or four man of the matches in county finals now at this stage and he got it again yesterday.

“Joe puts in the work behind the scenes. He's got all the talent and everything, but he really does put in the work off the field in terms of his skills and his conditioning.

“He's still playing at a really high level because he works on it, basically.”

It was encouraging for the future of hurling in Clonguish that the two youngest players on their team, Matthew Flynn and Dan Crossan, chipped in with a point each.

O’Brien estimates they’re the first two young players they’ve brought through to the senior team in the last eight or nine years because the club took its eye off the ball at a developmental level.

“There hadn't been underage hurling for a number of years and we're up and running again three or four years now,” he says.

“It's taken a while to develop and get it back up and running. We've got a foothold again now and we've some really keen and interested youngsters that we're seeing coming through.

“There's two codes in the club and they both transfer one to the other. It's just a great outlet and a great buzz to have hurling back alive and well in the club at underage.

“We got the go-ahead from the club at nursery level so our U-7s when they come down to training once a week they get a mixture of both hurling and football in all their sessions and that's been a big win in terms of introducing kids to the game, but also introducing parents to the game who wouldn't really have hurling experience or seen the game.

“That's been a big source of encouragement and motivation to keep it going.

“It was really the Games Promotion Officer for Hurling in Longford at the time, a guy called Seamus Hughes, who came down from Cavan with the mandate to develop hurling, who got it all going again.

“He arrived out to Clonguish and essentially put the gun to our heads and said, look it, I'll start underage training here on Tuesday night and you can get in behind me or not. We were saying, jeez, it's taken someone from the outside to come down and give us a boot up the backside, so that was the catalyst.

“Seamus isn't in that role anymore but I know he keeps an eye on things from afar and you get the odd text off him. He was just a big help to us in those early days trying to get it up and running.

“And then there's a good hurling fraternity here within the parish and once people could see there was a good bit of interest and motivation it brings people back out and it's a good outlet for people, both coaches and kids.”

Sunday’s senior win is a timely boost for all those in the club who have put such a big effort into rebuilding the underage structures, and will also surely inspire the young players themselves.

The County Final win will be celebrated for a little while yet, but O’Brien is already looking forward to the Leinster Junior Championship which begins in late October.

“We'll let the dust settle and hopefully in the next week or two we'll circle the wagons again and go from there," he says.

“We gave it a good crack two years ago. We beat Wicklow and Laois champions and then played the played the eventual All-Ireland champions, Conahy Shamrocks from Kilkenny, which was a great learning experience.

“It would be fantastic for the club if we could go on another run like that.”