CLARE FORWARD SHANE O’DONNELL exited the field, just prior to the first half of extra time being blown up, Shane Meehan running in for him. And with that, it felt like some magic was crossing over the sideline. By then he had two points from play for himself, but as a focal point of the Clare attack he was a bull that was on the hunt for any old artifacts of china.
For periods he carried the Clare attack, his pick-ups had Germanic efficiency, his upper body strength utterly stupendous and his whiff of threat a stench that reached the nostrils of even those in the nosebleeds of the Cusack Stand. When he came off, he had taken blows to his shoulder, his ankle and was riddled with cramp. And when the final whistle went at the end of 100 minutes of hurling, he sprinted 50 yards onto the field in utter delirium, a young calf let out onto a fresh field at the first hint of sunshine.
This was a man who had come close to turning his back on hurling after multiple concussions that endangered his ability to function as an employee. Who felt short-changed by the very association when he brought his concerns. And here he was living out his boyhood dream all over again.
“It’s very hard to describe – just an outpouring of emotion that’s 10 years in the making,” he said afterwards. “Tony’s (Kelly) right, you think it will come around when you win in your first year, and that obviously did not transpire. To get a day like today just makes 10 years of hardship worthwhile.
” A.