Celebrations on hold as Clon target county

Clancy: We can compete for Cork crown

BY JOHN MURPHY

CORK senior footballer Thomas Clancy is known as a serious operator with the big ball – but he showed his class with the small ball in Sunday’s South West Sunday’s junior A hurling championship final.

The Clon full forward scored 1-5 to inspire his team to victory and also pick up the man-of-the-match following his five-star performance.

Now injury-free having shaken off a niggling injury back in May that kept him sidelined for over two months, the towering Clancy is enjoying his hurling. 

His first-half goal was an important score for Clon.

‘Look, I didn’t have to do much work really,’ Clancy said, modestly.

‘Martin Scally won a great ball, parted to Sean McEvoy. It was a two-on-one situation really. He (McEvoy) laid the ball off perfectly for me and all I had to do was tap it in.’

Clancy felt that Clonakilty had countered Ballinascarthy’s early scoring flourish with their own wave of scores in the opening half, given that Ballinascarthy put in a huge second-half shift and came at them with all guns blazing.

‘Bal got off to a great start, they got that early goal but in fairness, our lads responded perfectly,’ he said.

‘We were lucky to get down and get a goal ourselves very quickly. We got on top, started to put on the points and before we knew it we were six or seven points to the good. We needed that advantage, because Ballinascarthy really came at us in the second half.’

Scores on the board, or rather in Ballinascarthy’s case a failure to put them there at a crucial juncture was of paramount importance in deciding the destination of the Flyer Nyhan Cup, the Clonakilty scoring hero feels.

‘Sometimes you get the scores, sometimes things do not work out,’ he said.

‘Ballinascarthy missed some important ones towards the end. In fairness, our forwards were in top form tonight. 

‘We knew we had serious hurling talent in the club. Our goal at the start of the season was to reach the West Cork final. Having done that and won it, we intend to take the county section seriously.

‘In previous years when we won the West Cork we tended to go celebrating. This year all the players know it is different. We have a great chance if we put in the effort. We’ll put the heads down now, put the celebrations on hold and have a real crack off the county.’

Meanwhile, Clonakilty star Sean White is also hoping for a crack off the county series.

‘Hopefully we will push on now and muster up some victories in the county section,’ Sean said.

‘In the past somehow things have not worked out, but we intend to take it seriously this year. The hurling talent is in this team, we just need to focus on the upcoming games at this level. 

‘We have a two-week break a chance to recharge the batteries and drive on.’