Conor Ryan is not a very good advertisement for player burnout. No one has played more football and hurling this year, between club and county, and Ryan can’t actually recall the last time he’s had a weekend to himself.
He’s been on the go since Clare exited the hurling championship back on July 12th, to Wexford, after a replay. That makes it 20 successive weekends, and counting. Only instead of praying for a break he’s longing for more, still bubbling with energy and enthusiasm for the journey with Cratloe, adamant he wouldn’t have it any other way.
It’s already been the longest journey of the 2014 club championship by some considerable distance: Cratloe winning a first Clare football and hurling double in a century, then marching on into the Munster championship. Only last Sunday did they first falter, losing the Munster football semi-final to The Nire, after extra-time, their first defeat in 13 games.
Next up is Sunday’s Munster hurling final against Kilmallock, and given what’s at stake (Cratloe have never won a provincial title, in football or hurling) tiredness won’t be creeping in, even if it wanted to. For Ryan – a 2013 All Star hurler at midfield with Clare – that also means switching back to his more familiar code, defeat last Sunday also arming his club with even more desire.
Biggest day
“Sunday is probably the biggest day in the club’s history,” says Ryan. “Ideally, we’d have liked to have another Munster final to play, in football, on Sunday week, but it wasn’t to be. But we said when we were winning that we weren’t making the double out to be an excuse, and we’re not going to do it now that we’ve lost a game.
“And from the moment we got into the dressingroom, last Sunday, the focus was already on the hurling final. It’s not just the 10 or 11 of us that are starting on both teams, but it’s two full panels, really, one effort from the whole club. People have been asking us how we do it, but it’s the end product of what a community can do, when everyone is pulling in the one direction.”
Ryan has been playing both his club football and hurling in the half forward line, alongside the likes of Podge Collins and Conor McGrath, players he grew up with in the small village just over the Limerick border. Now living in Galway, and working in Davy Stockbrokers, nothing feels demanding or tiring when his club mates share the same enthusiasm as he does.
“You’ve no idea how much I enjoy it. I’m working in Galway, and drive down on a Tuesday and Thursday evening with a smile on my face, the whole way. To train with your best mates is very, very enjoyable. And we’re not being killed at training either, the fact we’re playing week on week. It’s the skills, all the stuff you love. So you leave with a smile on your face, too.
“And Joe McGrath, our hurling manager (and father of Conor), has a great phrase, which says: ‘if you try to live off yesterday’s dinner then you’ll soon starve’. So it’s the same for winning and losing. And I haven’t a clue how many games we’ve played at this stage. I just remember the day we lost to Wexford, down in Wexford Park, was a very low day, and the last thing on your mind was playing with the club the next week.
Silver lining
“But the minute we got off the bus in Cratloe, I turned to Sean Collins, who was living with me at the time and said ‘we’ve talked about the double in Clare before, and this is the best opportunity we might ever have to win it’. So the silver lining of losing to Wexford, if you wanted to find one, was that we had the club to concentrate on, and we said we’d give it a lash.
“Now, if you said to us last January that we’d still be hurling this close to December, we’d have bitten your hand off. Since losing that game to Wexford, I think we’ve played a game every weekend since, bar maybe one, between league games and championship. So in some ways we’ve just got into a rhythm, and a routine. We’ve been very lucky with injury, too, because lose two or three players and things could have gone south, very quickly.”
Ryan also credits the intimate support from everyone in the village: “Blink on the dual carriageway, and you’ll miss Cratloe. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. My mum is from Cork and my dad is from Tipp, and thankfully I ended up in Cratloe. I pucked my first ball in a Cratloe jersey, and I’m going to puck my last in it.”
Of course win or lose on Sunday, Ryan will be hurling with Clare next summer, committing to Davy Fitzgerald’s team, despite some of his club mates committing to football: “Well it’s there, but it’s not there, if that makes sense. Because it can’t be. All the focus for now is with Cratloe. But we felt we didn’t do ourselves justice in defending Liam MacCarthy this year. That’s not something we let down lightly in Clare.”
Which will mean the start of a whole other journey in itself.
