ALL-IRELAND LEAGUE FINAL REACTION: GERRY THORNLEYon the accustomed scenes of jubilation for Shannon while Clontarf mourn the one that got away
THOMOND PARK witnessed a familiar if also unfamiliar finale on Saturday. For the ninth time, thousands stayed on after the trophy celebration for a rendition of There Is An Isle, this time led by Martin Clancy, a member of Shannon's first Munster Senior Cup winning team from 1960, in place of the legendary Frankie O'Flynn who passed away last November.
Frankie's grandson, winger Ritchie Mullane, had collected the trophy with club captain and replacement Fiach O'Loughlin.
Players go and players come, Shannon this season losing the likes of Mossy Lawlor, Andy Flynn, Andrew Thompson (collecting his ninth winners' medal), O'Loughlin and others departing or suffering injury, but the titles keep churning over. What is their secret?
"Just belief, the idea that the jersey is just being handed down from one set of people to another from teams before," explained coach Geoff Moylan.
"It's hard to beat us, we don't lose too many finals. We've lost one in 31; this is our sixth AIB League final and we haven't lost. There is a huge belief in that dressingroom."
Reminding us this was the least experienced Shannon AIB All-Ireland League winners, Moylan said: "People go on about these guys being around for a long time, but there were 12 or 13 of those guys in the squad who hadn't got a medal; they wanted one, they wanted to be with the guys who did have one, two, three and four . . .They were really hungry for it, we had a bit of experience to carry them through and we were fortunate to have that experience."
All that said and done, Moylan admitted: "I feel sorry for them, I have to say, Clontarf were outstanding, they were fantastic. I thought we dug it in, thought our defence was superb, although we kicked a lot of ball, threw away some, our chasing wasn't good in the early stages.
"Those last few minutes, though, were superb, the defence was huge and we didn't give away any penalties. From their point of view it was heartbreaking; I do feel for them, being honest, for Andy (Wood, Clontarf coach) on his last day, but we didn't make the rules."
Judging by the noise levels of their raucous support, Clontarf provided more than one-fifth of the near 5,000 crowd. But as they all made the long trek back to Castle Avenue for a well-deserved end of season knees-up, it was no consolation to them that their players, their brand of rugby and their support reflected nothing but credit on the club.
"No it's not," admitted Wood. "Like I said I'm proud of the performance they put out there but we came here to win and we didn't and fair play to Shannon they're the champions.
"As well as we played and as hard as we fought, ultimately we came up short and that's a tough pill to swallow. I don't feel cheated, as I say we knew the rules going into the game and what we needed to do and we came within a grounding of a ball to do so. It's a hell of bad way to lose."
Wood, Clontarf's long-serving Kiwi, is being replaced by Bernard Jackman from next season but as regards his future, he said: "I'm not sure yet, this was the priority to get here and obviously get the win but no I've no plans yet.
Captain Darragh O'Shea admitted: "I'd prefer to get hammered than lose it like that - it's even worse than losing by a point. It's probably our best performance in a final, it's as close as we played to Ballymena (in the 2003 final); that was a close game too but this is, by a distance, the hardest loss so far."
As to whether this latest near miss might make or break their resolve, O'Shea maintained: "It'll always make the club stronger, the ambition will always be there no matter who the players are on the park. I've no doubt we'll be back again."
