Team effort behind the remarkable march of St Clare's CS Manorhamilton to All-Ireland Final says Shane Ward

You don’t have to be too long in Shane Ward’s company talking football to know this is a coach who appreciates success is far from a one man show as the former Leitrim manager stresses the march of St Clare’s CS Manorhamilton to next Saturday’s Masita All-Ireland PPS Senior C Final in a team effort that encompasses the entire school community.

St Clare’s face Ennistymon CBS next Saturday in Tuam Stadium (1pm throw-in) and Shane is keen to stress the work that goes on behind the scenes to help the Manorhamilton school reach the final: “There is a great buzz, everyone's embracing it, from top to bottom, management and teachers and all the staff.

“Even down to the cleaning staff who look after our jerseys and our gear, the local bus companies, secretaries are organising logistics, buses, payments, flags, that kind of thing, so everyone is doing something towards supporting the boys next Saturday. At times like this when you're successful, you do try to remember everybody that helped them get this far. 

“I spoke to the boys about it - we have tremendous staff in the school and tremendous support in the school - you have teachers doing extra work with the boys who are maybe away at a match and need extra support in a class. You have cleaning staff doing the jerseys, you have people just rolling in, doing as much as they possibly can and sometimes in the shadows where they're not seen -  that's the kind of work that counts to help us move forward.”

Embracing the excitement in the school is something that Shane very much agrees with: “Sport has got very serious and in Gaelic football sometimes we can often lament about the fact it's too serious, so when you get a chance with young people to show them the other side of, when they are successful which isn't always quite often, you have to give them exposure to the good side of it and the exciting side of it.

A NEW EXCITING CHAPTER FOR ST CLARE'S - WARD

“This is something to be enjoyed and something to be certainly embraced because chances like this don't come around too often. When they do, you know we have to embrace  both sides of it - we trained yesterday and the boys trained really well. That showed me that they are fit to enjoy the excitement and the build-up but then we’ll be back on the training field preparing for the final.”

After their incredible display in the semi-final that overwhelmed Gaelcholáiste Reachrann 4-17 to 1-9, Shane agrees that St Clare’s have a challenge to replicate that performance in Tuam: “That'll be the challenge and no two performances will ever be the same. People reminisce about the last night but those nights in sport don't come around too often, but what we have to do is bring it back down to the core principles of how we want to play and to try and execute them to the best of our ability on that night.

“Opposition provides different challenges and this opposition, Ennistymon, will be no different - there'll be a different challenge than we've met in the last couple of games so we'll have to respond to that challenge and yet drive our principles in the game to get us a foothold and build from there.”

Embracing the expectations and the excitement of an All Ireland Final while remembering that to succeed, you’ve got to keep to your basics is a challenge for St Clare’s but Shane believes that the various challenges that his team have come through, with the school, club and county teams, is paying off.

“I keep talking about the experience that they're getting and I think the experience they're getting is the varied challenges they're coming across and being able to respond to the challenges in a positive way - learning that no two teams are the same and whatever a team throws at you it's time to knuckle down and try and meet them and try and apply your principles to the game.

“To be fair to our boys, they never dropped the four or five things we've been trying to work on in all of the games, whether they're winning by five points, ten points or one point, they've stuck to what they've been doing. I think that shows a lot about the characters in the team but also a lot about the team effort and team ethos we have within the group.

“These boys have been playing together for a long time and the respect they have for each other and the confidence they have in each other is massive and that for me is the difference that no matter what a team throws at them they're going to respond in a way that they know how.”

Ennistymon represent an unknown prospect but Shane stresses Leitrim will do their homework on the Clare school: “You do your research and you'll find out what you need to find out before the game but you know you're dealing with a proud county in Clare, you're dealing with a rural community there which will be totally behind their team.

“They'll provide a different challenge for us and a different type of football and again our strength will be how we respond to that and can we build a good positive response to that and build ourselves into the game. It's very hard to compare oppositions when you get to the All-Ireland stage because each province provides a different challenge but I have no doubt our boys will be ready. We'll do our homework and we'll prepare for the game as best we can.”

The fact that so many of the St Clare’s team backboned the Leitrim Schools team and that Glencar Manorhamilton reached the Connacht Minor Club Final and St Patrick’s Dromahair impressed in the B grade is a major help: “It's all about the experience of going to, even going to Breffni Park to play  the last night, being there a long time before throwing, those moments when you're preparing that you don't get over overanxious or that you don't go into a game undercooked.

HISTORY FOR ST CLARE'S AS MANORHAMILTON SCHOOL CELEBRATE REACTING ALL-IRELAND FINAL - GALLERY

“That's part of the experience for them, exposing them to that, not so much a pressure point but that higher end challenge is what it's about. They have met players in the Connacht A Colleges who they played against them in the Connacht Minor Championship last year and that in itself is a booster because they know what they're facing but also they're up for the challenge having played against them before. 

“So now you're in a situation where the best players from our county are playing against the best players from the other counties in school games and the county level  which only means that they'll raise each other's game.”

Asked for a dreaded prediction, Shane had no hesitation in answering if he was confident St Clare’s could go all the way! “Absolutely  - you have full faith in your own boys, full faith in your own players as people and as football players and you can't be anything but confident, you can't be anything but proud of what they've achieved so far.

“No matter what happens you'll back them you'll back them and support them the whole way whether that means a win or lose you'll always be proud of who they are and where they've come from.”