People forget. They pack up and move on in double-quick time. It’s one of the sneaky downsides of having the club final on St Patrick’s Day each year – as soon as the final whistle goes, everyone switches back into intercounty mode and nobody gives a second thought to the fall-out.
O'Loughlin Gaels were five points up on Clarinbridge coming up to half-time in the 2011 club final. And then the trapdoor opened and they tumbled for longer than just the rest of the game. The scoreboard said they lost by 2-18 to 0-12 but to listen to Martin Comerford talk about it now, five years on, it's obvious that more than just a game went by the wayside that day.
“I still have sleepless nights about it to be honest,” Comerford says. “But after a while you get over these things and you get stuck back into it. I took a break for maybe two months and just got back into it with the club.
“I noticed a lot of club teams that get to Patrick’s Day, they don’t come back the same team. The same faces tend not to come back. We would have lost four or five of that team, they drifted away and maybe injuries and so forth. We kind of had to come with a new team and it definitely took three or four years for O’Loughlin Gaels to be competitive again.”
For Comerford, defeat brought an additional gut punch. Though still only 30, he’d put down a decade playing for Kilkenny and knew the terms and conditions better than anyone. Having already missed the early part of that year’s league, he knew that joining up for another All-Ireland push would require him to land into Nowlan Park with his anguish left firmly and definitively across the road in the Gaels clubhouse. And at the time, he just didn’t have that in him.
Motivation
“Motivation was very difficult. [Kilkenny] also lost the five-in-a-row the year previous to that, so that was another kick. My brother was the manager of the team and we put in a massive effort. I never trained as hard and everybody was really into it. We started fierce well against Clarinbridge and we looked very, very good for the first half and just completely collapsed in the second half.
“I met Brian Cody a few weeks after it and spoke to him about the way I was thinking and feeling. I just couldn’t face hurling for a while and I just didn’t have the enthusiasm for it. He told me to think about it and I did for a couple of weeks and that was the decision I made.
“Maybe it was the wrong decision, maybe I could have been on the panel for another few years. I was in relatively good shape but it was just a decision I made. That’s it, we all make decisions in life you just have to live with them and get on with them.”
Getting back to this point with O’Loughlin’s was no picnic. They made a Kilkenny final last year but lost out to Clara, making this year’s county title all the sweeter. A Leinster title to go on top would be nice but they’re not going to cry too many tears if it doesn’t happen against Cuala on Sunday. They will remember 2016 with total fondness, whatever the result.
“It’s a very emotional thing, you know? You invest so much time and energy and effort into something and, you know, to win [a county title] at the end of the day is fantastic. You know, when you see friends and family and club-men that you know have really put in a ferocious effort with the club down through thankless years where we haven’t been successful and to see the joy on their faces would bring out emotions in you.
“We’re in bonus territory [now] and obviously we’re going out motivated, enthusiastic, with great fitness and physicality. Our younger players were all mad for hurling, but we’ll see how Sunday goes. It’s not the be all and end all for us. We’ll have it as it goes and one day at a time. We’ll see how it goes and hopefully we’ll put in a big performance and represent Kilkenny hurling as best we can. We’re a proud club and hopefully we’ll do well.”
