Despite losing the opening round of the Clare senior hurling championship last weekend, Tony Kelly was still on cloud nine after The Banner ended an 11-year gap in reclaiming the All-Ireland title.
Speaking at the July PwC Player of the Month awards, the former Hurler of the Year spoke highly of manager Brian Lohan and how we has a fine balance of seriousness and crack during training.
"Yeah, just from being in our camp, he's so respected by everyone,” Kelly said.
“He's got a brilliant balance between being the boss, being the man in charge and then also, I suppose, being able to talk to players. He was a player for so long and was such an excellent player. He gets the whole player side of it and the management side of it. He can balance it well. He’s got such a balance between demand and standards that he expects from players, but at the same time, he's quiet and funny and usually gets a good laugh from a joke during training, so there's a good balance there.
It's not all one way; it's a two-way street with him, and lads can have the crack with him and chat with him after games. He'd be first having the crack with lads and enjoy wins, but at the same time then, when we're down to business, he's got that excellent way of having everyone, I suppose, work in the one direction and yeah, just a good balance is what I would say. It's quite a great balance between both."
Appreciating the victory more
Kelly valued this All-Ireland more than in 2013 when he previously won Liam McCarthy. The Ballyea man and his teammates were so shattered on Sunday that they were in bed at a sensible hour for a normal person on a night out. However, they made up for it over the coming days.
“Yeah, there is a difference between '13. I suppose we're older, or I'm older now; you can appreciate it more than you did back then,” Kelly said.
"We probably came from underage success, and you're probably thinking, this is great; this is kind of what's supposed to happen, and I suppose you go from 2013 to 2024 without being in an All-Ireland, so it makes you appreciate it more.
So, regarding the celebrations, we returned to Intercontinental on that Sunday night, and everyone was just knackered. There wasn't too much jumping around. Everyone was so wrecked. I remember running on fumes; I was in bed by a quarter to two.
Monday was a good day. On the way home, there was a great reception for us. Yeah, and I suppose that's really when our week really kicked off. We had an unbelievable night in the bar in town. I don’t think it closed for the week.
Then we headed out to West and East Clare during the weeks, heading to many different clubs, and we also had Paul’s (Flanagans) wedding, so we were under savage pressure.
So it's never-ending. It was a tough couple of weeks now—tougher than any preseason two weeks you do now. I was shattered after it, but I wouldn’t change anything because it was worth it.”
Save to say the celebrations will go long into the winter in the West of Ireland.
