End of the road for Clonad but O’Brien could not be prouder

Saturday afternoon signalled the end of what has been a successful season for Clonad and while manager David O’Brien was disappointed with the loss, he was full of pride for his players after the game and the campaign as a whole.

Kildare Senior ‘B’ champions Clane were very impressive in the Leinster Junior Club Championship clash and it was evident from the off that they were a big fish in a small pond.

Speaking after the game the Clonad boss said, “You’d have no complaints, Clane were much the better team here today.

“We knew coming in that we’d have a tough task ahead of us, Clane are going playing senior hurling next year and having spoken to their manager he said they should have never been down in Senior B.” While stationed just outside Portlaoise, Clonad has the smallest catchment area in Laois and that makes life tough for them coming into the latter rounds in Leinster and O’Brien alluded to that, “We’re talking about a town of ten thousand people that we’re playing against, they play senior football and all their athletes are really well conditioned.

“We’re under no illusions, we’ve had a great year and I’m very proud of the lads, coming up here was a huge ask of us.” Clonad impressively followed up their Intermediate Championship victory with a win over Kevin’s of Dublin, but to make life tougher on Saturday they were without PJ Daly and John Onions, two star forwards.

“The last day against Kevin’s we were so delighted that we represented the county well and that was a big thing for us, we wanted to go up and give it our best,” said O’Brien.

“Thankfully that day we had a full team out, we didn’t have that today and we knew that was going to hurt us coming in.

“That’s hurling, you give it your best and the lads in the second half gave it everything and I’m very proud of them.

“The first half did the damage to us, second half we were very competitive around the pitch.

We have a young team and we’re looking forward to next year, we want to make sure we make our mark on the Premier Intermediate and that’s our target, it always has been.” Clonad will be making the jump up to Premier Intermediate for 2026 and after Saturday’s game, O’Brien reckons they’ll need to work on some things if they are to make a dent in next year’s championship.

“When you’re working with teams you’re trying to convince them of the basic things that are important and conditioning is one of those.

“We have some well-conditioned players like Fionn Holland and my own fella (David O’Brien), but we don’t have enough of those athletes and when you come up against a team like who are introducing players who are much more athletic than we are, their squad is better than ours.

“It’s about convincing those players who are not on the county panels that if you want to compete,” he said.

O’Brien appreciated the free flowing nature of the referee on Saturday, remarkably the Kilkenny man didn’t blow for a free until the 19th minute of the game.

“People might complain today about the referee, but I’d say the man let it flow and that’s the way that I like hurling to go,” he stated.

“Unless somebody goes with a deliberate stroke in general hurling is meant to be a manly game and it was certainly manly today, and our lads didn’t stand back and they didn’t stand back.” The end of the game was somewhat worrying for Clonad and O’Brien in particular as his son David went down with injured in time added on before the game was blown up and despite tensions flaring at times in the second half, O’Brien commented on the good nature between the sides at full time.

“At the end their lads came over to check on David and we’re shaking hands, that’s what it’s all about. You do your battle on the field, then you make friends.

“I want to wish Clane the very best of luck the next day, they’re a really good team and well set up and well coached so the best of luck to them the next day.”