County final was 'very proud day' for the captain of Tipperary senior football champions

Seamus Kennedy, one of those Clonmel Commercials players who won his seventh county senior medal last Sunday, described it as “a very proud day,” one that meant “a huge amount” to him as captain of the Commercials team that beat JK Brackens in the County Senior Football Championship final at FBD Semple Stadium.

“My grandfather (Seamus Wall) played on the three in a row team in the 60s, my grandmother (Mary Wall) was here today. It was my brother Sean’s first county final today, it’s a very special day for the family.

“I love playing football and I love playing hurling, and to get to captain Clonmel Commercials, a club with such a huge tradition and history, it’s a privilege for me and the family”.

Commercials’ success means that they join Fethard as the clubs with the most county senior titles in Tipperary (21), something that they can now reflect on with some satisfaction.

“At the start of the year our goal is always to win a county final,” said the All-Ireland-winning senior hurler.

“It makes it extra-special now that we have joined Fethard in winning our 21st title. But we didn’t speak about that at all (beforehand), it was all about this year. That stuff is nice to look back on now. We’re absolutely delighted to defend our title, it’s not easy to do.

“Five finals in a row, we’ve won four, it’s hard to argue with that. Some of us have been on the road together since 2012 and we’ve had some really good days, it’s a very enjoyable club to be part of”.

Despite being strong favourites, the Clonmel team didn’t show any signs of complacency.

Seamus Kennedy put that down to “competitiveness in training. If we’re not performing in training in the 15 on 15 (games), someone is taking your jersey. I don’t think the same starting fifteen has started twice a row in any game this year, and that says enough. There’s somebody different ‘in’ every single day, and that’s a good sign of how training is going.

“There are a lot of us there since 2011, 2012, that have been on the road a while. I think you see today, there are four or five lads who won their first county medal and that’s very important for us as a club.

“We had 37 at training on Wednesday, obviously there’s only 20 can play on any given day. So the fact that those extra 17 lads still want to travel back from Cork, Limerick and Dublin to be part of this group, that speaks volumes for what Tommy (Morrissey, the manager) has created here within the group.

“It’s really enjoyable and to get the silverware makes it extra-special”.

With a Munster championship quarter-final against Limerick champions Newcastle West or Adare looming on November 12, the Commercials captain is conscious of the scope for improvement.

“We had a very poor 10-12-minute period there at the end of the first half, that won’t do against the champions of Limerick. If we want to have a run in Munster we’re going to have to improve on those things.

“We wouldn’t have thought about the Munster championship until now, we weren’t able. Munster is very, very tough. Last year we beat Nemo Rangers but Newcastle West then beat us, deservedly, after extra time the following day. There’s very little between any of the teams”.

He said they would enjoy the celebrations before focusing on the Munster quarter-final.

Why did the captain think they went off the boil in the second quarter, when they didn’t score?

“I don’t know, to be honest with you. I think they could have had the black card at the time as well, and we just didn’t really adjust to having the extra man.

“But the ten minutes before that was really good. Over an hour, it’s not going to be perfect stuff. We showed a bit of maturity, a couple of times over the years that might have hurt us a bit more. I think we steadied the ship at the start of the second half and went again.

“It’s very hard to do a perfect hour of football, we’re around long enough to know that too. It’s definitely an area we need to work on”.

Seamus Kennedy has also welcomed “the fresh voice” that Oisín McConville has brought this year.

The six-time All-Ireland club football winner with Crossmaglen Rangers, and current Wicklow senior manager, has been acting as an advisor this year.

“He doesn’t know any of us, he has no hang-ups. He doesn’t mind telling me or Michael Quinlivan or Jack Kennedy if we’re doing something wrong, which is great.

“He’s not meeting us at work, or things like that. He’s someone with huge experience, he’s been there and seen it all with Crossmaglen Rangers. He’s not down (at training) every night.

“The sessions he has done have been really enjoyable and very good, he’s definitely added to us.

“He’s a breath of fresh air for us, and it’s great to get to work with a coach at that level.

“We have three weeks (before the Munster quarter-final) and hopefully we’ll get a couple of sessions in with him, he’ll kick things on.

“He’ll have seen the bits we need to work on and there will be plenty for him to work on”.