HARTY CUP: St Flannan’s challenge for Harty Cup title brings added emotion after local tragedy

There is anticipation rather than noise around St Flannan’s College this week as they prepare for another Dr Harty Cup final, with the added intrigue of the decider taking place on home soil in Zimmer Biomet Pairc Chiosóg in Ennis.

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For manager Brendan Bugler, a former Clare intercounty hurler and a current member of Brian Lohan’s backroom team with the Clare senior hurlers, the journey to this point has been as demanding as it has been rewarding.

“Yeah, no, it’s great. It’s great to be there,” Bugler said. “It’s a long road to get there, and we’ve had some great battles right from day one against Nenagh in the first round. We’ve had a tough couple of weeks over Christmas, and just the way the lads have responded in the last two games against Templemore and against Tulla has been great. Yeah, no, really looking forward to the game now in Cusack Park.”

Flannan’s sit proudly atop the Harty Cup roll of honour, but Bugler is keen that history does not weigh on this group, even as they look to atone for last year’s final defeat.

“Yeah, look, it’s a big school, and we take a lot of pride in the fact that we’re in a Harty Cup final,” he said. “But look, it’s just a case that we have to look at it as another game from our point of view.

There is obviously a tradition there with the school, but this group is about themselves, and it’s about the present, so we kind of focus more on that and just make sure we’re right for this game, and we’ll see after that.”

While results have followed, Bugler acknowledged that Flannan’s are still striving to put everything together over the full hour.

“Yeah, you know, that’s not the intention,” he said. “You’re hoping to put together a 60-minute performance, and that hasn’t materialised like that. But sometimes there’s a lot of figuring out to be done on the pitch by the players, and that can take a while.

“But yeah, we’ve finished pretty okay in the last couple of games and got the results. So look, you’re always going to be looking for a 60-minute performance.”

One of Flannan’s major assets has been their bench, with Clare minor All-Ireland finalists John Barry and Ben Talty among those providing real impact when introduced.

“You’re always going to be looking at different options,” Bugler said. “Their role the last day was to come on and have an impact, and we’re really, really happy with the squad that we have. We have strength in depth. You can only start 15, and you’re going to use 18 or 20 players in these games.

“The lads who came on the last day had an impact. Thomas O’Connor came on the day against Templemore, and he had an impact. You need that. Any team that’s going to be successful is going to have impacts off the bench, and that’s it with the modern game, with the speed it’s got.”

Bugler is under no illusions about the scale of the task facing his side against a Nenagh team laden with experience.

“Yeah, it’s going to be really good,” he said. “We’re under no illusions, you’re up against a real, real strong Nenagh team with a lot of lads that have experienced adult hurling with their clubs, and that counts for a lot.

“You come back to the Dean Ryan, it’s a completely different competition and there is changing personnel both on their team and on our team, so you can’t really look to that game. But last year, when guys get playing adult hurling, it brings them on leaps and bounds, and they have a lot of guys playing adult hurling. We have some of it ourselves.

“So look, it’s going to be a tough challenge for us. It’ll be our toughest challenge to date, so like you’re saying, we’re going to need that 60 to 65-minute performance to be able to show here.”

Flannan’s will be without key man Dara Kennedy, an All-Ireland minor Team of the Year selection, who broke down again after being rushed back for the semi-final.

“No, we’re fine,” Bugler said when asked about injuries. “(Dara) Kennedy is the only one who’s going to be unavailable. It’s unlucky for Dara; he would have been a big, big player for us. He was important the last day, and he did an awful lot of really good work to put himself back in position to see some game time.

“He trained really, really well in the two weeks out from the match, and he’s just really unfortunate. He has to go away and get that injury properly sorted and be back for his club later on this year.”

Several players return having experienced last year’s final defeat, something Bugler hopes will stand to them.

“There were quite a few lads who played in last year’s final,” he said. “Hopefully, they take lessons from that for themselves. As a whole, not really; it’s a completely different game against completely different opposition in a completely different venue.

“But for themselves, in terms of how we performed and performing as well as we could, even though conditions were tough, it finished up 1-13 to 0-13, which is relatively low-scoring in the modern game. Hopefully they’ll take something from it.”

This season has also carried added emotional weight, with many of the players being friends of TJ Chambers, whose tragic passing before Christmas has deeply affected the group.

While Cusack Park provides a familiar backdrop, Bugler insists the venue was never a concern.

“To be honest, management and players wouldn’t have minded if the game was on in Thurles,” he said. “We asked the players would they be up for a coin toss, be it the county grounds of each county, and it just so happens it’s Cusack Park.

“Look, it is nice to have a Harty Cup final in Cusack Park with the four white lines. It would have been the same in Thurles, and our lads wouldn’t have minded playing there either. It’s just happened that it’s in Cusack Park, sure.”

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