By then, Conor Cleary was a spectator. In the final flashpoint of last July’s red-hot All-Ireland hurling final, Robbie O’Flynn, while being disrupted by an undetected foul, hit the fateful wide that preserved Clare’s one-point defeat of Cork.
Clare’s jubilation was intensified by the fact that a couple of players, full back Cleary included, would not have been fit for the scheduled replay. He had dislocated his shoulder, not for the first time, and surgery beckoned. After battling pain and discomfort in the county championship, he yielded to the scalpel in September.
His previous season had been undermined when having to miss the Munster final, a one-point defeat by Limerick, and the All-Ireland quarter-final win against Dublin, before returning for the narrow semi-final loss to Kilkenny. Last year, he managed to put in a whole campaign, lifting the league trophy as captain in place of the injured Tony Kelly in April after beating Kilkenny – only the county’s fifth league win, which would set up Clare’s first double later in the summer.
He became the first Miltown Malbay player to feature in an All-Ireland hurling final, let alone bring back a medal. From an early age his parents had encouraged both football and hurling by ferrying him to Kilmaley for the latter.
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In the All-Ireland, Cleary and his full-back line did a stellar job marking Brian Hayes, man of the match in the semi-final defeat of champions Limerick, and Alan Connolly, which was recognised by their manager afterwards and also by his first All Star nomination.
A twin brother of Clare footballer Eoin – Conor is 20 minutes older – they both turned 31 this week.
Now defence of the first title, the league, has started with a narrow defeat by Kilkenny, but not with any major feelings of despair given how few of the first team were available – just five. Cleary will probably be back in a few weeks, maybe for the Wexford match next month.
He is uncertain about the specifics of recovery but agrees with the general timeline.
“It was obviously a shoulder surgery that I got so I can keep up my general fitness, which is a good thing. I can do a lot of running and stuff like that, but it’s just trying to meet them markers in the next few weeks and get the all-clear sooner or later.”
In the fifth year of manager Brian Lohan’s tenure, the All-Ireland came as an extraordinary victory of the spirit given how razor-thin the margins had been separating them from championship success. Had Cleary almost given up on making the All-Ireland breakthrough?
“Yeah, for sure, especially when you’re playing 10, 11 years. I would have come in, in the winter of 2013 – so, right after they won the All-Ireland. And at that stage you think, maybe naively as a young lad, that this is going to happen every year or every few years. But listen, there was a lot of tough years.
“Twenty-eighteen was a high for the group, getting so close to an All-Ireland final but then 2019, we were kind of brought back down to earth very quickly and I suppose in 2019, you were kind of thinking ‘will it ever happen?’ because you were at such a low ebb having been well beaten by Tipperary and Limerick in the Munster Championship.”
Incrementally they picked it up. Through the Covid years, improving each season before emerging as Limerick’s closest rivals in Munster over the next two years. Four matches between group fixtures and provincial finals: a draw, a one-point win in the group and a defeat after extra-time and by a point in the Munster finals.
That made last year’s poor displays against Limerick feel all the more demoralising.
“As an experienced player, when you’ve experienced the highs and lows before, even after winning the Allianz League last year, it was brilliant but a lot of the experienced lads especially knew that we’d to get down to earth very quickly for the Limerick game and there were no illusions going into that.
“We knew ... it was going to be a very tough game. There was nothing in it and we ended up losing and after playing so well for 55 minutes and losing it through a poor collective performance in the last 15 minutes was very disappointing.”
The rebound started just a week later in Cork with no time to dwell on how they had lost a nine-point lead in Ennis. From then on, with the exception of another disappointing day out against Limerick, the trajectory was upwards, all the way to the summit.
In an interview with Michael Verney in the Irish Independent late last year, Conor Cleary underlined why he enjoys the game so much.
“People talk about the sacrifices but you’re going to the field three nights a week and meeting in the gym once or twice. You’re meeting your best friends and getting a chance to play for Clare.”
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