Junior C champions 2026.
After the disappointment of losing the final last year there was no way in hell we were going to lose this one as well.
You could feel it in the dressing room all week that there was nothing going to stop us. It didn't matter how young or how fit the other team was we would fight harder and do the dirty work to get past them.
With officially the oldest team to ever win a senior hurling competition in Clare we had an average starting age of 42.8 against a young hungry team from ennistymon who would average about 25.
But as the old saying goes, " You can't beat breeding" and we had much more quality on the pitch and despite our age had all massively improved our fitness from the final last year which i think surprised them.
We didn't do it the easy way losing our wing back to a red card after just 15 minutes and putting a lot of pressure on the rest of the team but fair play to everybody who kept running and kept fighting through the full 65 minutes.
It wasn't the best or the prettiest match we played all year but it got us over the line and handed the trophy.
It's great to win a trophy of any kind but even more special to win it with a bunch of guys like this and with nearly all of us having kids it turned into a special occasion as we walked the trophy into our parish later on that night.
I can't upload the video to this post but we had everybody out with music and fireworks with a few drinks to follow. Followed by a few more drinks the day after and a tour of the wider area the day after that.
It's severe to play a final but it's even more severe to celebrate it afterwards. Still it was a great week and a great feeling.
This will get us promoted to a higher division next year and with our age profile might be with a few less players than last year but that's a problem for next year.
All I can do is enjoy this unexpected event and try to improve my fitness over the winter to play a bigger part next year.
All photos sourced from https://www.facebook.com/theclarechampion
