Sixmilebridge

Founded 1904

Co. Clare

Holla - The Silent Assassin

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Great piece by Holla in the Champion - he is a real example to any player of how hard work can make your dreams come true and a great example to us all on giving back to your club as a coach/administrator when you have called time on your own career. While many would credit Loughnane with transforming O'Hallorans hurling career the foundations were laid months before this by US based sports psychologist Eoin Quane and his team.

# bridgeabú # alwayshurling

Note: The wikipedia claimson his best achievements shown at the bottom of this article are interesting also!

Source: https://clarechampion.ie/there-were-so-many-songs-about-us-that-we-made-an-album-of-them-for-a-finish/

If you were to assign movie titles to the members of the All-Ireland winning Clare team of 1995, chances are The Quiet Man would be Michael O’Halloran.

The Sixmilebridge man was a key component of the full back line that annexed the McCarthy Cup twice in three seasons, with his rise to prominence immediate after making his full senior debut during the 1995 campaign.

Since his retirement from on field duty, he has been a key figure in the underage scene at his native club. He says the glory days are not something he tends to dwell on much, mostly due to the analysis he gets at home.

“I try to avoid the nostalgia thing as much as I can to be honest. I have three children myself who are 17, 14 and 12 and they have told me I was awful. Youtube is an awful infection. People expect the 1995 thing to be the stuff of legend but when you see it on Youtube, it brings you back to reality with a bump” he laughed.

He continued: “When you are involved and were not a major player or did not have any major performances to look back on like myself, you are more thinking back to the privilege of having a front row seat on what went on with the training and Loughnane’s methods. I was out recently in Shannon as my son was training so I brought the dog for a walk and found myself at the bottom of Tullyglass Hill again looking up at it and thinking about how they made us run up and down there 40 times after doing the guts of an hour down in Wolfe Tones. I often said if you saw a man making a horse do that you would nearly call the ISPCA out to him. It comes back to you in funny ways”.

So had he any urge to race up the hill for old time’s sake?

“No, it was too dark and thankfully a few bushes and trees have grown across the bottom of it where we used to take off from. I could hear one or two voices from the past echoing around the place alright but I moved swiftly on” he laughed.

Despite making his debut in such a whirlwind season and without any prior county experience at underage level, O’Halloran was always comfortable in his own ability and that of the squad. He outlines how the management played a key role in ensuring they were mentally prepared as sights were set on All-Ireland glory.

“Once we got over the Munster humpback, it took a lot of the pressure off. It was unusual at the time but the management got us up to Croke Park for at least two training sessions. Ger really deflated the myth of Croke Park and I have heard him described as a sports psychologist which I would absolutely agree with. He drilled it home that there was nothing to fear, it was a pitch with four lines and at that stage, he was a huge figure in all our lives. He was something of a God to Clare people and the players were no different because it was a case of whatever this guy says, goes. It was one of the main messages they wanted to impart that we would go up there with no fear. It was unfortunately one of the things in the history of Clare teams that for no good reasons, we always collapsed so that was the last thing they wanted. After winning Munster, that was one of the last things they wanted to happen to us. We were going well, we had a good team and we had the monkey off our back. Once we avoiding that trap of not performing, deep down we were fairly happy we could compete with the best in the country at the time and that is what happened” he said.

His previous intercounty experience might have been limited, but O’Halloran was always confident that he was coming into a senior squad with a real chance of success. For the most part, he felt that was down to the manager.

“He was nearly our mortal enemy in Sixmilebridge at the time because there was a great rivalry at underage between ourselves and Wolfe Tones where he was doing great work. I can even remember losing a schools final to one of his St Conaire’s teams so we knew plenty about him. We knew he had been this great player for Clare too and he had that mystique about him. I always felt if Clare were going to have success, they would have it under Loughnane. I never thought we would do it in the first year but I certainly thought we would do it within two or three years because of him as he was a really good coach and motivator. Others have spoken about how they may have fallen away if we had lost another Munster final in 1995 but there were plenty others who did not have that mindset because we were new in to the panel, and I really felt we were going to do something. No one could have predicted it would happen straight away but it was great. I remember Brian Lohan and Davy Fitzgerald saying that Christmas they were convinced it was going to be our year” he said.

With the new regime introducing their methods, O’Halloran feels it was all about getting the basics right.

“How many times do you hear in sport that if you fail to prepare, then you should prepare to fail. It sounds simple but you have train as you play and play as you train and that is what we did. Not everything was perfect either when you look back on it and compared to modern coaching methods, some of it really was daft but it was of its time. Loughnane had that absolute drive and clarity along with a singular focus. We have the hurlers but we just needed to toughen up and do things quicker. The one thing he emphasised was that we would be able to play at the speed that a Munster championship demanded, and that was reflected in his training sessions where he wanted us to be going as well in the last minute as we were in the first” he recalled.

With the euphoria and sunstroke sweeping the county, O’Halloran feels managing the hype and hysteria was a challenge that they met and was vital in making sure they had their eyes fixed firmly on the prize at all times.

“He famously tore us apart at a training session a week or two after winning Munster and brought everyone back down to earth. We certainly enjoyed everything that the summer brought at the same time. It was just a different culture back then and after winning it we went out for at least a week, and it was encouraged. We landed up to Mike Mac’s on the Wednesday or Thursday after taking in most of the rest of the county. I also remember that time there was no motorway so going to training in Ennis from Sixmilebridge, you went through Newmarket and Clarecastle and it was superb to see the colour and the joy that it was bringing. The weather added to it also and there was nothing better than going back to Lahinch for a dip after training or on a rest day. For someone like me who would be quite private, you were walking along and people would recognize you, which is something I found really strange just because we were involved with this hurling team and things were changed forever. We did enjoy because the place really went mad. The other thing is at the time there were so many songs about us that we made an album of them for a finish” he laughed.

Wikipedia

On a lighter note, the famed Wikipedia would seem to have been hacked by some young Bridge hurlers as it says ...

Michael O'Halloran (born 1971) was an Irish sportsperson. He played hurling with his local club Sixmilebridge and was a member of the Clare senior inter-county team in the 1990s. O'Halloran won two All-Ireland titles and two Munster titles with Clare in 1995 and 1997. He now helps coach many underage team in Sixmilebridge. He is one of the lesser known legends of the game. Of course his best achievement is coaching stars of Sixmilebridge like Luke Keogh , Sean Mac and Cian Gleeson

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