“Tony’s father would have been training them when they were 13 or 14 like Ger Loughnane trained us”

Niall McIntyre

Tony Kelly’s Ballyea club-mate Tony Griffin has hailed the role Kelly’s father Donal has had in his hurling career.

Kelly danced onto the national conscience in 2013, having inspired Clare to an All-Ireland title at the age of just 18.

Kelly’s dazzling displays earned him an All-Star as well as the young hurler and hurler of the year awards but Griffin knew him long before that breakthrough success 11 years ago.

Griffin, an All-Star hurler himself, gives credit to Kelly’s father Donal for the work he put in not just with his son, but with the bunch of Ballyea youngsters who would go onto achieve unprecedented success for both their club and and for Clare.

“We were a junior team, then we were intermediate when Tony was coming up,” recalls Griffin, who’s career will be celebrated on Laochra Gael this Thursday night.

“We used to hang around (after training) to watch the (young lads) because you knew they were coming strong.

“Interestingly, back then, Tony was really good, but he wasn’t what he went onto be and I think that’s a testament to him and his level of just consistent year-on-year work ethic,” says Griffin.

“And once he filled out and got size. His athleticism and his hands, we’d never seen anything like it in some ways,” he says.

In the mean-time, Kelly has gone onto win four Clare titles and a Munster with Ballyea. He has added on three more All-Stars too and a National Hurling League, and is widely considered one of the best players in the country.

“There was a crop of them coming up,” recalls Griffin.

“Tony’s father Donal Kelly would have been training them like Ger Loughnane trained us from when they were 13 or 14.

“Donal just put the right set-up in place from a very early age.

“And he’d be driving back to west Clare to gather up lads and to bring them over to hurl and it’s testament to all that hard work.”

“I don’t think they won féile but that was their ambition.

“So if Clare were playing Kilkenny, Donal would load a bunch of them into a bus and they’d have played O’Loughlin Gaels that morning or whatever.

“I remember bringing a group of 14-year-olds down from Belfast, St Anne’s I think it was, and they played our lads and Tony scored like 3-30 against them. The other young lads have never seen anything like it.”

Tony Kelly celebrates with his dad Donal after winning a Munster title for Ballyea.

Griffin says it’s a regret that he didn’t get to hurl longer with Kelly for Ballyea.

“I’d know him really well. I played with him at senior level for the club before I retired.

“I was only saying to my son the other day, I’d love to have played another couple of years with him because it’s just such a joy playing with him.”

“His reading of the game, where you’d put the ball, you wouldn’t even have to show him, he just knew where you were going before you were there.”

Griffin, who works as a performance coach with the Kerry footballers, says he still keeps close tabs on the Clare hurlers. He feels that the strength in depth they’re building in this League campaign, with the progression of players like Sean Rynne, John Conneally and Shane Meehan, will stand to them towards the latter end of the season.

“When you look at Limerick, they’re a lot further on their development than Clare are in some ways.

“They’ve a bigger bank of players, and that’s the case with most counties, but I think this year in particular, Clare are going to close that gap significantly.

“And when you’re bringing on a player, 17, 18 or 22 and you’re bringing on a player who can do damage, that’s maybe something they haven’t had the last few years to the same extent that they will this year.

“The big thing for Clare is how they perform when they get to Croke Park, which they haven’t done themselves justice in the last few years.

“And it’s a big transition. Munster is hard to get through so it goes back to having a depth of a panel so that when you do get there, you’re not depending on the same guys. Also Brian has changed his backroom team which usually brings fresh energy to the whole thing.”