Clare forward Shane O’Donnell may be facing the same opposition in Sunday’s All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final as he did when he first claimed a collected a Celtic Cross as a precocious 19-year-old but he insists that’s where the similarities end as the Bannermen return to the Croke Park decider for the first time in 11 years.
Drafted in as a last minute replacement at full-forward in the replay of the 2013 final, the young Éire Óg club man sensationally struck a hat-trick of goals inside the opening 19 minutes, helping the Banner County seal the deal against Cork and with it claim the man-of the match award.
However, now as one of the more senior members of Brian Lohan’s panel, O’Donnell insists Sunday’s encounter will be different.
“Yes it’s very different to be honest. I think that there isn’t that much that’s the same as it was 11 years ago,” he said.
“It’s so different how I prepare, how I think about these games. Even the position I was in. I didn’t think I’d start in that game.
“The preparation build-up was completely different. So there isn’t any really inspiration I can really draw from it.
“The only thing that is kind of is similar is the opposition and the size of the occasion. It never stops becoming something that you are so delighted to be in.
“An All-Ireland final is what you play hurling for.”
While he insists on this being a completely different occasion, O’Donnell freely admits that that 2013 final was his a defining moment for him but is there a small part of him that wishes that people would stop asking about 2013?
“There’s a very small part of me,” he replies with a smile.
“But at the same time that would make it sound as if I wasn’t. I was so happy how 2013 went.
It certainly would be a nice way to – I won’t say book-end, as I don’t intend to retire this year but it would be a nice way to stagger, not just having one win at the start of your career but winning another after that.”
In the semi-final victory over Kilkenny at headquarters, O’Donnell sustained what appeared to be a serious hand injury late in the opening half.
Fortunately, for the recipient of a Fullbright scholarship to Harvard University in 2019, medics in the dressing room at half-time patched him up and he was able to resume his duties in the full-forward line following the restart.
“Basically, I didn’t protect my hand as I was going to catch a ball,” he concedes.
“I got a hurley to the back of it and it just burst open. The cut was deep and I thought it must have gone through to the artery or something.
“There was a lot of blood coming. Obviously the ball came out at the front and the hurley at the back at the same time and kind of pinched it.”
Despite the scare, the 30-year-old appears now to be in fighting form and is fit to face Cork on Sunday.
Even though Clare overcame the Cats by two points in the end, a very poor showing in the first half of the semi-final had left Banner fans in the crowd of almost 40,000, fearing the worst at the break.
A third semi-final in a row loss to Kilkenny loomed. But a superb second half display got them over the line and into their first All-Ireland showdown in 11 years.
Asked about the reason for that early below par performance O’Donnell says: " It was just not great use of the ball that was actually what was happening. We weren’t hitting the ball to positions that we could have done damage and get scores out of.
“It was just that last ball was not working – some poor decision making, some forwards, like myself maybe, not making the right option for the person on the ball. It culminated in forcing the pass. That kinda happened a few times.
“Then the (first Kilkenny) goal was a fantastic goal from (Eoin) Cody. The precursor to it basically was, I went off for a blood sub and we were down a man as a man was coming on. The puck out came free and he got to walk out to the 45 and lump it in to Cody.
“I don’t mean to diminish it but they are the small kind of things and you just get a little bit unlucky. But having said that, we weren’t playing well. We were not making the right decisions, essentially.”
Things haven’t gone exactly smoothly for Clare and O’Donnell since that 2013 breakthrough win. The Bannermen finally broke the semi-final duck and O’Donnell himself is beginning to put injury issues behind him and learning to deal with pressure of the big games.
He has already bagged two Player of the Match awards so this Championship and he reveals that this year’s form has probably come as a result of embracing the moment and making the most of the time he has left at the top of the game.
“Because of the trajectory of my career – I was very close to probably retiring a few years ago after an injury to my head – so it almost gave me a free shot at everything that came after that,” he said.
“So I feel no real pressure when it comes to big games. I would always put a lot of pressure on myself before the head injury.
“But now I become almost obsessed about getting the best out of myself but in a strange way I don’t necessarily think that there’s pressure with that. It’s just trying to do the best that you can.”