Shane O’Donnell has admitted that he never expected to win a Clare SHC title with Éire Óg.

The reigning Hurler of the Year had won just two club medals – an U15 ‘B’ and IHC – before the Ennis club ended a 35-year wait for the Canon Hamilton Cup with victory over Clooney-Quin last Sunday.

“There is definitely a recency bias at play, but it's hard to look past this as one of the best days I've been on a pitch. It's absolutely incredible,” O’Donnell told StreamSport.

“To see people that have been watching and training you since you were five or six years of age, and seeing them with tears in their eyes as they come up to you with the cup on the pitch, it's just absolutely phenomenal.

“You can see what it means to the club, I don't need to describe that. You can see lads who are 60 who were my age the last time they won it, that was 30 or 35 years ago...

“It wasn't even something we thought of when I was playing underage. The second division with Éire Óg was the top team. I think I have two medals with Éire Óg, an U15B and an intermediate.

“They're the two championships I've won with Éire Óg in my career so far, so I think this is a big step up from both of them.

“I don't think Éire Óg were in a position to fight for this when I was underage, and we didn't think we were going to be able to assemble a team. But you don't think about it like that, you just have to take it year by year."

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