It felt good to be back in Cusack Park last Saturday, a return to familiar surroundings was welcome. This was what the GAA is all about, coming home and supporting the cause, supporting the county.

Croke Park can have its 80,000 capacity, its state of the art design and slick new pitch, but there is still a central place for events like last Saturday in the GAA. The occasion was the football qualifier between Clare and Cork. Not a game that would have a seismic affect on the season, but still it meant the world to those of us present.

Cusack Park these days is a relic of times past. Barbed wire still remains in place, meant as a deterrent to any possible pitch invasion. Alas, in recent years this prospect has been as far off the mark as a Beckham penalty. Yet the ground still has the ability to hold special days, to emit what is so special about the GAA. Ask any fan who was present for last year’s hurling qualifier against Galway.

So we entered the Coliseum once again last Saturday, disciples of Clare football. Ah yes, Clare football. The very words provoke a barrage of memories. Near misses in plentiful supply. Remember how the ref screwed us in ’92 against the Dubs ? (How many counties have scored 2:12 in an All-Ireland semi-final and still lost ?) How we messed up spectacularly against Tipperary in ’94 - Tom Morrissey bungling in an own goal of awful ineptitude. How about taking Cork to a replay in ’96, and then to extra time, only to be beaten by an illegitimate goal, a goal that broke Clare hearts, hearts that weren’t mended until Martin Daly’s late late show twelve months later.

It goes on. Losing terribly to Tipp in ’98, hammered in Killarney by the Kingdom the following year. There was some respite in 2000 when we beat Tipp, lit up by a Martin Daly wonder point (remember that backheel ?). Since then it’s been downhill all the way. Relegation, Qualifier defeats aplenty. Last year we witnessed the spectacle of a Clare team playing against fourteen men two weeks in a row, yet being thoroughly outplayed on both occasions. How we laughed (well it was either that or cry).

So, we went along again last Saturday, possibly being ridiculed as we entered the hallowed gates of “Páirc Uí Chiosóig” by those more fond of the small ball. Yet we were defiant. There has always been a sense of defiance when you go supporting the Clare footballers, a sense of doing a job that you know others turn their nose up at. Yet that is part of the attraction. De Scribe couldn’t understand what other activity there could be in Clare last Saturday other than supporting the “footballers” (they have been known by other names in the county).

Once again, for seventy minutes, the Clare team teased their supporters. We dared hope, for a moment, that we would bear witness to a rare victory over Cork. But no. While the team did cajole its supporters into an increasingly rousing response, ultimately it seemed inevitable that Cork would just pull away at the end. We left downhearted, but looking forward to the delights of the Tommy Murphy Cup (no, not really).

“So what” you may ask, “who cares about some grotty little Qualifier match between two teams who will have little or no bearing on the championship”. “Why can’t you talk about something sexier, like the fact that all the big guns are still left in the hurling, and the football is heating up nicely too”. Well, as a matter of fact, days like last Saturday are what the GAA IS about. The crowd may not have been worrying the capacity of the ground, the match may not have been broadcast live to the nation. Heck, we didn’t even have a band ! But we didn’t care, we were there to support OUR teams.

Many of us have an interest in the English Premiership, some to an unhealthy degree. But we don’t really support it. It doesn’t touch us the way that our own Championship grabs us and won’t let go until our county is knocked out and we’re told to try again next year. These are our players, our fellow county men whom we live with and work with. They grew up with us, know the same places as us and go out (when they get the chance) to the same pubs and restaurants as us.

That Clare team was playing for the whole county last Saturday. They were all Clare men, not a mixture of big money ‘buys’ who have just come along for the pay packet and an oul match or two. This sense of place, sense of where we come from, is THE bedrock of the GAA. When Cork play Tipperary on Saturday, it WILL be Cork playing Tipperary, a pure battle between two old rivals, the bloodlines clear of any “foreign” imports.

Should a transfer system ever enter the GAA, it would destroy all that the Association has stood for. The beauty of the inter-county scene is that you play for who you are. To be in Croke Park on All Ireland Final day is to witness what the GAA is. This is the day the county comes to do battle, to take home the top prize. Even those with no sporting interest are still held by the fact that their place is on stage, and the whole country is watching.

Our journey with the Clare footballers will commence again next season (save for the slight diversion of the Tommy Murphy Cup). We follow them not because they are the best, not because it is fashionable. No, it is not as fickle as that. We support them because they are representing US, their county. They are OUR team.

It’s that simple.