On the Eve of Harty Cup Final, as St Josephs Tulla prepare for the 1st their ever appearance in the final against Ard Scoil Rís Limerick , O'Callaghan's Mills GAA can look back on some of the great players from the club who were part of great Harty Cup sides. With 3 Mills men on the starting 15 and 3 more involved with the squad, the long tradition of hurlers from the parish that have been involved on the final day of the competition continues.

In fact, the most recent winner of a Harty Cup medal from the club is current senior player, Colin Crehan. Colin won his Harty Medal in 2014 with Ard Scoil Ris, Tulla's opponents in tomorrow's final. Conor Rocky Cooney another current senior hurler, was part of the St Flannans team who were beaten in the 2006 Harty Cup Final.

But it was largely St.Flannan's College Ennis, who the great players from this club would have lined out for in the quest for Harty Cup Glory. The Moroney bothers, Ger, Dermot and Aidan lined out for St Flannan's during their school days, with Ger winning a Harty cup in an all Clare Final in 1989. Darragh Moroney, Ger's son will be hoping to add another Harty cup medal to their mantelpiece tomorrow. Also on that team who played against Shannon's St Patrick Comprenhensive in 1989 final was our Intermediate manager Kevin Sammon.

Tim Canny and Joe Gorman were part of the all conquering Harty and All Ireland winning St Flannan's team of 1987.

Before that we had Michael Deasy and Brendan McNamara on the 1979 Harty winning team and Micheal's brother PJ (father of current Ballyea star Niall) was on the winning Harty cup team of 1976. Sean Hehir and Pat Tierney also represented Flannans in the early 70s in Harty Cup competition.

Indeed, Harty Cup history with O'Callaghan's Mills GAA goes back to the 1940s when the great Mick Shalloo won Harty Cups with St Flannan's in 1945, 46 and as captain in 47 when ably assisted by Mills hurlers Paddy Murray and Tom Lynch.

Of course all of these players went on to become great players for their club and we wish Colm Cleary, Fionn Hickey, Mikey McMahon, Darragh Moroney, Billy Scanlon and Cathal McNamara the same success in their future. And with most of our players now going to post primary school in Tulla, maybe the new nursery of hurling will be in East Clare.