Kilmurry-Ibrickane boss Michael McDermott dedicated yesterday's historic All-Ireland club semi-final victory over Portlaoise to Declan Callinan, who missed the game through suspension.

Callinan is expected to return to the defence for the All-Ireland final against St. Gall's or Corofin on St. Patrick's Day after being hit with a ban in the wake of Kilmurry's quarter-final win over Tir Chonaill Gaels last month.

"All week in training, Declan played a huge role. On Friday night, he drove all the way down from Belfast to Clare, just to be part of it. He's the life and soul of the club, and represents what it is all about," McDermott said.

"This win today is a credit to Declan Callinan and we wanted to give him another day out in Croke Park."

After their dour battle with Tir Chonaill Gaels, McDermott said Kilmurry were inspired by Kerry's "out of nowhere" performance against Dublin in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final.

"We watched the DVD last night of Kerry versus Dublin in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final. We saw what Kerry did in the first 20 minutes and we said we were going to do that because we were the fresher team," he explained.

"Nobody realises the impact the Tir Chonaill Gaels match had on us. Dublin had a layoff for six weeks that day and it was the same with Portlaoise today, they had a long layoff since December 6.

"There's a hunger in these lads to keep winning and winning. I never saw a team as ready to give a performance. I'm delighted for the forwards that they racked up such a big score." Tweet

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