This article is from page 88 of the 2007-08-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 88 JPG
AS THE county board and the clubs of Clare continue their search for a new football manager at tonight’s board meeting, news that Seamus Clancy has ruled himself out of the race will have strengthened the body of opinion calling for the reinstate- ment of Donie Buckley.
It is thought that over the past few days Clancy made known to the county board his wishes not to be considered for the position.
The former All-Star was widely touted as one of the best options for the county due to his experience both as a player and manager and because of his forthright and honest views of Clare’s dismal season.
His withdrawal means there’s one less option for Clare right now and on the back of this weekend’s club championship showing, the county needs as many options as possible.
It was another weekend of sub- standard club championship football in which the quality was low and the scores were even lower. It took 272 minutes for the first championship goal this year, with a total of four goals altogether in round one.
Goals apart, the points tallies are just as unimpressive and paint a wor- rying picture of the state of Clare football at present.
After two complete rounds of the senior championship, only four sides managed to get into double point fig- ures and kick more than nine points over an hour.
In the first round, Shannon Gaels
managed ten points and Wolfe Tones scored eleven. In the second round, Cooraclare kicked eleven points while Lissycasey notched up ten. It means that out of 32 opportunities over the 16 games so far, the magical figure of ten points was only reached four times.
On Saturday, Liscannor managed to beat one of the favourites for the championship by scoring only five points against a Doonbeg side that managed only three points — all from suueKy
It harks back to the dark days of Clare football when county champi- onships were won on meagre score- lines.
On top of this, the so-called top teams are not exactly leading by ex- ample. Defending champions Eire Og again stuttered and stumbled to victory for the second week running and notched up 14 wides in the proc- ess, while Shannon Gaels went under to an unfancied Ennistymon outfit.
Elsewhere, St Joseph’s Miultown couldn’t even put a point on the board in their second-half against Eire Og and St Breckans went 34 minutes without raising a white flag.
On this showing, perhaps other op- tions may go by the wayside in the quest for a new manager.