This article is from page 81 of the 2007-09-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 81 JPG
THERE were few complaints from Clare afterwards but understandably, team manager Colm Hanly was won- dering how and why so much injury time was played.
“What in the name of God was all that injury time about? We were two points up and to have to go through that much injury time? I couldn’t tell on the sideline what all the time was for. Not to be unsporting, but I just can’t figure that out. But in fairness to Derry they kept going and going and got that bit of luck at the end.”
It’s been a long journey through the season for Clare and with the end in sight, the final roadblock was the one that caused the real pain.
“That’s the way it goes. That’s sport, you can’t legislate for that kind of thing. You work and you work as hard as you can and not to get the reward is painful but I’m sure we’ll be back. It’s literally as bad as you can get. These players have been phenomenal all year. They’s been so comitted, so dilligent at every train- ing session. There isn’t an ounce of energy left from anyone, they left
everything out there. It was just that bit of luck. We always just asked them for work rate and we got more work rate than anybody could have expected. I’m still trying to get my head around the end of the game, but I’m extremely proud. Fair enough we came up short but on the day we were the better team. They performed out- standingly well.” ;
Derry’s joint-manager Padraig O Mianain, who runs the team with his wife Susan, 1s gracious and forward- looking even though his side have just clinched victory from the shark’s mouth.
‘This is the third time we’ve played Eee A-UCmioteh BNO Mm aon anything in it. These two teams have been very evenly matched and it was was a great game of camogie out there today. A great advert for the game. I feel that the likes of ourselves and Clare are closer to senior division that many of the teams in our own division and I don’t know what Croke Park can do to accommodate us. If we could get into the top division and play the top teams that would improve us no end. We need to play better teams to progress and the dis-
play of camogie out there shows that there’s good camogie in both teams. We’re not too sure what the system is right now. Whether a team have to win twice to move up. Look at today. There’s nothing between these teams so either of us could stay perpetually down in the juniors. So I’d make an appeal to change the structure be- cause now we need to look at getting these two teams senior.”
The Derryman also felt that late on, the game was slipping from his side.
“The way we addressed the game all year, we put ourselves in a posi- tion to compete but at that level, you just need a bit of luck. To be honest, When our full-forward caught the ball at the end, it was 50/50 if it was a penalty. I wouldn’t have criticised if it hadn’t have been given. I thought that was the chance gone. But to get it with the last puck of the ball was unbelieveable. We know what it feels like. We lost the final last year by two points.”