This article is from page 91 of the 2008-02-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 91 JPG
IT IS true to say that football in Clare again finds itself in troubled waters – this only a couple of weeks after real hope was floating around big ball country that a new era could be at hand.
The mood of positivity that wrapped itself around the county’s footballers came on the back of the county’s first McGrath Cup success in six years. Suddenly, in the wake of two very disappointing league performances against Carlow and Tipperary, the time for a reality check is here and now.
It’s going to be a very long haul back up the ladder for Clare football, probably one that won’t be achieved by many of the current generation of inter-county players.
And, it will take infrastructural change as well. No new trainer/man- ager/management team can wave a magic wand and wish away Clare’s football ills. The structures have to change whereby footballers in Clare are getting more games.
Success won’t come in the short- term – it will be a longterm thing and players and management should realise that. Looking at their history books might even teach them a thing or two, give them some confidence even, as they face into the Antrim game and sterner challenges that lie ahead against Offaly and Wicklow.
When John Maughan came to Clare in 1990, his first league game in charge was against Tipperary and Clare went down just as badly as they did last Saturday. They lost their sec- ond game too.
“We set ourselves the target of win- ning a couple of games in the league and we did that in the latter stages of the competition. It was the road to success,’ recalled Maughan.
Clare have to believe, even in the darkness of defeat to Carlow and Tipperary that they can go down a similar road. If they don’t Clare foot- ball will consigned to Divsion 4 for a while yet.
It’s up to the players, because there’s only so much that management can do. Many players were highly critical of the Paidi O Sé regime last year, wrongly blaming bad management for bad performances.
There’s been good management since November, with training up to five nights a week. Bad performances can’t be blamed on bad management now. It’s up to the players now.