This article is from page 89 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 89 JPG
ARE we there yet? No, still strug- cling. However, if we realise this it can work to our advantage. Plenty of hard choices for the management. It will be seriously tested in planning for Waterford. Clare exited the league in the same manner as last year. No progress in that area. No knives yet however.
Tony Considine must be smiling. Clare lost their chances of a quarter- final slot in the Limerick game be- cause of sideline inertia in not rest- ing the free-taker when he was off aN ismee-0 8 olen
In addition, when Fergal Lynch was brought in at full-forward in the second half he was persistently given low ball. Lynch doesn’t do low ball
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Earlier there had been a hint of panic when Barrett was red-carded against Galway but in fairness the game against Tipp was a reasonable all-round effort. Yet it proved to be as revealing as I thought it would.
Not even one position, the goalie apart, has been settled in the Clare defence and Gerry O’Grady’s so- journ in his club’s attack doesn’t do him any favours.
He was easily turned by Eoin Kelly and the Mullinahone man scored four points from play. With a dry sod and ball in June or July this tally might well be doubled. Alarm bells surely.
On any given day that I watched there was a patent lack of pace all over the Clare defence. We can ig- nore it at our peril. It was blindingly
obvious when Pat Kerwick the Tipp half forward ran at the Clare backs. Left them going backwards in his slipstream. Imagine the scenario if Eddie Brennan, John Mullane or ei- ther of the O’Connor twins had had his opportunities.
A bit harsh? Not really. Realis- ing one’s limitations is the first step towards improving them. If we were planning for Mullane, Kelly, Molumphy, Flynn and Shanahan in this League it wasn’t much in evi- dence.
Against Tipp the Clare midfield pair hurled their own game, scored a couple of points, and left their oppo- nents to their own devices. The Tipp midfield pairing scored four points between them. Free scoring midfield- ers need marking as much as any for-
ward. Very often it means sacrificing one’s own game to tie them down.
Almost every Clare forward seems to do their own thing nowadays. Ominously, returns such as seven points from play in 70 minutes dem- onstrate forward poverty. Mark Fla- herty did remarkably well from frees but I wonder would he prove more productive from play further out. If Declan O’Rourke could up his work- rate for the entirety of a game he has the strength and hurling to do really well. Gaffney’s return for the cham- pionship will give other free-taking options and lead to badly needed changes up front.
Mike McNamara and his manage- ment team must make some hard choices. Shed the remaining links with the glory days and invest in a
new generation to back those who have some championship experience. Against the Decies we will need pace and hurling all over the field. Pace is the key word. To me it’s seems fool- ish in the extreme for any manage- ment set-up to invest it’s years work on one championship outing.
It is simply providing a rod to beat itself. With all the emphasis on the Waterford game if Clare are beaten, should the sideline fall on its sword? By all means do everything in your power to win in the Gaelic Grounds but don’t back yourself into a corner.
Finally Ger Loughnane is having a good year with the Tribesmen but some players look off the pace and their defensive problems will come back to haunt them before the year Tree) UL