This article is from page 102 of the 2009-04-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 102 JPG
JOHN McIntyre has been known for his straight talking — whether as an analyst looking in or a manager on the sideline he calls it as it is.
Cue his remarks after the Dub- lin game when his side were on the wrong end of a comprehensive beat- ing.
Same when he was a staunch admir- er of Clare in different times — those days when they won Munster and All-Ireland titles and even in recent years when they put it up to Cork and Kilkenny in Croke Park.
It’s why MclIntyre’s verdict on Clare was important to hear in the after- math of Galway’s second half demo- lition job on Sunday. There was al- ways the chance that McIntyre might offer some crumb of comfort for the championship summer ahead.
He did.
“Clare will just write off the league,” he said. ““The one county that seem to be able to put a bad league cam- paign behind them and get ready for the championship is Clare. Clare are always dangerous against that back- ground, but have a lot of work to do, like Galway,” he added.
What he didn’t say is that Galway look to have more to work with. And, it’s work that made this victory important — that’s the gospel from McIntyre at any rate as he reflected on his side’s nine-point win.
“It doesn’t change anything in terms of our league position or in terms of trying to qualify for a league final, but anytime you win is a good day. We came up here today hoping to win and drove the message home to players that there’s nothing better for confidence than winning.
“You can train like dogs for ten weeks in a row and go home with a
spring in your step after every train- ing session and talk about unity and passion and pride and all that, but one win is nearly worth all that,’ he revealed.
“The bottom line is that we’re af- ter winning three out of our last four league games — lost a game against Tipperary that we maybe could have won, so it does give us a little bit of momentum going into the champion- ship, but that will be at a different level altogether and we have a lot of work to do.
“It’s going to an historic occasion for Galway going into Leinster — I would be hoping that the lads would be inspired by the sense of history. Hopefully it will help reinvogorate hurling as well. Not everyone in Gal- way is happy about participating in Leinster but we’ll get on with it — the players are looking forward to it,” he added.