This article is from page 79 of the 2011-06-21 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 79 JPG
A GOOD START is only half the battle as Clare found out to their cost on Sunday. Ger O’Loughlin’s side defied the odds to take the game to the All-Ireland champions from the outset and were 1-6 to 0-2 clear by the 17th minute before things quickly began to unravel.
“It was a great start and we couldn’t ask for better. We looked awful sharp, very commited and played according to plan. We man-marked and did it very well and again a lack of concentration maybe for a couple of minutes at times cost us.
“We just need to learn from it because against the likes of Tipp will eat you up if you give them an opportunity and we did on a couple of occasions. I mean four goals to concede again is too much so we just need to see where we can tighten up with that. Again though you can take a lot of positives out of it as well.
“I hate going away saying we are proud and the whole lot but we still lost which is disappointing but somewhere along the way we just have to turn the corner and start winning these games. That game was there for the taking and when you score 1-19, you’d think it would be nearly enough to come away with the vic tory. If someone told me beforehand that we would score 1-19 against Tipp, I’d have said we’ll beat them.”
Suggestions that Clare might have freshened things up in the final quarter were also dismissed by the Banner manager.
“I said it to the guys at half-time that we had played so well that there’s no way we could think about changing the team. We had played extremely well and everybody had plenty of energy in the tank and up front, I was happy that we looked dangerous when we got the ball and I thought there was a good shape about us and I was slow to make changes from that point of view.
“And I suppose with some of our forwards that you are always hoping that they will get onto ball and get something out of nothing and rattle the back of the net. So that’s what I was hoping for with the likes of Darach Honan who had come into the game injured but he is one of those guys that if you give him half a chance he will take it and I was conscious as well that he didn’t get that many clear balls into the hand. I just thought that if he got the right ball, he would definitely skin them.
“The rest of the forwards I thought were doing ok. We brought John Conlon out to midfield because Nicky [O’Connell] had been injured and was restricted in his training up to the game but still gave a great 50 minutes and I thought in defence we looked fine and were holding their own.”
And after such an encouraging display, inevitably the conversation switched to the restructuring of the league to allow Clare to play Tipper- ary on a more regular basis.
“We showed we can play against the likes of Tipp and even in a couple of the challenge matches we held our own against the top sides so I think that we need to have a look at restructuring the league because it would make for better teams coming out of Clare, Offaly and Wexford if we had 12 team Division 1 split into two groups and see who comes out of it.
“You are trying to develop the teams which you can’t do in Division 2. Fellas are coming half-hearted to league matches when playing weaker counties and you are learning nothing from it. You are beating teams by 25 or 30 points and then you come up against the likes of Limerick, Wexford, or Offaly as we will next year and we might just be thinking we are better than what we are. Whereas if you are playing them week in and week out, you’d probably be a lot sharper and mentally you’d be a lot tougher as well.”
With the draw for the qualifiers coming almost immediately after the game, the Sparrow’s side don’t have time to dwell on the Tipperary game as they prepare for the challenge of neighbours Galway in the qualifiers on Saturday week.
“People are asking what sort of a response are you going to get between now and the Galway game and there will only be a toss of a coin between us. We just chatted about it inside in the dressing room and if we regroup and realise that we have potential like we showed today, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t be able to get a run in the qualifiers.
“We are at a crossroads and it’s a case of seeing if we can turn the corner because if we turn the corner, we’re going places. It’s frustrating but in saying that, the next day is going to be very important for the development of the team, without putting any pressure on them because there is no point in doing that either. We just have to take all the positives and realise that anything under what we showed today wouldn’t beat Galway.”