This article is from page 71 of the 2011-05-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 71 JPG
REGRET IS an insight that comes a day too late and while Liam McHale wasn’t suggesting that Clare could have beaten the All-Ireland champions in their own backyard, he stood in the tunnel afterwards crestfallen that Clare didn’t come out of their shell from the outset.
“We started very tentitatively. I was full sure that we were going to go out and give it a lash as we have talked for the last few weeks about just going out and playing, looking to perform well and take it from there but we didn’t do that in the first half.
“I thought for 20 minutes there in the second half, we played very well, we got some great scores, our forwards were playing well and we started to look comfortable on the ball but then the sending off was an absolute unmitigated disaster and we collapsed.
“When you are preparing for a big game like this against the All-Ireland champions, you are going to talk about winning the game and putting in a big performance. We got that for a little bit today but we didn’t get it for long enough to be competitive. I was hoping at half-time that we could play well in the second half and maybe lose by three or four points. Now it looked that way for a long period; we had a couple of goal chances but then it went away from us again.
“We are a Division 4 team that is not used to the size that’s out there, we are not used to the pace that’s out there and we are not used to the way they tackle. It’s a learning curve and it’s very disappointing now to have to gee them up again for the qualifiers but we will be hoping for a good draw at home and continue on.
“But it’s disappointing that we weren’t a little more competitive. I thought that we were doing fine but the lads eventually just downed tools. The lads made a promise at half-time that they were going to give it their best shot and keep playing for the whole second half but we didn’t do that. We only did it for the first 20 minutes and only for that, we could have been a lot closer really. Five or six points would have been more of a reflection of the game.”
If only Clare had the same belief in the opening period as they showed early in the second when temporarily reducing the All-Ireland winners to mere mortal status for an all too brief period?
“We got three points without reply at the start of the second half and you think that’s great. But then we make a few handling errors when controlling the situation and we lose the ball or carry it into the tackle and all of a sudden, the three points that you scored have been cancelled out because these guys [Cork] are so efficient. You make a mistake and they will punish you and that’s the disappointing thing.
“We kicked a lot of wides there today, we turned the ball over in the tackle an awful lot despite telling them not to carry the ball into the tackle so that would disappoint you because if we were a little bit cleverer and a little bit more efficient, we probably would have scored four or five more points and Cork would have scored four or five points less and all of a sudden then, you can walk away with you’re head held high. It’s disappointing but you know, what can you do but just keep encouraging, keep their confidence up and keep working on them.”
The draw for the first round of the qualfiers will tell a lot.