This article is from page 61 of the 2011-06-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 61 JPG
THERE’S LITTLE time for Wolfe Tones to reflect on last weekend’s Féile as they prepare for the football equivalent this weekend. Central to that plan is to put their Galway experience to good use and as part of both backroom teams, football manager Matt O’Connor has learned a thing or two from last weekend.
“It was a great experience and hopefully a learning curve for these players, that’s the way I felt about it afterwards. The one things we learned is that we will have to win our first game against Bride Rovers in Rathcormac on Thursday at 2pm. We have to win that if we want to have any realistic chance of doing well in the competition. It’s builds up confidence then as well and on the other side, if you lose the first game or draw, it’s kind of an uphill battle like we had on Saturday. So it’s important on Thursday that we win.”
Having remained unbeaten in the group stages, Wolfe Tones were eventually outdone in a play-off but the key is for O’Connor and his back- room team of John O’Gorman, David Reidy and Tommy Lynch to quickly pick up the players ahead of Thursday’s throw-in.
“We were disappointed to go out like that because I thought we played well on the Saturday but at the end of the day, that’s just the way sport is.
“Yesterday evening we had a chat and the players are up for it, but a lot are carrying injuries and are tired, and a lot will depend on how they recover in the next few days. If they are fully fit, I think we have a good chance. We have a good team and if they perform to what we expect, I think we’ll have a good chance.
“We are down in Division 5 which is surprising but might suit us. These lads had put in a huge amount of work since January in both hurling and football and between the two codes, we have been managing them as best we can. It would be fantastic for them to win a Féile and hopefully if they could do it next weekend, it would be fantastic for them. It would finish off the year and maybe then they could go on and do well in the local championship.”