This article is from page 60 of the 2011-10-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 60 JPG
THE bottom line for Michéal McDermott and his management team after they won a year’s extension to their term in charge of the county senior team is that Clare wins promotion to Division 3 and reaches the Munster final.
That’s according to former Clare selector of 25 years Noel Walsh, who was part of John Maughan’s backroom team in 1991 to ’94 when the county won All-Ireland B honours, the Munster senior title and reached the semi-final of the National League.
“He should get one year,” said Walsh in backing the nomination of McDermott’s ratification, which was proposed by county chairman Michael O’Neill and seconded by Irish Officer Tom Burke.
“And if it’s successful it should be reviewed – if he does a good job there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be extended.There’s no doubt they gave everything over the past two years.
“I believe they have a great chance this year because they have five games at home in the league, which should obviously give them an advantage and the open draw in Munster favours them – playing either Limerick or Waterford, who we would be our equals, so we would this year be hopeful of going to a Munster senior football final.
“Who knows what will happen there – we know what happened in ’92.
“Those two objectives are reasonable – promotion from Division 4 and an appearance at least in a Munster football final,” added Walsh.
The chairman revealed that McDermott is still hopeful of adding another member to the backroom, something he intimated would be the case back in September when saying “
“It’s three at the minute – he hopes to get another selector as well. He hasn’t been earmarked officially yet,” said O’Neill.
“I would suggest that he would get a local man,” said Walsh.