This article is from page 119 of the 2009-02-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 119 JPG
AS both sets of players warmed down on Cusack Park on Sunday, Clare manager Mike McNamara and selector Alan Cunningham stood in a huddle in front of the dug-outs. There were no visible signs of head- scratching but there was no doubt that they were picking through the bones of their second successive league defeat.
Clare were puzzlingly sluggish and were made to look distinctly average against a Somewhat expermental Wa- terford side. It was a weariness akin to a veteran boxer on the ropes and as Mike McNamara embraced the wait- ing media, he didn’t pull any punches either.
“What can you say after watching that? Waterford were much sharper and much hungrier and obviously had a bit of homework done. I sup- pose they really caught us napping. There are no excuses for a perform- ance like that, it was below par and not what you’d expect in your own home grounds.”
Neither was he willing to fall back on any alibis for his side’s display.
“IT suppose we lost a lot of last week’s team. We lost Carmody, Con- lon, and Gerry Quinn yesterday in a training ground accident so if we were looking for excuses, maybe that would be it. But we are not looking for excuses and we have to knuckle down now and have a look at the
rest of the league and make sure that we get some points fast. We go to Thurles next and it is not the easiest place in the world to get them (Tip- perary) but we will go there looking for a win and see can we lift our sea- son. Realistically there is no excuse for it – it was a bad performance, a poor performance all-round.”
Murmurs of a stringent two hour training the day before were also dis- missed by McNamara as justification for the seven point defeat.
“We did a two hour session yes- terday as well as Thursday and Wednesday. But that really wouldn’t have been an excuse for a lacklustre performance like that in front of your own crowd.
“It would be something that every team is doing so I’m aware that we have to look a bit further ahead. | suppose if there is some brightness from today it’s that the full-back line were solid all the way through. Our middle eight struggled to make any headway but you must remember that Waterford were in last year’s All-Ire- land final and while they may not have acquitted themselves as they would have liked, they are still All- Ireland finalists, although we looked a bit light as well.”
Can he pinpoint the reason for the lethargy and lack of spark currently enveloping his side?
“As I say, I’ve never been into the excuses game. When you are beat- en, you are beaten. I mean you can
have an excuse for everything but it’s something we have to look at and address. We have a large panel of 37 people and we are trying to figure out which are the 20 that can assault the championship. Along the way, we might take some players back as maybe we will find out that some may or may not be good enough for it. We have about ten players who have not featured yet and you know, they have to feature and get a chance. Some of them came through the underage ranks and look good so we have to look and see what our best 20 or 21 players for June 21. But before we get there, we have to straighten the camp and get it right. It’s not right and we are ragged. Look at the six forwards out there in the second half and there was none of them playing in the post- tion they were supposed to be play- ing in. They were being dragged and pulled and sucked all over the place so there is an anxiety in their play that shouldn’t be there. You are talking about experienced players and even the younger players, there is a nervousness and excitement with them that shouldn’t be there. That isn’t part of modern sport.” The head scratching continues.