This article is from page 99 of the 2008-06-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 99 JPG
CLARE left Fitzgerald stadium beat- en and a little dazed after 70 minutes in the company of the All-Ireland champions. No backdoor, no quali- fiers. Eight months hard work cul- minates with another meeting with Tommy Murphy and a competition that will disappear from the fixture schedule after this season.
Kerry left to mutterings over the
quality of their 12-point win and the adulation of wide-eyed kids waiting for autographs and jerseys. The con- trast could not have been greater.
Clare captain Michael O’Shea stood outside the dressing rooms, frustrated.
“It’s very disappointing. At the be- ginning the qualifiers were brought in to help the weaker teams and at the moment, now all they are doing is giving the stronger teams their
second chance. Maybe the higher authorities are going to have to look at themselves there and ask why they were brought in, in the first place. I know they are coming back next year for everyone, but it’s no good for us now’’, said O’Shea.
Clare will take what they can from the Tommy Murphy Cup said O’Shea, who admitted Clare lost their way once Kerry found some rhythm.
“We stuck with them for 35 min-
utes there and maybe a bit after the re-start. But I suppose, when the goal went in and we lost Conor (Whelan), we lost our shape. It was hard to keep going after that. Especially when you are playing the likes of Kerry. They are a top quality team. They were bringing lads off the field there to- day, who would walk onto any coun- ty team in the country. It’s not easy in that respect. We’ll walk away, we’ll be happy enough with our first half
performance. We’ll try and build from this in the future.”
The end of another campaign but O’Shea feels that Clare football is in a better place than it was last year.
“The progress has been good. We’ve had ups and downs through- out the year. Compared to where we were this time last year, we’re a good couple of rungs up the ladder from there. So it’s just a matter of building oy nm aor: T mp OKO) \ vam