This article is from page 102 of the 2008-05-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 102 JPG
, Mc- Namara has put it up to his players to deliver Clare from its abysmal record in Munster in recent years.
“The players are in no doubt that this is D-day, this is the day they must deliver,’ McNamara said.
Clare have only won one Munster
championship tie since 1999, a first round win against Tipperary back in 2003. Now, McNamara is deter- mined to bring an end to that four- year losing streak.
“Our performances in the Munster championship in the last few years have been poor to say the least. We need to start levelling that out and need to start presenting perform- ances — hopefully winning perform- ances.
“We have presented players of qual- ity for a number of years now, but teams of quality seem to be absent.
It’s now time for players to present themselves as a team.
“We now have a new system in the championship — it’s two strikes or you’re out. There’s no easy passage, irrespective of performance in the last couple of years, you finished up at worst in an All-Ireland quarter fi- nal.
‘That was the old system – it’s now defunct and gone. So our best foot must be put forward on June 1, which would be unheard of for the last cou- ple of years.”
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Ni-
all Gilligan is winning his battle to be fit for the big game, which would be his 50th senior championship ap- pearance.
‘He has more than a 50/50 chance of making it,” revealed McNamara.
“Waterford have been the high kings, the strongest team in Munster over the last couple of years. The challenge is huge, the target is high. We have had an incredible amount of sessions put in plus commitment and courage — everything has gone in from the players. Now is the time to deliver a performance.”