This article is from page 103 of the 2008-01-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 103 JPG
IN THE greater scheme of things this year, the merit of the McGrath Cup has yet to be valued. By the time the championship comes around, if Clare have bounced out of Division 4, maybe we’ll look back at this cold and wet month of January and say the tournament provided the perfect launch pad for Frank Doherty.
On the flipside, should Clare linger along the fat midriff of the lowest rung on the ladder, the McGrath Cup will drift into the shadow of insig- nificance.
Time and results will tell and for now, all we have are the past four games to linger on. Without Cork or Kerry competing, the competition was open up for the likes of Clare to take advantage and that’s what
they’ve done. As Frank Doherty has been saying since the UCC game at Miltown just after Christmas, com- petitive games are worth any number of training sessions and reaching the final was more important than win- ub bayean |
But the manner in which Clare overcame Limerick, Doherty says, was of huge significance.
“I’ve seen us play a lot better than that and maybe the occasion got to lads, maybe there were some nerves, but we showed spirit there at the end. And maybe that’s a spirit that wasn’t there before. I’m delighted for the lads that we won because the opportunity of getting silverware doesn’t come about too often. It’s a great result be- cause Limerick had their homework done, they stopped us playing down the middle but we hung in.”
Doherty was speaking out in the middle of the field and at his back Michael O’Shea was lifting the Mc- GCre-tism Other
Just after the final whistle sounded, Doherty clambered onto the pitch, slapped his players and told them it would be the “first of many.” It’s that positive thinking that has seeped into the attitude this year.
“This win is going to stand to lads,” he said. ““We’re unbeaten in ’08 and that’s something we’ll take. You saw a good crowd of supporters showing up here and they saw a team with heart and soul. Maybe it wasn’t the greatest game, but Clare can play better. Four games in four week- ends might have taken its toll, but we freshened things up. Colm Dillon came on and livened things.
“I thought we dominated things in
the second-half and drove at Lim- erick. We got the bit of luck, David [Tubridy] is a cool customer and he knows where the net is. We practice penalties and if we don’t get another for the rest of the year, then it’s al- ready paid off.”
And the incident that led to that eae IAYAs
“Ah,” Doherty smiles, “the ref had a great game. Fair play.” Enough said.
At the other end of the field, Mick- ey Ned O’Sullivan stands beneath the dressing-room balcony and has a different opinion on the penalty. O’Sullivan is one of football’s great thinkers and you can imaging him dissecting the incident — and the wider implications it might have on football — on his long drive back to Kenmare.
“T didn’t think it was a penalty,” he
says straight up. “It was very, very unfair. Football 1s now becoming about referees and it should be about players. I mean, that [the incident that led to the penalty] was a 50-50 ball.
‘“That’s how we coach a goalkeeper to come out for a ball. My job is to coach and I’m not going to criticise the referee, but it was a mickey- mouse decision. We train hard and it’s difficult to lose like that. I won’t blame the referee though — we had our chances and we didn’t take them.”
He drifts back to the dressing room, the incident still swirling in his head. O’Sullivan has seen enough though to realise that a McGrath Cup doesn’t make a spring.
Doherty realises that too. He knows Clare have just reached the foot of the mountain. Getting to Base Camp One is the next step.