Limerick captain says a lot of lads hurting

Limerick captain David Breen didn’t sugarcoat his team’s disappointment after Saturday night’s 14-pointhammering by Clare in the opening round of the Allianz Hurling League.

“There are a lot of lads hurting. Limerick is a proud county and there are lads that are going to be sickened by that and will want to address it,” he admitted. “That won’t do. We have four games left and have two weeks off. We need to take stock of what happened, analyse the match and there will be lads gunning to redeemthemselves in the next game.”

The giant centre-forward, who deemed the result ‘a reality check’, continued: “We were trying lads out in new positions and giving some of the younger lads their debuts We started well but seemed to lose our shape. We were just second to the breaks and that killed us. They (Clare) were well versed, knew what they were doing game-plan wise and were deadlyaccurate. They didn’t miss much — you can see they’ve been working on that on the training ground. That’s something we need to improve on a lot but we gave away too many frees and they’re points straight away.”

However Clare’s Patrick Donnellan was anxious to play down the Banner’s display.

“It was a great win and good to put up such a score but we know exactly what we are. We wouldn’t get carried away with this, we’re not going to fool ourselves into thinking that we’ve just played an All-Ireland final. We could play Limerick again in a couple of weeks and it could be a totally different Limerick team with a bit more work done.”

Few would argue that the Claredisplay bore all the hallmarks of Davy Fitzgerald’s coaching, approach and attitude towards hurling.

And Donnellan admits that Fitzgerald’s attitude is infectious.

“I made my debut while Fitzy was still playing so I know what he trains like, I know the effort he put in as a player and what he went on to achieve (as manager) with Waterford. He’s a through-and-through Clare man, you can see it with him on the line. There’s nothing put-on about him, nothing false, he’s just honest every time he goes out and he tries to instil that in us too.”

Fitzgerald cut his teeth in management at Fitzgibbon Cup level, a different kind of game to inter-county, a game where youthful exuberance is king, where tactics and hurling intelligence is combined with high intensity, a game in fact very similar to that which Clare played on Saturday night.

With so many young guys on the team, however, it’s a game that suits this Clare side perfectly.

“That’s what we’re trying to go out and do,” agreed Donnellan. “We mightn’t be the biggest team in the world but you play to your strengths. That (short game) did us well against Limerick but the next day we go out we might have to play a different game with different tactics. We’re not limiting ourselves to either the short game or the long game — we’re trying to play a smart game.”