Why is there so little interest in Clare?
There is very little anticipation, even here in Clare, about today’s clash between Waterford and the Banner men. And remember, this is a Munster semi-final. Is that because of Clare playing in Division Two this year, is it because of Cork/Kerry football game or is it because this is a long weekend, and the game is on the Monday?
The Munster senior hurling championship was always huge in Clare, but I’m wondering, has a feeling of negativity crept in and is there reason for that negativity?
In fairness to the Sparrow O’Loughlin this was a situation he inherited, this Division Two status for Clare is not a situation of his own creation. But you have to say too, they haven’t ended that Division Two status having lost the league final to Wexford.
Their performances during the league didn’t exactly set the world on fire either, struggling against the likes of Laois, Carlow, Antrim – and I wonder if people have lost faith.
If so, that’s sad to see, especially in light of the fact that Clare won its first U21 title last year and had massive crowds to their games. Why are those people not supporting this team now, when they most need the backing of the fans? Those young players will obviously need a few years to mature and come good, but during that period they need people rowing in behind them. Have we reached the situation in Clare where silverware has to be guaranteed before they’ll follow the team? Or, are they just fed up with the GAA is run within the county? We’ll get the answer to all those questions today; if Clare do get a crowd in Thurles, then that will be very encouraging for the players and management. I hope that will be the case.
Clare already have a number of established players, the likes of BOC (Brian O’Connell), Brendan Bugler, Jonathon Clancy, Diarmuid McMahon, Pat Vaughan and several others. You have young guys coming through now like Darach Honan, John Conlan, Seán Collins, Diarmuid O’Donovan, Cian Dillon – they could do with a bit of nursing at this critical stage of their career, but too many Clare players who are still in their prime have decided to dedicate themselves to other matters. A pity.
Anyway, enough about Clare – to Waterford, who come into this game as raging hot favourites.
They’ve proven that on their day, they are more than capable of doing things like that to inferior opposition, but then Waterford’s main problem is consistency. On their day, they can be very, very good, but when they’re bad, they can be really awful. But, look at the quality of their players, their big players – Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh, John Mullane, Eoin Kelly, Eoin Murphy, Tony Browne, Ken McGrath, Stephen Molumphy, class players everywhere. They have a young fella as well, Noel Connors, who is as good a corner-back as there is in the country. That’s a lot of quality.
I think Thurles will suit Waterford, they seem to thrive in the open spaces there and have given some of their best performances in Semple Stadium. They’re a Division One team, won three games in the league, drew two, put it up to everyone they met, but you wonder, are they relying on their big men just one year too often? Then again we wondered the same thing about Cork last Sunday, and look what happened!
Wrapping up, Waterford have been playing a high standard of hurling all year, against high-quality teams, Clare haven’t. You’d have to think that Clare, even playing at their best, will still come up short, but then again there’s always hope of an upset, the kind of upset we’ve seen so many times before.
