Banner seeking fresh fields

EVER since being drawn against their great rivals yet again, Clare players and supporters have not been looking forward to Sunday’s trip to Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

It has little to do with the fact Tipperary have enjoyed the advantage in recent Guinness Munster SHC clashes, more so the desire for a different challenge and a different venue.

Current captain Sean McMahon regrets 'the familiarity of the whole occasion.'

"Even if they looked at trying home and away," he said. "It's just a pity that Limerick is a few months short of being ready. If the game was there you could nearly fill it. The interest is still there but the familiarity of the whole occasion is taking from it. It needs a bit of freshness. Then again, when the teams are drawn to play each other, the only thing you can really freshen up is the venue."

These considerations aside, he says that the players have no problem in motivating themselves. The fact of having lost to them for the last three years is motivation enough. The rivalry is as strong as ever, but not as intense as was portrayed at times.

"I think a lot of that was played up. There were the 'hot and heavy' occasions but it always stayed on the field and fellows actually got on very well. The incidents would have been few and far between, but people were building it up. In the media and other places it was almost being hyped up to be World War whatever, but it actually never really was."

Now in his 10th championship season, he acknowledges that Clare's Allianz League campaign wasn't calculated to inspire confidence in the team and that it's something the players, and not the management, have to accept responsibility for.

"Our performances were quite poor and that was disappointing and very worrying," McMahon said.

"You can tell it from the attitude of people in the county, in that hopes wouldn't be high. At the same time the League is the League and it always was that way."

McMahon admits that, for the older members of the panel, it is getting harder 'in some respects' to continue to perform at the highest level. Yet it was arguably more difficult a few years go when Doora/Barefield enjoyed considerable success in the club championship and the strain told on him, James O'Connor and Ollie Baker. "Certainly, it meant we were going right the whole 12 months. Every sportsman needs a break in some form and we didn't get it then and it definitely had an effect.

"Over the last few years, unfortunately, we haven't had a run with the club but on the positive side we have had a break. It has been easier to come back and get going. I would feel fresh at this stage. But, I would still feel it's harder for some fellows who are there a long time to start playing well in February and expect to stay playing well until, hopefully, September.

"At the same time you begin to appreciate it all the more. You want to make the most of it. You can't afford to let a chance go or not to prepare properly. It's hard to believe that it's eight years since '95 at this stage. It has gone as if it was eight weeks. Chances don't come around that often. We'll be long enough sitting in the stand looking at it. When we can play, we want to make the most out of it and get the most out of ourselves!"

Last year, things 'fell nicely' for them, in the way they progressed through the qualifier system to contest the All-Ireland final. But their defeat was discouraging for the reason that the players were disappointed with their display. "I'm not saying we would have won it but we just did not perform on the day. That was a real killer for us. At the same time Kilkenny were the best team last year and there's no way we'd be trying to take away from their win," he added.

The Clare captain rejects criticism of the management, saying that Cyril Lyons has been 'first-class' since he took charge of the team. "It was a huge job to take on at the time, to replace Ger Loughnane who had done such great things for us. But Cyril took it on and he has been excellent. If you look at his record, in the first year everybody would accept that we were very unlucky to be beaten by Tipp by a point in Cork, who then went on to win the All-Ireland. I genuinely think we weren't that far away from it that year.

"And, last year we got to the final again. This is his third year and it's hard to argue that if we got any bit of luck the first year, or the second, maybe we could have won the All-Ireland. He's done a great job and with the Sparrow (Ger O'Loughlin) and Louis Mulqueen they work as a unit."

Criticism of the Clare forwards irritates him, believing they have always been an easy target. Inevitably, the finger was pointed at them during the League, but he argues that the backs could not escape criticism.

"At our end of the field we had been quite poor as well, none probably more so than myself. Still the comment will come out that Clare backs and midfield are whatever .... and the forwards are the problem. Last year they got criticised from start to finish, but they are a very capable bunch of fellows who on their day are as good as anyone. It's just that when we lose, it's always the forwards' problem and that's unfair."

Nevertheless, he accepts that Clare will have to get a better return from goal-scoring opportunities making the point that they are creating them if they are to advance in the championship through the direct route.

"Tipp will score 20 points or more. They are brilliant point-takers and goal-getters as well," McMahon added.