McMahon has high praise for boss Daly

ANTHONY DALY and his more senior players will make no impulse decisions over their futures with Clare, according to captain Sean McMahon.

Brian Lohan is tipped to end his 12-year inter-county career after his storming performance in Sunday’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final defeat to Cork.

Davy Fitzgerald, Frank Lohan and McMahon himself have at least a decade of service, though it remains to be seen who will be on board next February.

“We had a chat on Sunday night but these are not the days to do the talking (about the future),” said McMahon.

“I don’t actually think there will be fellows leaving en masse and if they do, they will leave on their own accord.

“As for myself, the only thing I have the hunger for is going back home and taking stock of what has happened. Time is a great healer, you never know,” he said.

Daly’s one-year extension as manager ended on Sunday evening but the job is all but his again next season as long as he wants it.

McMahon soldiered with the Clarecastle man through many a summer as a player and yesterday paid tribute to his management skills.

“Anthony has given no indication as what he is going to do. He’s done a fantastic job. I suppose, he came into it very raw last year. He did a very good job last year but I think he’s learnt an awful lot from this year.

“The whole set-up with Fr Harry (Bohan), Alan Cunningham and Johnny Glynn was just fantastic all year. We were in great shape (on Sunday). It was as impressive a set-up as I was ever in. There was no stone left unturned,” he said.

With Clare struggling to make any impression at underage levels in recent years the fear is that the county will slide back into the abyss pre-1995.

McMahon isn’t so pessimistic, pointing to the performances of men like Tony Carmody, Andrew Quinn, Diarmuid McMahon and Alan Markham in recent weeks as evidence of hope in the years to come.

For all that, Sunday’s defeat will leave a scar. McMahon said it was the best Clare performance in years, one reminiscent of the mid to late-90s.

“I am devastated really. The game was there for the winning and there was very little in it. Cork would not have begrudged us a draw but they got the breaks.

“To lose at this stage after having got so close is terrible. That’s the really disappointing thing, it’s nearly worse than losing an All-Ireland final. In fairness to Cork, they battled it out but we firmly believed that we had a great chance.”

David Fitzgerald described the defeat as the most disappointing of his career.

Fitzgerald, an All-Ireland winner in 1995 and 1997, believes that match referee Dickie Murphy should have allowed Clare a chance to equalise after a thrilling 70 minutes.

“I don’t think I have ever been so disappointed as I am right now. It’s hard to put into words what we feel after that performance,” he said.

“We had been training since October and everyone seemed to think we were dead and gone, we were written off and it is disappointing to go down that way, but I am proud of all the boys.

“I just felt going in at the end the referee could have given us a free and we could have drawn it and we deserved that result at least. That’s hurling and we have to take it on the chin as normal and get on with things.

“We are proud of our hurling in Clare and the boys showed that. You don’t always get it right every day out there and we have had days when things have gone wrong. None of the players left anything in the tank and they gave everything they had to the Clare jersey.

“What the public doesn’t realise when they are criticising us is that we never go out there to play badly or to let ourselves down.

“In the 16 years I have been playing for Clare, it is without doubt the hardest day I have had to endure because we did not deserve to be beaten today.”

Fr Harry Bohan said the management and panel were gutted. “We deserved a draw at least if not to win it. We had them beaten all over the place and we should have led by six or seven points at half time.

“We let them back into to it towards the end but apart from that Clare were superb and if you look at the fellows that were written off - Brian Lohan and the others - they were real warriors.”

“We had them analysed and we watched a number of videos on them and everything was covered. But to be beaten by a point in the last minute, there is nothing worse.

“I have been in many Clare dressing rooms down the years but I have never seen an outfit as gutted as these lads were. Some of the lads wept in there after giving it so much. We felt coming up here we could win it.”