Man in the red helmet to lead by example

LOHAN, the red helmet. There are two Lohans playing on the Clare team, each of them an Allstar.

There are thousands of red helmets. Yet in hurling circles, mention "Lohan", or "your man in the red helmet", and 99 times out of 100, people will know who you're talking about.

Brian Lohan, captain of Clare, full-back of the ages.

Captain cool, the unflappable one. Since he took over from the equally magnificent Anthony Daly, Lohan has led by example, and he it is who sets the tempo for the rest of this team.

From him, from the back of the field, comes the sense of calm, the sense of absolute conviction that even when all seems lost, Clare will prevail.

Doesn't always happen, of course, but it did in the All-Ireland quarter-final, when Clare were down 0-6 to 0-1 to an unbeatable-looking Galway side after 15 minutes, only to come back and win by a point. Happened again in the semi-final, this time an even more lethal-looking Waterford racing into an 0-7 to 0-2 lead in faster order. Again, no panic, and with Lohan setting the agenda at full-back, Clare came back. Cool dude alright.

"Against Waterford, in particular, they started very well, but we wanted to see how they'd react when they came under a bit of pressure when we had a little luck. Most of us were waiting for that, when we got to ask the questions of them. And when it came, they didn't react as well as they could have, and we got a bit of confidence from that," he said.

Confidence was the buzz-word from the Clare captain at a media evening in Ennis. Confidence lost, after three hard defeats by Tipperary in the last couple of years, confidence regained in four good wins during the recent All-Ireland series.

"If we're honest, I suppose we'd have to say we didn't really expect to find ourselves back in an All-Ireland final again," he said.

"All of last year, all of the year before, and after we were beaten this year, it was going. It was also being mentioned that no Clare minor team had won in three years, no Clare

Under-21 team. In June, every county team in hurling and football between minor, Under-21, senior, junior, had been beaten in the championship.

"It's just confidence, I suppose, confidence has a huge amount to do with it, and Clare hurling was not in good shape going into the Dublin game. It needed the senior team to do something significant. We've played league matches and so on, but you don't get confidence from those. It's championship games you get the confidence in, and we were lucky, lucky to get Dublin in the first round, with all due respect to them.

"Lucky in the next game against Wexford, they were after coming off a tough loss in the Leinster final a week before. A stage had to come then when we needed to answer some questions about ourselves, and that test came with Galway. The doubts that were there, the questions that needed answering, were faced up to that day, and we came through."

Great credit has gone to the Clare defence for that progress, but as Brian Lohan points out, the forwards, too, have done their bit. Nevertheless, those forwards are getting little credit.

"There's a lot of talk that if the forwards were a bit better, we'd have a much better team," said David Forde, one of those being maligned.

"The backs are the ones always getting the credit. But, sure, we just go out and do our best. Ours is a more difficult role, you have to win the ball, create space, then try and turn into goal, get off a clean and accurate shot all those things add up. But we're not doing too bad. The few games we've had this year, one or two guys

always seem to play well, the rest of us do okay. But you're always going to get that. If the six of us ever do well on one day, we'll do some scoring. But that won't happen," he said.

Both defences come into this one with big reputations. But with the

increased dimensions at the new Croke Park, that advantage might not be as pronounced this week as expected.

"If you're getting a short, little forward who's flying all over the place, it'll make a difference," Lohan said with a wry grin. Could have been describing David Forde there!

Doubtful, though, that anyone will take Brian Lohan to the cleaners this week, not the way he's been playing for the past few months. He will be troubled, because Martin Comerford is a jewel for Kilkenny. But Brian Lohan tends to be a big player on a big day.

That red helmet bursting from

defence, that absolute conviction spreading through the field nuff said.