Out with the old in with new

THERE are new banners flying in the Banner county these days. Flags that have fluttered on chimneys and piers since 1997, even 1995, and looked every year of it.

Tattered, tired and torn they have been replaced with fresh new saffron-and-blue flying instead.

Replaced too has been the talk of those glory years, and the nervous whispers that perhaps they were a bit of a fluke, brought about by a unique bunch of men whose likes would never be seen again in Clare jerseys.

Nowadays, there is a new spring in the step of Clare folk, new talk of a new team, a new manager, a new era. No-one is happier to see the end of the old than the man who was most instrumental in starting it.

Ger Loughnane is back at his desk in St Aidan’s school in Shannon, retired from management for two seasons, but up to a few weeks ago, he was still very much to the forefront in the Clare hurling scene. He was still the man. But not any more.

Regardless of the result this Sunday, Cyril Lyons has now stamped his own personality on this team and this county, and a new era has very definitely begun.

“One thing I really dreaded was it was all going to be a flash-in-the-pan, that in 10 or 20 years people would be referring back to the Loughnane era, with nothing in between,” the Feakle native said this week.

“Look at Limerick, 1973, even Wexford people now falling into that rut, looking back rather than beyond the era that was there. I did not want that to happen in Clare.

“Probably the main aim of anyone in a position of responsibility, be it family, business, a sporting organisation, is to pass on the torch at the appropriate time. And to the appropriate people. That’s very important. My biggest thrill now is to see those people being successful, in the next era.

“What Cyril has done so far with this team is phenomenal. Remember, it was an almost impossible situation that he took over, fighting a lot of issues. The one thing that saved him was he had no concern for his own reputation. That might seem a corny thing to say, but that’s the way he is.

“He had no concern for his own ego, he just wanted to keep the thing going. He was in it from the beginning, from 95, he saw the way things were done, liked the way things were done, and he wanted to continue that way, didn’t want to see it falling into the wrong hands, falling into the way it was before. Most importantly however, he has put his own mark on this team, made it his own.

“I know some of the players are still there from 95, seven from the whole panel, but you’ve had numerous new players coming in. There are new selectors, Louis and John; a new captain, a new sponsor. Everything different, from our era, and that’s what was needed.

Even as Clare powered their way through the qualifier series this year, the usual rumours were doing the usual rounds. Loughnane is back. Loughnane is helping out in the quiet. Behind the scenes. Rubbish.

“It’s really pathetic when someone in charge of a team is constantly going back to the previous coach for advice on what to say and do, calling him in to give motivational talks to the team and so on. Cyril has never done that. Himself, John, Louis, they’re intelligent guys you can’t beat intelligence.

“They have never contacted me for advice, and if they did, they know the answer they’d get anyway. They’ve trusted their own judgement, and I think that has given confidence to the team.

“They see these fellas are not insecure, not running back to Loughnane with ‘what are we going to do next’? “There’s none of that. Yet when Cyril appeared in Croke Park with the ear-phones on, people immediately assumed he was on to me, and it was only when I appeared live on the Sunday Game that some people accepted they were wrong.

Speaking of critical, many Clare fans were starting to get a bit angsty over the last couple of years, since Lyons took over, and the new manager shipped a lot of heavy criticism.

“He did, but the fans were spoiled really, for a few years, and it’s amazing how quickly you can forget the bad times. Amazing how quickly you can recall them too though, and a lot of people were starting to worry, especially after being beaten by Tipperary for the third time in three years. It was a very good Tipp side, but no excuses were being accepted.

“People were looking at some of the older lads on the Clare team, wondering how much longer we were going to have them, how we were going to replace them. That’s why it was so crucial to make the breakthrough again, while some of those experienced players are still there.

“Now you have all the younger players coming through, not just on the team but on the panel. They have a whole summer of training behind them, they have seen what it takes, learned from the example of the senior players what it requires to win an All-Ireland. That’s serving your apprenticeship with some of the best players ever to pick up a hurley.”

So that’s it then, the king is dead, long live the king.

“It’s over. The Galway game, the Waterford game, it finished all that. Now people must accept this has been done by Cyril Lyons, John Minogue, Louis Mulqueen, and done on their own.

They have made the difference”.

“As to who’ll win, well, head and heart are at one, in the former manager.

“All the indicators point to Kilkenny, especially after the Tipperary semi-final. But there’s just something about Clare this year, they’re just driven. The older fellas are driven, they want that third All-Ireland. They are driving the younger fellas.

“The younger fellas want that first All-Ireland, they are driving everyone else. Cyril, John, and Louis, they are driven to make their mark. They are going to play like they haven’t played for the last two or three years, I believe.

“There’s a security and a contentment about them, a happiness about the scene, that’s going to produce a massive performance against Kilkenny. That will be enough to win.”