Lyons: attitude must be right

ANYBODY who has been closely watching Clare hurling evolve in the post-Loughnane era would have understood if Cyril Lyons had gone on the attack after his side’s impressive win over Tipperary in the opening round of the Guinness Munster championship.

After all, there had been a degree of criticism directed at the current management over the last few months and, of course, the finger always points to the manager.

However, quite apart from the consideration that this was only the first game, it wouldn't be in his nature to gloat.

Nevertheless, in offering an explanation for the Clare performance in a post-match comment, Lyons reminded people that they had contested the All-Ireland final last year and that 'you don't become a bad team overnight.'

Interviewed in Ennis earlier in the week, Lyons elaborated: "I don't know if we deserved the credit. Because it was the last match of the year it was probably the one that stuck in people's memory the longest.

"Kilkenny were superb in that All-Ireland final. But, while one team was being praised, the other one seemed to be castigated. That was the only point I was making," he replied.

He realised a long time ago how difficult the job of managing a team is, except that 'it's nice' when it works.

"When things go well, you're grand. When things go badly you're the one who takes the flak. But I look at it as all of us being in this together players, manager, selectors, doctor, physio.

"We're all in it for the common good. Okay people might pinpoint the manager as being the one who is to blame when things go wrong, but that is not the way I look at it. And I know that's not the way the players look at it."

By late Sunday afternoon, the outlook may not be as rosy.

They could be looking at another scenario not being able to advance through the direct route.

This is the way all teams want to go, he says, except that the Munster championship is such a difficult competition to win.

"You saw last year the teams who met and beat each other and the same is happening this year. On a given day, any team can be beaten, or beat any other team. It's how you play on the day. The attitude and the form you bring to a particular day will determine whether you win or not."

He accepts that there was a transformation in Clare's form, relative to the way they played in the League. Clearly, they had the 'attitude and the form' against Tipperary.

The way he explains how attitudes are formed, it's easy to understand why. It's down to the experience gained at provincial and All-Ireland level.

These players 'know their priorities,' they know how 'to gauge themselves to be right' on the days that matter.

"When you have played for a number of years, you pick your days and the days that matter to you are the big days, the championship matches.

"With a younger team, you probably play consistently better for a longer period. But when you have played for a while, players know how to get themselves right on the days that matter to them most."

It's not as if this is a secret formula, because we are constantly being reminded about the difference between the league and the championship. So, why didn't it work for Tipperary?

One obvious reason, he cited, was that Tipperary had 'all the setbacks' coming into the game, whereas his own team 'had all the plusses.'

"If you look at their line-out, Tipperary had four backs last year that didn't play at all this year. Apart from that, Clare had six weeks where there were little or no distractions.

"Okay, we had League games to play but, because we were out of the competition, they really didn't matter. So, the only thing Clare were training for was the championship."

One of those games involved Cork, in Cusack Park, a game they won because, Lyons says, they were far superior.

"I'd have to say I was impressed by them and you must remember that they didn't have the Na Piarsaigh players playing that day.

"I thought they were very good. We might not have been at our best, but that still does not take from the fact that Cork impressed us all in that game.

"And, they did win six League games. That doesn't happen by chance." With the loss of Seanie McMahon "one of the finest people you could meet" and David Hoey Lyons concedes that it's going to be very difficult to win, all the more so that the 'surprise element' is gone.

Expectation levels within the county have been transformed and he knows that Cork will be ready for them, in a way that Tipperary possibly weren't.

Looking at the other side of the draw, he declined to pick a winner from tomorrow night's replay in Thurles.

Longer term, he endorses the widely-held view that Kilkenny still lead the pack.

"They have beaten everybody else. They are the team to beat."