Play like that again and we’ll be out, says Griffin

CLARE’S Tony Griffin has warned that a repeat of Sunday’s display against Wexford will not suffice against champions Cork next month.

“For us, that win was just confirmation that we believe in ourselves,” said Griffin. “It’s confirmation that we do have it in us to do something this year. What have we won? We’ve won the chance to play in a semi-final. That’s it.

“We’ll be looking for a serious step-up the next day, myself included. I’ll be looking for a consistent 70 minutes as opposed to 35 or 45. I managed to get three scores but I hit three wides as well. We’ve a lot to work on, we know that ourselves.”

Griffin still feels he is playing catch-up after a spring studying sports science in Canada. With temperatures reaching as low as minus forty his fitness and touch inevitably suffered.

“I was very lucky that I met a guy who was ranked eight in Canada in the 100m and I got a good bit of indoor training in. I still found I was a mile off the pace when I came back. This was only my tenth game since January so every game I can get is welcome.”

With his collegiate work load increasing significantly next year, Griffin won’t be able to return home as much as he did last spring when he played a number of NHL games.

That makes this summer even more important to him. Last year Clare came within a whisker of knocking Kilkenny out, but, to do it, Daly had to shoehorn key players into unfamiliar positions because of their old Achilles heel up front but, on Sunday, they managed to fuse a more ruthless streak in front of the posts.

At the end of their seven days in Iberia, the squad made a pledge to still be hurling in September and that focus survived even the criticism that followed their defeat to Tipp.

Even after the win over Waterford, the county board had to send 6,000 of their tickets for last Sunday’s double header back to Croke Park. Now, having spent most of the summer dealing with the county’s apathy, Clare may find themselves dodging the hype.

“The biggest thing for us now is that people are going to be telling us we’re great. It’s the old cliché. We know a pat on the back is only six inches from a kick in the arse.

“We’re going to hear all this so it’s vital that we keep together, keep the heads down and train even harder than we have been. We’ll need more in the tank for the next day because the task (against Cork) is obviously going to be a lot bigger than it has been up to now.”