McMahon: One that got away from us

SEAN McMAHON was facing up to the hard reality of sport, not an easy to thing after captaining his team with distinction once more and seeing them go under in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final for the second year in a row.

“You could say it was similar to losing last year. We had the chances to win today but it really didn’t work for us. Last year’s game was tighter and there weren’t as many scores today. With a bit of luck we could have won both of them,’’ he said.

Expressing disappointment with the circumstances in which Kilkenny gained their second goal from a throw-in at the edge of the square, McMahon felt that at the time Clare were good enough to recover.

But when they got the margin back to a point, they seemed to run into difficulties.

“I don’t know what happened. Kilkenny just seemed to get the scores a bit easier. It seemed to be very congested at the far end of the field,’’ McMahon added.

“Maybe if we created a bit more space it would have suited our forwards but, in fairness, the Kilkenny backs were winning some good ball and not giving our lads much of a chance to shoot. At the end of the day, they got the few points when we needed to get them.’’

He felt that the eight points difference on the scoreboard didn’t do justice to Clare.

“At the end of the day, Kilkenny were probably that bit better, but we’d still see it as one that ‘got away’ from us.’’

In the context of their missed goal chances in the first half, he felt that they wouldn’t have been flattered to go in at half-time four or five points in front.

“We had a bad start, but I thought we dominated the first half. With a bit of luck, we could have had another couple of goals. But games go that way. If we had taken those chances, who knows?’’

At a personal level, the Doora-Barefield man has no regrets about his decision to commit himself to the team for a further year. But, as would be expected, he wasn’t prepared to speculate on a continuing involvement.

“Now is not the time to be talking of the future,’’ he said. “There’s a great bunch of guys there and it’s the same with the management, a fantastic set up. It’s as professional a set-up as I was ever in. And, it has been as enjoyable as I had with any group of players or as management.’’