Loughnane effect may fire Clare

GALWAY boss Ger Loughnane says it makes no difference to him to be opposing Clare tomorrow in the All-Ireland hurling qualifiers — but adds that his involvement with Galway may give his former charges an added incentive.

Loughnane was Clare manager when they won two All-Ireland titles, in 1995 and 1997, but is now in charge of the Tribesmen. Asked whether returning to Cusack Park, Ennis, to oppose Clare would be difficult for him, he was as forthright as ever.

“It makes no difference. When you’re involved at club level, you’re playing with lads one week with the county and you’re against them with your club the following week.

“It’s a very similar situation here: you were with all these players once, and they gave fantastic service to Clare and we had a great time together, but that’s over. Galway are my team now and I have to give everything to Galway, and we’ll be all out to beat Clare in Cusack Park.”

However, Loughnane conceded that his presence could be a motivating force for the Banner.

“It could be an incentive to them, because players never want a manager who was over them before to beat them with another team. The fact that I’m with Galway will be a big incentive for them to beat Galway.”

Apart from the derby aspect, Loughnane feels tomorrow’s game is vital for Galway as they have not had the benefit of a provincial championship outing, which Clare had when losing to Cork on May 27.

“We need a real, cutting-edge championship match. That’s not taking the Laois or Antrim games for granted, but we need a real, hard game, where you fall behind and have to fight back — a real championship game. Whoever we meet in the quarter-final, if you go in fresh against a battle-hardened team, you could be in trouble.”

In a Clare Champion interview yesterday, Loughnane pilloried the County Board, save Secretary Pat Fitzgerald.

“When I look at the whole shambles of the county board, I would have to say that Pat Fitzgerald, the secretary, is a man of great ability. When I was manager of Clare he was absolutely terrific. The problem is I think is that there aren’t enough people of ability in the Clare County Board. When you have a man then of outstanding ability, surrounded by people with very, very poor ability, there is a danger then that that person can assume too much power,” Loughnane told the Clare Champion.

He also dismissed as hypocrisy claims that he halted local Championship action during the summer while in charge of the Banner. “Every year I was manager, they won the Munster club title. They never won since. If in postponing the club championship I was responsible for destroying club hurling, how come they could win the Munster club every year that I was involved?”

The quality of coaching in Clare concerns Loughnane. Young players he feels have plenty of ability but are not coached in simple skills.

“The quality of player they had at minor level this year was actually very good. They are very talented players. But the right work hasn’t been done with them. It’s easy to say there are coaches there but who’s supervising the coaches?” he asked.

“Every coach is a dictator in himself. When you see a coach with an U-14 team and he’s putting fellas jumping over hurdles and he’s running the long laps and Kilkenny don’t even play competitive hurling until they’re U-14. There is no staged development here in Clare. When young lads go up from U-14 next thing they’re doing senior training. Next thing they’re totally p**sed off with this kind of stuff. What young lads enjoy is action with the ball and developing skill.

“I saw a team one man had been coaching for three years and at least half of them were holding the hurley with the wrong hand on top. Madness. There is no supervision, so how are you going to have development? There should be a policy of development of hurling and football by the county board. It’s the county board that is responsible for this,” Loughnane fumed.

“What I notice in Clare is people tend to divide themselves into factions. It becomes a personality thing rather than a policy thing. In Clare personalities are more important. If Cody wasn’t doing it in Kilkenny he’d be swept aside. Look at the way Nickey Brennan was treated and now he’s President of the GAA. They recognised he had a talent for something else and he went off in that line. But he was ruthlessly got rid of after ‘97 when Clare beat them.”