McNamara aims to raise Banner again
1-20 to 1-11 was the final scoreline in the U21 match, and this on an evening when Clare were shorn of several star players who had opted to spend their summer in the US while Cork had several players on display who will figure in Thurles. And yet, Mike knows only too well, that Monday will have absolutely no bearing on Sunday. If anything, it may even offer additional motivation to a Cork side already bristling at having had their hunger, their desire and their ability questioned this year, after a loss to Tipp in the Munster semi-final and a hard-fought win over unrated Dublin.
They gave the first answer to those questions on Saturday evening with a rousing 14-man win over Galway; Mike wasn’t the only one impressed.
“I think everyone was, the second-half display was as good as we’ve seen from Cork for a number of years. It just goes to show, all you have to do is ignite the passion and the performance follows on. Igniting the passion is the challenge for all of us.”
Clare’s last match was the Munster final loss to Tipperary a couple of weeks ago. On that day, however, it wasn’t lack of passion that cost Clare, it was lack of composure in front of the posts — 10 wides in the first half alone, four of those eminently scoreable, compounded by several balls dropped harmlessly short, into the arms of Tipp keeper Brendan Cummins. The only time Clare looked like the team that had dismissed Waterford so impressively in their first-round win, that had closed out the deal against a disappointing Limerick in the semi-final, was in a 12-minute spell of total dominance midway through the second half, when a seven-point spurt had Tipp briefly on the run.
And then, a moment’s lapse in concentration in the half-back line, ended with John O’Brien hitting Tipperary’s second goal. That spell was broken, so were Clare. It left a lot of very disappointed players in the Clare dressing-room, a lot of broken hearts. Igniting the passion again, can it be done?
“That’s what I’m talking about, that challenge. Questions are now being asked of the management team, can we bring them back up the levels required for what is a new adventure? The Munster championship is over, finished with, can never be played again. You have to get over it very quickly, we’re in the real world now, a hard world, and there’s no time or place for anyone to feel sorry for themselves.
“They left that behind them very fast, and if they didn’t, we’d be left behind very fast. Now it’s a new adventure, the All-Ireland series, we have to get the players up for that again and away we go. For everyone involved I think the scene will be all doom and gloom again if we can’t perform on another stage. We can take one performance below par and analyse it any way we like but if it were to happen again, serious questions would be asked about our character.”
Good, then, to get this second chance? “Yes, definitely. Many of the players felt they played below par against Tipperary, they all now get a chance to redeem themselves against Cork. The statistics against Tipp were encouraging, they were very much in our favour, but that doesn’t bring the cup back to Clare. At least though it shows we matched Tipp in most departments and that’s encouraging. It’s been an incredible year for them, still unbeaten, and that’s what we had to face in the Munster final.
“Now we face a rejuvenated Cork, but you know, if it was any other way, it would be no good. You must enjoy the challenge, that’s the thing; people had been asking me why I was continuing to do this and I didn’t really have an answer — now I do.
“I do it for the challenge, and the bigger the challenge, the more you enjoy it. Are we up to it, are we up to the mark, are we prepared to face whatever comes at us? It’s very easy to be a good manager when there’s no real challenge, when everything is going well, when there’s nothing wrong, but it’s on the occasions when there are problems, that’s when you learn if you’re a good manager.”
A BIT LIKE Pádraig Harrington on the eve of day three of the Open, when told the wind was set to continue to blow — “Bring it on!”, that was his attitude. “A bit,” Mike agrees, “But I’ll tell you this, if there was the same money at stake, a couple of million euro, we’d win every Munster!”
On the injury front, all’s quiet in Clare, nothing to report. “Everyone is still there, I do a head count every evening before and after we train! But no, no injuries.” In fact there’s been an addition to the Clare panel since Tipperary, a serious addition. Alan Markham, experienced, versatile, is back in harness, training hard. “We’re hoping to get him back up to the pace of the game, which is something that would elude anyone who has taken a break for a period, particularly if you’re coming at this time of the year, when most teams are at their best. But he’s a wonderful athlete, a wonderful ambassador for the game, he’ll ignite a bit of fire in everyone involved, hopefully.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
