QUESTION: WHY IS EVERYONE WRITING OFF CLARE?

“Maybe we have to learn to approach the league right, maybe there’s a learning process there but we should have taken six points. We had a whole series of minor hiccups along the way with injuries – we lost two corner-backs before the game started in Dublin and we did something similar in Ennis the week after (loss to Galway) which would test any team, to lose four corner-backs.

CLARE are being written off for this year’s hurling championship – why? Because they didn’t win a game in this year’s league campaign, finished bottom, were relegated to Division 2? That, says Clare manager Mike McNamara, is simply the lazy pundit’s view.

“We then got into a rut of losing which we found difficult to get out of. It didn’t create an awful lot of problems [for the panel] though, it seemed to create more problems with the public than it did with the actual team. We have focused on the Munster Championship this year and we hope to do well; you can see the path we’re taking is a well worn path, facing the winners of Tipp and Cork. We’ll know our opponents three weeks before we play them which gives us ample time to adjust or readjust to the different styles that Cork and Tipp produce.”