Doherty determined to unfurlnew Banner

CLARE football manager Frank Doherty has enjoyed this past week. The Banner dip their toes into championship waters tomorrow with a Munster semi-final against Limerick and the onset of summer football has brought on a coltish enthusiasm in their manager.

“The weather this week would give you a great lift heading into championship. We’ve seen a few games on telly already this year and now we’re involved ourselves. I can see it in the lads in training.

“They’ve finished the heavy-duty stuff and they’ve smiles on their faces. There’s a good buzz around our camp.”

Doherty’s upbeat frame of mind rails against the downbeat attitude circulating about Clare football. Their results paint an unflattering picture. Last season’s championship adventure was a short-lived one. The Paul Galvin episode in Killarney last June overshadowed the 12-points defeat Clare suffered against Kerry, and their Division 4 status ruled them out of the qualifiers. This season’s league campaign was blighted by inconsistencies and they wound up in sixth place in the basement division. Yet Doherty isn’t fretting ahead of the Shannonside derby.

“The first thing you’d have to say about our league this year was that we went into it missing five out of our six backs that started last year.

“Now I don’t think that any other side in the country had to cope with that. David Connole and John Hayes both had cruciate injuries, Niall Considine suffered knee damage and you had two other lads who emigrated. That meant we were going into the league with untried lads.

“And we put up a fair old fist of competing in my opinion. Look at our results. We only lost to Sligo by a point, and to Leitrim and Wicklow by three, so we were not that far off. The whole point of the league for us was bringing lads, particularly those in defence through to intercounty football. If you don’t cut it in the NFL, you won’t cut it further on. Most of the lads stood up very well. So while we didn’t get promotion, there were positives.”

A further impediment to Doherty’s hopes of progress was the fact that a bunch of players declined to answer the county call. The former Caltra All-Ireland winning boss publicly expressed his frustration at that trend during the spring, as the county is not blessed with an abundance of personnel resources.

“It was very disappointing that those lads didn’t come on board. It makes it harder for us but right now I don’t think it’s worth putting ink to paper in relation to those lads.

“The only thing that concerns me is what I’ve got. And that is 25 lads that I know will absolutely die for the cause.”

With the Munster championship draw placing the ruling classes of Cork and Kerry on one side, there is a glorious opportunity for the underlings on the other side to flourish.

Much of pre-season chat focused on Tipperary building on their league form to reach the grandeur of a provincial final and Limerick journeying back to the stage they inhabited a few years back.

Clare were largely forgotten about but the prize of a Munster final is 70 minutes away. Doherty knows that Limerick will be formidable opponents tomorrow. Sitting in the stand in Thurles two weeks ago he was as impressed as anyone with their awesome early blitz against Tipperary. But he is hopeful the hardcore supporters from the West Clare football heartlands will travel into Ennis tomorrow and help create a raucous atmosphere to drive his players on.

“With the home venue, I’m really hoping the crowds will come out. We don’t get many home championship matches and with the other Munster semi-final on the telly earlier, people can watch that and then go to Ennis.

“We’ve got to bring a big intensity to tomorrow. Limerick were excellent early on against Tipperary and I reckon they won’t be losing too much sleep playing us. We’re huge underdogs. But the carrot is as huge for us as it is for them. We’ll be eager and hungry for this game, no doubt about that.”