Banner headlines long overdue

ALLIANZ FL DIVISION 4 FINAL:

The Clare football manager and yours truly are at odds as to the survivors, if any, from Clare’s Tommy Murphy Cup victory back in 2004. Enda Coughlan, centre-back this spring, and Rory Donnelly occupied the corner-forward berths on that fateful afternoon, that much we are sure of, but Collins insists there is a third individual we’ve neglected. His name, however, frustratingly escapes us.

Eventually, O’Shea springs to mind, a strange oversight given the St Senan’s half-forward kicked four points in the 1-11 to 0-11 win over Sligo.

The importance of 2004 you ask? It represents the last time a Clare football team emerged from the tunnel underneath the Hogan Stand. Indeed, prior to the clash with Sligo, the Banners hadn’t set foot on the Croke Park pitch since a league engagement back in 1993.

Even more pressing is that the Tommy Murphy Cup success of 2004 — the 2008 McGrath Cup triumph aside — heralded the last piece of silverware annexed by a Clare football team. And while Clare are forever grouped with Munster counterparts Tipperary and Limerick in terms of their standing in football’s pecking order, there is no doubting this is an unfair appraisal of the latter two. Collins doesn’t argue against.

So with a return to Croke Park this evening the Cratloe native understands the importance of victory, climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand and adding to the sparsest of trophy cabinets.

“It would be fantastic, it would be absolutely fantastic if we could get the win,” he muses.

“It is a great opportunity for Clare football to pick up some silverware and there haven’t been too many of those days in the past. It would really serve as a great boost going into the Munster championship and merely for confidence and the development of the game in the county you imagine there would be knock-on effects.”

Speaking to Collins a week out from the start of the football league, his sole focus was securing promotion. A litany of third and fourth place finishes had been amassed in recent years, the line, however, remained elusive.

Travelling to Creggan on the last weekend of action, and with Wicklow and Leitrim snapping at their heels in the hunt for Division 3 status, the scalp of Antrim was required if Clare were to finally go up.

“We were delighted we did the business ourselves. We weren’t relying on any other team. We had to go to Antrim to get a win and we did just that. As it turned out if we had got anything less than the win we would still be in Division 4. It was particularly satisfying to do it on our own bat.

“We got a very good group of players together. They worked very hard and they got their just reward.”

Of their seven league outings, there was just the solitary blip, a noticeable one mind you – defeat, rather comprehensively too, at the hands of tonight’s opponents.

“We were very disappointed the way we played that day in Thurles,” reflected Collins.

“We were particularly disappointed with the way we conceded so many goal chances to Tipperary. They had the ability to open us up and could have bagged another three goals. Their first goal came right off the training ground and it was in the back of the net and the game wasn’t 20-seconds old. If you blinked you missed it.

“They have very good forwards, very natural. They can create chances out of nothing. We will have to be at our best to keep the shackles on these boys.

“We are looking forward to playing them again though. Hopefully we have tidied up a few things and perform better than we did the last day. They would of course have more Croke Park experience than us, but we want to enjoy the occasion and hopefully with that we will play well.”

Returning to previous campaigns and while Collins was a mere spectator for the 2013 championship, it wasn’t lost on him the responsibility shouldered by David Tubridy in the scoring department. Clare forwards were all too content to play supporting roles, attitudes required changing.

“There was no doubt that there was far too much pressure on David to tally the bulk of the scores. There was also pressure on Martin O’Leary. You can’t be depending on two men for scores and to effectively win a game for you. It is not fair on them and you are not going to be successful in the long-term. There has to be an even spread and that was one of the first things we sought to address when we got together as a squad.

“Thankfully, things have changed, there was plenty of help this year around the pitch and that was satisfying. We needed to achieve that. The two lads needed help and other lads stood up to the mark and provided it.”

Whatever about this evening’s result, or, indeed, the spread of scorers, Collins is just hopeful it won’t be another ten years before Clare footballers return to Jones Road.