Louis Mulqueen says Clare hunger is back

Back in late 2013 when the memory of Clare’s intoxicating All-Ireland breakthrough was all that existed in the close season vacuum, the mind throbbed with possibilities.

Even those who managed to contain their giddiness that winter at the arrival of an ultra talented young team acknowledged one or two more All-Irelands was a certainty.

As late as the following May, after a middling league campaign, hurling analyst Eddie Brennan remained happy to tip Clare for a successful title defence in 2014.

But with the experience of his own multiple All-Ireland wins, he did attach one crucial proviso. “The question is do they have the hunger to do it again?” A little over a year on, and having won just one of the nine intervening league and Championship matches, Clare selector Louis Mulqueen answers Brennan’s question with honesty.

Clare’s brimming enthusiasm? “It was gone last year,” he accepted.

Crucially, Mulqueen believes that all is not lost. Time is still on Clare’s side, both in the larger sense with a clutch of young stars and in this season’s Championship too as they face up to the qualifiers.

With respect to Offaly, Clare could hardly have been offered a better opportunity to stem the tide of defeats and finally register a big fat W. They’re at home to a team in crisis and are largely injury free. Mulqueen is expecting to see that free spirit of 2013 again.

“We always talk about this team and this panel and the spirit they have,” he said. “It’s time now to let them play hurling. It’s time for them to open up and play with the openness and the enthusiasm that we had in 2013. There was a lot of pressure on last year being All-Ireland champions. We didn’t hit form.

“This year’s league was iffy but we lost three or four matches by a point. If we’d shaded those, people wouldn’t be questioning our league. But, look, I’d say to you that it’s time for these fellas to start playing hurling, if that’s what they want to do. They’re looking like they’re intent on doing that in training so we just hope that form can continue.”

In an open and frank interview with Clare FM, Mulqueen accepted that Clare learned some pretty harsh lessons in the last 12 months about life at the top of the game.

“They’ve probably learned that they need to be a bit more ruthless. I would look back at the game against Wexford last year where we let them, in Cusack Park, score 2-7 in the first 10 or 15 minutes.

“If you watch Kilkenny and Tipperary, they’ll hit three or four goals very early, very soon. Even last year when Limerick beat Wexford, Limerick had them put away in the first 20 minutes.

“I think we’ve picked that out of it, that they have to be more ruthless and start with a serious high tempo. I think if we can start like that, and play our hurling, then it’s not about the opposition. It’s about Clare hurling then because I think we can compete with anybody when we play at our pace and play to a standard that we expect from our players and a standard they can produce.”

Mulqueen is eyeing up a crucial two weeks, not just in Clare’s season but in the evolution of their young team. If they can beat Offaly and then win a Round 2 qualifier next week, to return to the All-Ireland quarter-finals, they’ll have powerful momentum on their side.

“You have to remember players like Shane O’Donnell and Tony Kelly, they’re superstars,” he said.

“They’d be on any team in any county. It’s about them enjoying their hurling, just playing hurling. We see them do it in training but unfortunately it hasn’t come out in the last couple of games.

“But when they turn the corner they will open up again. Every player will start to play to their potential. If you could even get three quarters of your team playing well on a given day, that’s where the form comes into play.

“We’ve probably learned in the back line that we have to concede less frees as well and we have to make our breaks rather than when they go against us, moaning about them.”

Mulqueen talks of fine margins between success and failure too. He could easily use Domhnall O’Donovan’s 73rd minute equalising point in the drawn 2013 All-Ireland final to illustrate his point though chooses to reflect on the last few months instead. Specifically, Clare have lost four of their last seven competitive games by a point.

“If you look at our games this year, there’s been no question about heart or attitude or spirit, we haven’t been buried in any game. We’ve always been there or thereabouts. We probably just need to make a mistake or two less, get a break or two more and maybe foul once or twice less. Again, little things, being more accurate in front of the posts, small things that can turn games.” Not just games but seasons and even careers.