Considine wants to stay at Clare helm

Despite increasing speculation that Tony Considine would walk away from the position of Clare senior hurling manager after last Sunday's All-Ireland SHC quarter-final defeat to Limerick, he is still interested in remaining at the helm.

Considine was appointed as Clare manager last October for a two year spell and he is keen to see out his tenure.

"I was given the job for two years and I will honour my side of the agreement," he said.

"Of course you're going to be disappointed the day after you get knocked out of the championship and every player and manager will reflect on the season, but you have to be positive. Nobody can do a job in one year and I haven't even been manager for that long.

"This is a young Clare team and a lot of fellas got some good experience this year."

It has been a turbulent year for the Cratloe native who was critical of the Clare County Board when, in June, a round of club championship fixtures took place just over a week before the Banner faced Antrim in the opening round of the All-Ireland qualifiers.

Considine and his selectors were hit with a decimated panel at the time due to injuries, suspensions and unavailable players.

A month previously, a vote of no-confidence in the twice All-Ireland winning selector had been tabled by Smith O'Briens delegate Tony O'Brien and seconded by Clarecastle's Bernard Hanrahan but this was later withdrawn.

Although last Sunday brought an end to a dismal season for the Banner, among the low-points was a poor National League run with defeats to Wexford and Cork and a Munster championship loss to Cork, Considine is still optimistic for the future.

"The bottom line is we didn't perform and we can't have any excuses about the result, but there is potential in this team. It was a new look side that we had at Croke Park last Sunday. Fellas like Bernard Gaffney, Brendan Bugler and Kevin Dilleen, they'll all have benefited from that experience.

"It just didn't happen for some players. They've given it their best shot all year but the ball didn't run right for some lads. We just didn't perform as well as we expected."