Lohan's Clare hungry to keep reeling in the bigger fish

Manager 'is going along similar lines' to Loughnane and Daly but a holy Munster grail is not the be-all it used to be

Sat, 13 May, 2023 - 07:45

John Fogarty

THE fly is most surely up and Gerry McInerney is taking full advantage of it around the lakes at the moment.

After 41 years in journalism, fishing the Derg and golfing in Dromoland now occupies most of the former Clare star’s day but there’s always time to talk hurling.

Kick-started by the minors’ Munster title and the U20s reaching another, a fine week for Clare hurling could be book-ended with victory over Waterford on Saturday and the language around the senior team’s prospects is becoming more assertive.

Truth be told, Clare were shaking off the smaller fish approach during Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor’s time in charge. In 2019, O’Connor spoke of how close the pair came to leaving their positions after losing to Tipperary in All-Ireland quarter-final in their first season.

“In my world where you work, you’re judged on your results and them only,” he said.

Former “Clare Champion” deputy editor McInerney senses that level of expectation has risen in the county and puts a lot of it down to the motivation of the manager. “During his career, (Brian) Lohan had a private trainer when other players wouldn’t have dreamed of doing it but that’s how driven he is. Lohan wouldn’t be an animal satisfied with just playing well. He’d want success to follow that and everything is aimed in that direction," McInerney said.

“What would have irked him an awful lot was the concession of five goals against Tipp, three of them that were gift-wrapped. They tightened up defensively for the Limerick match. They’d back themselves 100% to get it right in the next game no matter who it was against.

“They probably saw the frailties in Limerick the week before when Limerick were very fortunate to beat Waterford. The chinks in the armour that hadn’t been exposed before but Limerick had been flat and didn’t show a lot of energy. If a team smells blood, it’s very hard to reverse that and Clare felt Limerick were there for the taking.”

That’s not to say Clare aren’t beyond referring to that old reliable persecution. After losing to Tipperary when David McInerney was black-carded and Clare conceded a penalty, Lohan fumed about the decision, recalling the unjust decision against the same opposition two years earlier when Aidan McCarthy was sin-binned. “There doesn't seem to be too many other teams that get hit with black-card penalties. We've been hit twice against Tipp. Has there been a black-card penalty in a championship game since?”

There is no harm harbouring those sentiments, as Lohan realised during his time as a player.

“(Ger) Loughnane built up the siege mentality and Dalo’s speech about being the whipping boys slotted into Loughnane’s way of doing things, putting it to the lads to back themselves and demand that they stand up because he will too,” says McInerney. “Lohan is going along similar lines.”

McInerney also feels Clare’s obsession with winning Munster is not as overbearing as it might have been largely due to the structural change of the All-Ireland SHC. While Lohan stressed “historically, it’s such a big competition for us", ensuring Clare emerge from the province unscathed is more important than the gap to the last Munster triumph in 1998. Last season being the case in point.

“It’s not gung-ho for the Munster championship in the sense that if you don’t make the final there’s an alternative route for you. Of course, Clare would love to win a Munster championship but it doesn’t seem to be the be-all and end-all as it would have been before.

“Do you go flat out for it with a mind to peaking in the final and then have nothing left in the tank? Last year might have been a lesson for Clare when they rattled Limerick and then later collapsed against Kilkenny. They were just dead in their boots.

“I don’t think it’s a major part of Lohan’s plan but then I don’t think any team is going flat out to win Munster. The way the structure is now, you can’t hit the heights too early.”

As Lohan looks to put his former friend Davy Fitzgerald out of the championship for the third consecutive time (Clare beat Wexford in 2020 and ‘21), Fitzgerald’s Sixmilebridge colleague McInerney believes the tensions, while they may never be resolved fully, have quietened in the locality.

“I think people have moved on from that. It wasn’t nice by any means and there would have been a bit of a division in the club, supporters of the Fitzgeralds and the detractors. But it’s not exercising people as it would have. They respect Davy is in Waterford now doing his best. There is no lingering bitterness. At the height of it, there was plenty of talk in the club but now it’s water under the bridge.”