This article is from page 96 of the 2009-07-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 96 JPG
after the 2-24 to 2-18 win
over Wexford in O’Moore Park.
“Tt
that’s what Clare and the County Board wants [ll be around. I’ve al- ways been around for Clare. I want to be around,” he added in putting the onus back on the county board that has called a special meeting in Au- gust to discuss both the senior hurl- ing and senior football management positions.
“It would definitely be my last year involved with the team — I’ve been 20 long years involved with Clare teams since the minor team of 1989, so maybe we will make it a 21st an- niversary, he continued.
Two years ago the county board top table led a successful heave against Tony Considine and his senior hurl- ing management team, even though they had recorded three champion-
ship victories that year and reached the All-Ireland quarter-final.
However, Considine’s fate as manager was sealed because of the controversy over the departure and subsequent year-long exile from the senior squad of two-time All-Ireland winner and three-time All Star win- ner, Davy Fitzgerald.
Now, two years on from that Civil War, the only thing standing in the way of McNamara could be Fit- zgerald’s prodigal son-like return to Clare to take up the management reins – a job he stated as recently as three weeks ago that he wants.
However, McNamara remains con- vinced that his management team is ideally positioned to build on what has been achieved since they as-
sumed control of the team in 2007. “I would be surprised if we couldn’t build on what we’ve done,” he said.
“We didn’t have a good year, but results and performance often didn’t marry very well. I think a point or two either way in a couple of league matches could have changed our whole year.
“The flurry at the end of the Mun- ster championship match against Tipperary, one bit of luck on that day and maybe we could be in an All-Ire- land semi-final now.
‘“That’s how it goes — it’s that little and it’s that close. After Kilkenny there’s so little between the next six or seven teams behind them. All those teams could beat each other on any given day,” he added.