This article is from page 100 of the 2010-02-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 100 JPG
AND so it begins.
The real beginnning of Micheal McDermott’s journey as Clare senior manager — the journey out of Divi- sion 4 where Clare have laboured these past three seasons.
That’s the aim. That’s why McDer- mott boldly told his Clare public in Christmas week “We’ve broken the season down in stages and our main focus is to win Division 4. Not get out of Division 4, but win it. There’s a cup to be won, there’s a national title to be won. Why just be happy with promotion?”
Fighting talk and festive cheer for Clare football, but McDermott knows that the practice of actions speaking louder than words begins with the throw-in at Cusack Park next Sunday.
And, McDermott has upped the ante once more by highlighting the importance of a winning start. “The display against UCC wasn’t good enough, but we have done a lot of training in the past few weeks, and looking at us in training and in chal- lenge matches, I think we can deliver a performance that the Clare public will be proud of,” he says.
“We’re going into this game after challenge matches against Roscom- mon last Thursday and Kilmurry Ibrickane on Sunday. We’re going in the right direction — we still have a lot of work to do for the year but
we’re pleased where we are at this present point of time.
‘The first match is going to be the one that Clare need to win to set the team up for the rest of the league campaign. We always said that and that’s the way we’re approaching the Wicklow game.
“Wicklow are a top quality side, there’s no doubt about that but the league is the league and it’s early in the year and I’d say that Wicklow are in the same place as we are as regards preparation for 2010.
“Going into the game there is no form to judge either team on — that’s
why it’s important to do everything to try and get those two points under our belts. We feel quite confident that we ll put up a very good performance and if that’s good enough to win the two points, great,” he adds.
And, McDermott has pledged a dif- ferent style of football in 2010 when
compared to previous years, eschew- ing short-passing for a more direct and traditional approach.
“In previous years Clare ran the ball a lot — I wouldn’t disagree with those styles, but this year it’s about moving the ball much faster and get- ting it into the full-forward line much quicker and our half-forward line be- ing in position to support the full-for- ward line quickly to get the scores,” |temr-Ke C6 Kp
“Our game is going to be based around intensity. We’re looking to play good football, quick ball into our forwards and looking to get scores on the board. We’ve been working on scoring power in training and if we can hit ten or 12 points we’ll be there or thereabouts winning the game. I think we’re capable of that and capa- ble of taking the two points.
“We want the players to buy into this style and if that produces a per- formance and a victory on Sunday, the players will really start believ- ing in the system that we’re trying to eNe
“It’s such an important match that you can’t under-emphasise it and say it enough. The first game and we’re playing at home and for the support- ers of Clare we want to give them hope for the year.”