This article is from page 22 of the 2011-01-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 22 JPG
2010 was very much a year of transition for new Clare senior hurling manager Ger O’Loughlin and his management team as a combination of high profile retirements, injuries and emigrations forced his hand to introduce a new wave of young talent into the squad.
Having worked with those players over the year and assessed the standard required at inter-county level, ‘the Sparrow’ now has a clearer vision of how much rebuilding work is required and despite the large workload involved, he is very much looking forward to the challenge.
“We are hoping that this year we do get out of Division 2. We are putting an emphasis on the league in trying to get off to a good start and our goal is to gain promotion this year. We got to the final of Division 2 last year with everybody fairly new to the set-up but we have a better handle on who’s who this year. I would be hoping that we’ll give this year a very good run in the league and get ready for the championship.
“The winners of Cork and Tipperary in the championship isn’t an easy hurdle but at the same time they are the sort of games we should be looking forward to.
“Cork proved last season that they are going to have to rebuild as well and we are probably ahead of them on that side of things. “Tipp are the team to beat in the country and they probably wouldn’t focus as much on Munster now as they would be on the All-Ireland so I would see this as an opportunity for us to give either of those two counties a very good game and if possible get to a Munster final.” However, with the county side very much a work in progress at the moment, Clarecastle clubman O’Loughlin is hoping that supporters will be patient and get behind these young players in the pursuit of those goals.
“That goes without saying. No matter what way you go about it, we have to be realistic and say that the present management have inherited a very young squad and even in the last couple of months, we’ve seen the comings and goings of some guys.
“That’s the way it’s going to be until we get what you’d call a settled 25 people who have what it takes. That doesn’t happen overnight and sometimes even successful counties like Tipp, Cork and Kilkenny go through the rebuilding structure that we are going through at the moment.
“I’m really looking forward to the year though because I just think that we can come on from 2010. I’d hope that fellas have matured a bit better and that when you are playing the likes of Wexford in a league final with Division 1 status on the line, that we would be more clinical because basically if we don’t grasp those opportunities with both hands, we will remain where we are.
“So there’s an awful lot of work to be done on the mental strength side of it as well. As I say we have it all to do but I’m looking forward to working with them in the coming season and hopefully make good progress.”