This article is from page 69 of the 2011-01-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 69 JPG
GER O’Loughlin and Davy Fitzgerald may be former All-Ireland winning team-mates and business partners but when it comes to facing each other in competitive action, neither is willing to step aside. This was the third such duel between the pair since O’Loughlin took charge of the Clare senior hurling team last year and up to last Saturday, the Clarecastle man had failed to register a positive result, despite contrasting performances.
Almost a year ago to the day, O’Loughlin’s new-look side were humbled by Fitzgerald’s Waterford (1-17 to 0-8) in the Waterford Crystal Cup semi-final in Ballyduff but did restore a huge amount of pride by the time the championship came around in the first weekend of June, only for Waterford’s experienced bench to edge out the Banner (0-22 to 1-15) in Thurles.
So despite facing new opposition, the presence of Sixmilebridge man Fitzgerald in the opposing dug-out, made this an intriguing tactical battle than in the end, broke O’Loughlin’s management hoodoo against his counterpart and pushed Clare further along the track ahead of the National League.
“It was a good workout,” admitted O’Loughlin afterwards,
“It was an improvement from last week and it thought it had a lot more shape to it. 3-14 is a good score and as I said to the lads during the week, we are trying to cut down on the amount of scores we are conceding. There were a few scary moments there today and we have an awful lot of work to do on that side of it but you’d be happy with the improve- ment from last week and the application and everything is brilliant.”
He was also quick to commend his Clare players on both sides of the divide, especially the newer recruits to the squad.
“We got to see Clare players on the two sides and that’s great for us going forward in preparation for the league but I thought up front we moved a lot better today and we looked more like forward which is a bonus. It didn’t look too laboured and overall we looked sharp I thought. Conor McGrath and Cathal McInerney were great introductions for us, Diarmuid [McMahon] and Fergal Lynch fought awful hard while Adrian Donovan came in and got a great goal so that’s great and it augurs well for us. With plenty of work and improvement in sharpness, we’d be hoping that we can do the business in the league and work hard at it. We realise again that we are far from the finished article but we are working hard at it anyway.
“Most of them are strong lads and physically they should be able to hold their own now. It’s just that in my opinion we will have to improve on breaking ball and contesting high ball and I like to see natural forwards wherever possible and I think we got a good blend of it today.
“So as I say if we can build on that, we have quite a number of lads to come back in there like Darach Honan, John Conlon and fellas like that and we will be confident. We will have our ups and downs I’m sure but we are looking forward to the season anyway.”
And after finally getting one over on his former colleague, O’Loughlin and his backroom team will have to face Fitzgerald once more this weekend when his Waterford side travel to Sixmilebridge for a repeat of last year’s semi-final, with the ‘Ballyduff’ debacle still firmly in the mind.
“Those matches are brilliant for us because it just helps our sharpness for the league and with so little time to be able to hurl, the matches are bringing us on and we are beginning to play more as a team. Hopefully now we can step up another level again. If it’s Waterford, that’s one that maybe after last year, we couldn’t be as bad anyway, I’ll tell you that so hopefully we’ll improve on that one.”