This article is from page 68 of the 2011-04-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 68 JPG
THE CLARE minor hurlers start the defence of their Munster Championship on Wednesday evening as they travel to Tralee to take on Kerry in their opening quarter-final game.
There are several players still involved from last years Munster winning team that went on to contest the All-Ireland Final in Croke Park and they will be looking to emulate such a successful run in 2011. The Clare People spoke with manager Gerry O’Connor to get his views on Clare’s upcoming minor campaign.
Although there is a team there capable of capturing a Munster title for the second year in a row Gerry isn’t shy to the difficulties his side are finding themselves in as of late.
“We’ve two problems really, one is that we’ve had a lot of injuries and the other problem is that the under 21 championship has been going on bang in the middle of our campaign.”
Injuries to players such as Aaron Cunningham, Frank Melody, Shane McGrath and Martin Moroney have been a big blow to preparations.
Another restriction has been the ongoing competitions that many of the panel have been participating in over the last number of weeks which has made preparation difficult.
“We would have been expecting to have the bones of 30 plus people training flat out for the last month and it just hasn’t happened because Ard Scoil Rís had just finished up with their participation in the colleges and then the under 21 started in full flow.”
After getting what some would consider an easier opening round, O’Connor was still quick to dismiss any idea of capturing a Munster title again so early in the year.
“We don’t tend to speculate in any way about how far we’re going to go we just take it one game at a time and the team that is in front of is on Wednesday is Kerry so that’s all we’re focusing on at the moment.”
They met last night for the final time before Wednesday’s match to assess any injuries with the hope of having a full panel to pick from.
Clare travel to Tralee to take on Kerry in the Munster quarter-final and they will be looking to players such as Ballyea man Tony Kelly, Jamie Shanahan and Sheadha Morey from Sixmilebridge along with dual star Jarlath Colleran from DooraBarefield for big performances on Wednesday evening.