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THE real value of the McGrath Cup, for manager Frank Doherty, came with the opportunity to familiarise himself with the raw materials he has to shape.

At the start of the competition, he stood outside a dressing room in Miltown and said games were what mattered, that getting the most out of January was the target.

Clare have achieved that and are one game away from picking up

some silverware, the target has only SIUESA STON VASSOU BA KoLe

“What we’re getting is four games in January and in reality, 20 training sessions wouldn’t be as valuable as that,’ he says. “But I’m a great be- liever that winning is the best habit you can form. There’s are only four trophies that any county in Ireland can win from one year to the next, and the McGrath Cup is one of those. So it’s important that we go out in the right frame of mind — and we will.”

He’s aware, too, that Limerick will

prove to be more of a block in the road to success than the college teams Clare have faced so far. Colleges, by definition, don’t have the team spirit or ethos that define county teams and Sunday will allow Doherty gather more knowledge.

“Limerick will be a different ball game for us and we’re hitting them at a good time for us. Right before the league starts, it’s no harm to get a good, hard game under the belt.

“We want to win the McGrath Cup and in fairness, Mickey Ned

[O’Sullivan] will be just as anxious to do the same. So you’ll have two competitive teams going out on Sun- day and that’s useful for us.”

Doherty asked to run his mind over the campaign in general and pick out the positives. He points out enough to find some satisfaction in the three games So far.

“From what I’ve seen so far, the hunger seems to be coming back. That’s important and for us, the at- titude from the first game was right. Players were focused. On top of that,

a certain amount of passion that mightn’t have been there is starting to come as well.

“Lads are pushing themselves and pushing each other hard in train- ing. There have been a lot of pluses throughout the competition. The habit of winning is something that we want to develop. If we can keep in that zone, then that’s going to be a big boost going into the league.”

The hunger he speaks of is obvi- ous. Generally, his players have been starved of success on the county scene and he reckons that the vast majority of those involved in the squad will have something to prove on Sunday.

“Of the 33 lads we have in the panel, 25 or 26 of them have never contested a senior final for Clare. So that’s something. They’ll want to mark their first final with a win.

When I got involved I made it clear that I’d try and use as many lads as possible in the games and I think I’ve lived up to that – so we’re making full use of what’s available.

“There have been debutants and there have been lads that people might have thought weren’t good enough to make senior footballers. They’ve come in and done well. But we re learning a lot.”

Is he close to his team make-up for the league?

“I’d say we’re 90% sure of it now. A lot of the team that will start on Sunday will feature in the league. We might be without one or two lads against Limerick, but the team you’ll see won’t be too far off the mark.

“We have tinkered around with it from game to game and we’ve had to because we’ve got a small pool of players compared with other coun- ties and that brings positives and negatives. If we pick up injuries, we won’t have the reserves but lads get close to one another, they work well together and they know one another’s game. If you’ve a big pool of players, sometimes guys can shy away from things. They can duck down. That doesn’t happen with Clare.”

So far, the Doherty tenure has been a success. Getting something tang!- ble to go with the positive start is the next step.

WHERE experimentation goes in the McGrath Cup campaign of 2008, Limerick can claim to enjoy an edge on Clare. Mickey ‘Ned’ O’Sullivan has used 27 players in their three games to date, while Clare have used 23. And, as he looks ahead to the fi- nal that fixed for Cooraclare on Sun- day, O’Sullivan that there’s more to come. “We’ll try a few more because we have a big panel in at the moment,

but by the time the National League comes around the following week, the county board will want numbers aria Cena F

‘“We’ve brought in five new for- wards, while we’ve experimented in other areas of the field as well. In that respect the McGrath Cup has been great — we’re getting competi- tive games and a chance to see what we ve got.”

However, the wholesale changes that O’Sullivan made in the cam-

paign thus far shouldn’t lull Clare into any sense of confidence ahead of Sunday’s final. ““Now that we’re in a final, we will be going out to win it, just as Clare will be,’ says Kerry’s 1975 All-Ireland winning captain. Famously he tasted defeat at the hands of Clare as Kerry manager way back in the Munster final of 1992, but during his tenure with Limerick to date has enjoyed league and champi- onship victories against Clare. However, most of those who will

line out on Sunday have no experi- ence of playing against Clare. “This is my third year in charge of the team and the team has changed a lot in that time,’ admits O’Sullivan.

“In my first year I more or less stuck with the team that had been there before. They had played a lot of football over the years and put in a lot of hard work to try and win a Munster championship.

“In my second year I brought in a good few players, but many more

have come in this year, so the team is going through some transition. After the McGrath Cup we go straight into a tough league campaign where we will be up against teams like Sligo, Wexford, Fermanagh and Down. By then I’d hope to have the new players and the old fighting out for places on the team.”

The first test comes 1n Cooraclare on Sunday — not a must win game, but Mickey ‘Ned’ O’Sullivan wants to win it all the same.

IN THE space of twelve months, K1i- eran Kelliher has seen Clare exit the McGrath Cup at the first stage and make the final of the competition. He’s the only arm of the manage- ment team that links the 2007 season and the progress this year is clear to him.

“It’s an achievement getting to a final and the lads played some good football out there. We got a great start with the goal almost right after the throw-in, but they seemed to go into that comfort zone again.

“We were sliced open a couple of times and that was worrying. Joe Hayes made a couple of great saves but if CIT had taken those opportun1- ties, they’d have been back to two or three points. We’d have been forced to start over again and establish out lead.”

The McGrath Cup, as always, has been used by Clare as a springboard to the league, a vehicle for establish- ing the best 15 come early February. But it’s been more than just a compe-

tition to blow early season cobwebs eee

The preparation has been ongo- ing since mid-winter and the fruits are showing. Still, Kelliher believes some more work is required.

“You have to say that CIT caused us some problems. They ran at us through the middle and we’ll have to tighten that up. If we’re going to com- pete with the county teams come the league, we’ll have to make sure they don’t get the goal chances that CIT got. Simple as that. But we’re still us- ing the McGrath Cup to look at play- ers in different positions. Nothing’s decided on yet and the team is still open.”

So far, 23 players have been used, discounting Greg Lyons, Garry Bren- nan and John Hayes who were each involved for their college. The pool of talent, Kelliher says, is increas- ing and improving. Fitness levels are high and competition for places is rising.

‘““We’ve wanted to have a look at as many players as possible and we’ve done that. We still haven’t stopped

looking and that’s the message we want to send out.”

One of those to resume training in the past fortnight was David Russell. He was named to start wing forward, was replaced on the starting 15 by Kevin Larkin but eventually made an appearance with 12 minutes left.

“This was David’s second week back and it’s been a big plus for us. He’s a strong player, a team player.”

Sunday is Clare’s fourth game in a month and it brings added incentive.

‘“There’s only four or five lads in- volved this year who already have a McGrath Cup medal. They’ll want to finish the competition on a high note, but we won’t take too much for eranted against Limerick. They’re the first county side we’ll have met.”

“A GOOD result in miserable condi- tions.” Two days after the game, that’s Anthony Foley’s concise reaction to Saturday’s victory over Wasps, a re- sult that saw the reigning champions dumped out of the competition.

It was one of those old Thomond nights when Munster rolled out the red carpet for an esteemed visitor be- fore devouring their reputation with 80 minutes of controlled rugby.

The achievement didn’t end with the scalp of Wasps and Munster didn’t rely on their home record to see them through. Effectively, it was the bonus point secured against Cl- ermont Auvergne that catapulted Munster to their tenth consecutive

appearance in the knock-out stages of the competition.

“It was great to get all the points be- cause we went into the game with a lot of permutations in our heads. Bo- nus points, the winning margin. So we had to keep our eyes on a number of different things and to succeed on all fronts was a great achievement.

“It was a real cup atmosphere, a winner takes all thing. Thomond has seen a lot of those over the years and we ve got a lot of experience in those battles and we never doubted our- selves on Saturday.”

Munster’s composure impressed Foley. The full force of Wasps was met early on and the home side con- trolled the momentum.

‘“We’ve come to learn that playing

against any English side there’s a big 20 minutes in them from the start. They’ll throw everything at you and you’ve got to cope with that. Then they’Il come out in the second half and give it everything for the ten minutes after the break.”

Foley is asked if the ground, in the process of a major facelift, lost any of the character and tenor that dappled the place in the past and dismisses the theory immediately.

“Not a chance. It’s a great ground. The atmosphere was terrific and the kick off time was better than the Sunday games. Saturday evening seems to suit the crowd. There was a great buzz around the stadium and you have to think that as the stadium develops, the spectacle is just going

to be get better and better.”

Munster now face Gloucester at Kingsholm Stadium at the beginning of April and in between, they play just six matches with four of those going ahead during the Six Nations. When he looks at the pool of clubs still left in the competition, Foley reckons it never mattered who Mun- ster faced next.

“There are seven other teams ca- pable of winning the tournament. A few teams have never been at this stage before, so there’s going to be some extra excitement.

We’ll have some time off between now and then and there’s the Six Na- tions in between, so there’s going to be a lot of free time and we’ll have to handle that. You’d prefer to be play-

ing games, to stay together and that’s something we’ll have to deal with.

“But for now, you’ve just got to be happy with a quarter-final. To come away from Thomond with that place secured was the target. We knew go- ing into it that we wouldn’t have a home tie and we wouldn’t have an easy passage. It’s the old story – there are no easy games in the last rounds of the Heineken Cup.”

CLARE firms interested in exploring innova- tion aS a means of becoming more competi- tive are urged to take a closer look at the new Design Shannon Skillnet programme, which tees off this spring. The two year programme, which will run concurrently in Ennis and Lim- erick, is funded by member companies and the Training Networks Programme, an initiative of Skillnets Ltd, which is funded from the Na- tional Training Fund through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

“Design Shannon Skillnet represents a great opportunity for established manufacturing and service businesses — small and large — to ben- efit from the insight of leading national and in- ternational experts in the areas of design and innovation, and from the experiences of the other member firms in the network. The addi-

tion of more customised, one-on-one training to the new programme will further enhance the tangible benefits for each, individual company participating,’ said Laura Maye, Network Man- ager, Design Shannon Skillnet.

As a participant of the Design Shannon Skill- net programme, which recently finished, Frank Whelan, Sales Manager of Ennistymon-based Data Display, summarised how Data Display had benefited from the programme: “At a com- pany level, it has helped us to see and seize new ways of doing business. On a personal level, it has given me the skills to enhance my selling techniques, and to reap the ensuing benefits. Overall, worthwhile and value for money.”

For further information/registration, con- tact Design Shannon Skillnet at 065 6895282 (www.designshannon.ie).

THERE are now almost double the number of holiday homes in Kilkee to homes used in the resort on a per- manent basis.

In statistics cited by Clare County Council in refusing to allow a por- tion of 64 new homes be used as holiday homes, the local authority points out that there are now just un- der 1,000 holiday homes in the west Clare seaside resort.

According to figures secured from the Central Statistics Office (CSO),

there are now 996 holiday homes in Kilkee representing 83 per cent more homes that the 544 permanent holiday homes in Kilkee.

The council points out that 67 per cent of homes in Kilkee are unoc- cupied. Last year, Keelgrove Con- struction secured planning permis- sion for 64 homes in the resort.

However, the council inserted a condition that the homes be used only for permanent occupation in response to the high percentage of holiday homes already in Kilkee.

In response, Keelgrove lodged a

fresh application seeking to modify the planning permission so that a percentage of the homes can be used as holiday homes.

Consultants for Keelgrove Con- struction Ltd argued that the clause insisting that the homes be for per- manent occupancy is not supported in the West Clare Local Area Plan.

The consultants argue that if the council applies the permanent oc- cupancy clause to all future housing in Kilkee, “then the plan is failing to provide for a key sector of the housing and tourism market and

this could adversely impact on the economy of the town”.

The developers argue that “in the interest of fairness and equality, only a percentage of the residen- tial units within the development should be restricted to permanent occupancy — similar to the concept of providing social and affordable jaLO)UESS EO Toa

However, in the planner’s report, the council cited an An Bord Pleana- la inspector’s report on a previous application for holiday homes.

The report stated that “having

visited Kilkee on June 2, albeit mid-week, it was starkly evident the extent of holiday home develop- ment present in the town and on its fringes and its underutilisation”.

The council planner recommended “that this development proposal be refused as it would further contrib- ute to the loss of community, lack of housing choice for permanent residents in Kilkee and lead to an unsustainable demand for all year round services and would therefore materially contravene an objective in a local area plan for the area.”

AS planning permission for a new hospital for the mid-west was lodged this week, a Clare County Council- lor was calling for work to begin on Ennis General Hospital, which has al- ready received planning permission.

Fianna Fail Cllr Bill Chambers, who is also one of Clare’s four rep- resentatives on the HSE Forum West, said that in order for work to progress, the long overdue review of acute health services in the mid-west region must be published now.

The Cooraclare man said the so- called Teamwork Report needs to be in the public domain so people can object to parts of it they disagree with and get on with securing acute health services for the people of Clare. It 1s widely believed that the report will suggest the closure of 24 hour A and E at the county’s hospital.

Meanwhile, a private company maintains that it can have a state-of- the-art hospital built on the grounds of the Mid-West Regional Hospital Limerick within 30 months of the start date.

The Beacon Medical Group (BMG) applied for planning permission to construct a co-located hospital on the grounds of the public hospital on Thursday. Plans for the €250 million hospital comprise 175 single rooms

with eight CCU (critical care) beds, six operating theatres, ambulatory surgery and full diagnostics incorpo- rating some €24.7 million worth of new generation equipment.

The hospital will mirror the case- mix of the public hospital, as all spe- cialities catered for in the public hos- pital will also be catered for in the co-located hospital – both medical and surgical, with the exception of national specialities. As recommend- ed by the SARI Report 2005, which made recommendations for infection control in hospitals, all rooms will be single occupancy, each with its own en-suite facility.

BMG is seeking the planning per- mission under the controversial Co- located Private Hospitals Project.

The project, which the Government claimed would free up additional beds for public patients in public hospitals, will see privately operated hospitals for the provision of health care to public and private patients on the grounds of public hospitals.

The new co-located hospitals will allow for 24/7 admission from the public hospital, the public Emergen- cy Department (ED), primary care centres and through GP referrals.

Critics of the policy have claimed, however, that this policy will further increase the divide in our two-tier health system.

IT Tralee enter unchartered territory on Wednesday as they contest their first ever match in the Waterford Crystal tournament against Water- ford – with four Clare players on- board. The game marks a huge step for the emerging college and it’s a testament to the work put in over the past few years that they are now seen as one of the top hurling colleges in the province.

Hurling in Tralee IT has steadily improved over the last few years cul- minating in Ryan Cup success last season.

The Ryan Cup is the second tier competition of the Fitzgibbon Cup and to win it last year definitely boosted the hurling profile of the college as GAA Officer Eamon Fit- zgerald explains.

“Winning the Ryan Cup last year was a great achievement and with only four changes from last year’s

team, it will give us a good boost going into this year’s competition. We could have chosen to contest the Fitzgibbon Cup this season, but we feel that our players need to establish a firm footing first and as there is still such a big gap between the Fitzgib- bon and Ryan cups, it would be easy to fall back 1f we weren’t careful.”

A benefit of this success has been the attraction of more hurlers to the college and in addition, there are currently four Clare natives on the IT Tralee side: Stephen Kelly (New- market-on-Fergus) at centre-back, Stephen Guilfoyle (Eire Og) and Ja- son Murphy (Sixmilebridge) lining out in the full-back line while Eire Og’s Thomas Downes will be based in the forwards. Fitzgerald is quick to compliment the hurling talent that is now being attracted to the college, including an increasing Clare contin- ele

“The fact that we have been invited to take part in the Waterford Crystal

Cup shows how much the standard of hurling has improved in the College. This year we have four Clare lads on our hurling panel and they have strengthened and brought valuable experience into the squad.”

IT Tralee’s debut in the Waterford Crystal competition couldn’t have been any harder by drawing Munster champions Waterford but rather than dwell on such daunting opposition, Fitzgerald sees the game as a ben- eficial learning experience for the young side.

“The Waterford Crystal cup is a fantastic opportunity for the lads to play against players of the calibre of Dan Shanahan.”

“It will certainly be a learning curve for the lads and more impor- tantly it will give them valuable ex- perience for the future”.

ANOTHER ledge climbed and the summit of the McGrath Cup is com- ing into sight. Flanked by Kieran Kelliher and James Hanrahan, Frank Doherty, the leader of this group of men with the future of Clare foot- ball in their hands, is making for the dressing room in Cooraclare.

Alone on the plains of West Clare, the Galwayman says he’s satisfied that things are moving in the right direction.

“T hope people can see a little im- provement as we go along,” he says. “You have to remember that these players have been kicked around the place for the past number of years and their own self-worth was at an all time low. When I came in at the start, lads were fumbling the ball and it was difficult to get through even some basic drills. They’re train- ing hard now, there’s a smile on their face and there’s a buzz amongst them. They’re a good bunch of lads, a genu- ine bunch, but they’re been through the mill over the last few years. Now, hopefully, things are turning slowly and gradually.”

Doherty is transparent and honest. Unveiling the manager’s opinions on his team’s progression isn’t laced with the cryptic (football) or dismiss- ive (hurling) post-match comments that pockmarked Clare’s early GAA season last year. For that alone, let us be thankful.

‘The mindset at the moment is 1m- proving. You could see lads not want- ing it at the start, but having won the last two games, lads are starting to show for the ball and that’s great. The longer we can stay in the McGrath Cup the better, it brings us closer to Carlow in the league.”

As that game on February 3 edges closer, Doherty’s aim is to pin down a starting 15.

“I can see probably 11 or 12 guys from last week and this that will start the league. There’s maybe three plac- es that I haven’t seen enough of to make my mind up on. We’ve brought on a lot of young lads and nobody can say we’re not giving them a chance. We’re over two thirds of the way there with the team that played last week and this week and that’s down to games. It’s about filling in the rest of the spaces now.”

And on Sunday’s performance?

“UL beat Clare by a few points last year so you’re talking about some- thing like a twelve point turnaround. I believe we could have won it by another four or five scores with a bit more composure in the final third of the field.

“We were going well enough and lads got into the comfort zone again and lads started trying out these silly 40 50 yard screamers. I’d rather be more productive in the last third and use the ball properly to get ourselves into a scoring position, but you’d have to be satisfied overall.

A good solid performance in the first half is what did it for us and against a fairly strong wind that was positive. Lads took their scores clini- cally and we were well on top.”

ANYONE who travelled to Meelick on Sunday expecting to see Mike McNamara and Davy Fitzgerald pro- duce some public display of affec- tion would have been disappointed. Last week, when it became appar- ent that Cork would not be fielding a team against LIT, the media focus switched to Davy Fitzgerald and his return to the Clare panel under Mc- Namara.

In order to counteract this and to nip the hype in the bud, the two men spoke on radio on Friday to publi- cally announce their intentions.

While the result overwhelmingly favoured LIT, after the game, both managers expressed opinions that were contrary to the scoreboard.

Firstly, McNamara was positive in defeat, recognising that LIT are in a far more advanced state of prepara- tion as they bid to defend their Fitz- gibbon title next month.

“It’s their August now. In our Au- gust I think we will be snapping them balls up nicely as well. So you would also have to look at that. On the bright side, some of the better players on the opposition today were members of the panel so that’s some brightness in a bit of gloom.

“You probably learn more from losing than you doing from winning. Last week, everything was flying and points were going over from differ- ent angles but we tried a whole new bunch again today. It’s particularly up to the younger members to show what they have or haven’t in January, February, March and April so in that sense all wasn’t lost. It’s nice to see Tony Carmody back in the frame, way off the pace of course but he has to be shoved out at this stage and get ready for the months ahead.”

Due to some college involvement from a Clare perspective and opting to experiment with the new players, Clare were clearly understrength but

McNamara believes that the young players have to be given a chance if Clare are to unearth new talent for the season ahead.

‘Everybody who takes part in the training regime has to get games and has to show what they have. So it’s just another step along the way and it’s going to be a long and a difficult task. There is a hump there which is high and we have to get to the top of that mountain through thick or thin and days like this along the way are a help.”

On the other side, despite a compre- hensive victory, LIT manager Davy Fitzgerald was not completely satis- fied with his side’s performance.

“That was OK but we won’t win a Fitzgibbon playing like that because Clare were poor today. Clare know they were poor today, very poor.

“Saying that, our goalie made three ereat saves. He made three saves he mightn’t have made on another day and if Clare had got any of those chances, it would have been a dif- ferent game. There is no point in fooling ourselves. Mattie [Ryan] did make two or three good saves and our backs were good but the chances we got we took them while they got chances and they didn’t take them. That would have been a different refelction on the scoreline and I think it’s very important that we say that. They had three or four good chances and our goalie brought off two saves and I don’t know how he pulled them off but he did.”

LIT’s first half performance provid- ed the foundation for their ten point victory. Not daunted by the county opposition, they exposed Clare’s in- experience repeatedly, carving open the defence. Still, Fitzgerald conced- ed that Clare more than matched his side after the restart.

“Clare probably came out and thought that they would take care of us easily enough and it’s hard to change your attitude halfway

through the game. When you are out- side in the field and you are playing a college team, you think that you should be beating them. But when the college team is ripping into you, it’s very hard to change and maybe When Mike got them at half-time, they were a different team. As you saw in the second half, it was way more even and as | say they got a lot more chances in the second half. So I would agree that in the second half, Clare more than held their own.”

Fitzgerald wasn’t thinking about his impending return to the county set-up on Sunday, his immediate fo- cus 1s on his LIT side who are look- ing to win back-to-back Fitzgibbon titles for the first time in the college’s history. So while a ten point victory over Clare was significant, he under- stands that they still have a lot more work to do before they are ready to defend their Fitzgibbon crown.

‘The result didn’t bother me today. The thing I liked about today was the way we played and the fight. We had fight and determination and the lads threw themselves into it. But I know going down playing WIT in Water- ford in the Fitzgibbon, we are going to have our work cut out and I know from this performance we’re going to have to up it again. So don’t, even for one minute, think we’re happy with that, we’re not because I know we could have conceeded two or three goals easily.”

Now that Clare are our of the com- petition, the focus shifts to the league campaign starting with Galway in Salthill on February 10. Before that, they have challenges with UCG and Portumna, two additional opportuni- ties to test more players and experi- ment before the panel is reduced.