THIS is neither the time nor the place to throw some balls of mud and play the blame game. This is, as Frank Doherty said on Saturday evening, time to look at the bigger picture.
It’s time to wonder why and how Clare, who were at least competitive in the championship less than three years back, have slipped so grace- lessly over the past couple of sea- Sons.
Taking 2007 and 2008 into consid- eration, Clare have played 11 games in championship and league. They’ ve lost all but three and one of those wins was against London in Cusack Park. So it’s over a year since the county footballers have had any result of sig- nificance — a five point win against Leitrim in the second round of the 2007 league on February 10th.
Just 20 months ago, Clare travelled to Casement Park in the first round of the All Ireland qualifiers and beat Antrim by one point. That day, they played with appetite and courage. On Saturday, Antrim came to Ennis and Clare were made look like a team that belong in another compeition.
Only three of those who lined out in Casement Park started in Cusack Park and that alone tells the story of an unforgiveable and unsustainable turnover rate.
Throughout Clare, players have reg-
ularly turned their back on the county jersey — an incredible fact to compre- hend for anybody from a county with any sort of football tradition. But it’s an inherent fact of football in this county. It’s bred into player’s psyches from early on and the results of that
indefensible approach were laid bare on Saturday.
Last summer, an underage develop- ment county team was shorn of play- ers because some clubs decided to withdraw their players on favour of club games later that week. What sort
of message does that relay? Where’s the love of the county that has kids in other places dreaming of wearing their own county colours?
There’s a spiritual aspect to the game that just isn’t being stoked in Clare and after the Antrim game, Frank Doherty was beginning to see that at first hand.
For sure, Clare played horribly. From the first minute that they walked out onto the field, the player’s body language was all wrong but in a way, it’s understandable given the lack of interest that surrounds them.
Walking around Ennis on Saturday, there was nothing to say the county footballers were facing a must win game to keep their league hopes alive. The same faces, the Clare Football Die Hards, as they’ve come to be known, were the only ones fly- ing the flag at Cusack Park. Do most people in Clare even care about in- ter-county football?
Selection-wise, the make-up of the team didn’t work either and at least three players were operating out of position. It all means the Clare management will continue to scour the county for willing footballers, though with no club games pencilled in over the next fortnight, the task could prove futile and any selection will have to be based on past per- formances.
If, as Doherty said, the McGrath
Cup covered cracks, then other, more intrinsic ruptures were also covered up in the wake of this season’s club championship. Bar a handful of exceptions, most games were sub- standard and the scoring, in particu- lar, was below-par. The county final was woeful and was papered over by Lissycasey’s historic win and the two best clubs in the county over the past two years have between them, two inter-county representatives.
Just prior to the hurlers taking off in 1995, Ger Loughnane correctly identified that the lacklustre nature of club games was contributing to the county under-performing. He deduced that the intensity of match days had to be replicated in training and that’s the task now facing the Clare footballers. Nobody expects a miracle 2008, but the least the 200 Clare supporters who showed up on Saturday deserved was the best team on the field and every man giving a committed performance.
There are no easy answers to games like Antrim, but it’s time to wake vhOR
The long term affect on the confi- dence of Clare football — particularly on the younger players — means the rot has to stop.