*Brian Lohan on the sideline in TUS Gaelic Grounds. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
A SPIRITED showing against Limerick saw Clare pick up their first win of 2025 with manager Brian Lohan praising the response of his charges to their setbacks on and off the field.
By David Byrne
Defeats in their first three outings of the National League marked a rocky start of Clare’s defence of the title while off the field they were floored by the confirmation of Shane O’Donnell’s absence for the championship.
Lohan said the importance of beating Limerick 1-21 0-21 was “massive”. He noted, “We’re delighted to get off the mark for the year and come in here, it is a hard place to come obviously and a great win for our lads”. He continued, “after the year we had last year, some of the games we played were not that disappointing because we were down a lot of bodies but still it is a tough place to come and we had to show a good bit of resilience to turn it around and get a result which is pleasing from our perspective”.
Spirit has been one of the buzzwords throughout Lohan’s six years in charge, unsurprisingly he was very satisfied to see it displayed in spades in the Gaelic Grounds. “We had a couple of guys back the last day after broken bones and things, it takes a while to get confidence back, fellas did train very hard during the week, there was no blame game or anything like that, we’ve a great bunch who stick together and took responsibility as the whole group did in fairness, when you have that you are in a pretty good place so we responded well”.
“It was an important win for us after losing the three games in-a-row and not playing really well, so the pressure was on us today and our lads responded and they did great now in fairness. Great appetite and work-rate was shown by our lads so you’d be very happy with that, We are delighted with it,” the All-Ireland winning manager commented.
Shane O’Donnell’s absence is a cruel blow for the All-Ireland champions but Lohan was quick to point out that Clare have battled without key personnel on many occasions before.
“The group has been used to missing some marquee guys, we were missing Ryan Taylor and Tony Kelly for most of last year, it is unfortunate that we are going to be missing Shane now so it puts the responsibility on everybody else”.
He added, “Obviously, the news last week [injury to Shane O’Donnell] wasn’t good and it was putting it up to our guys again, so they responded and that’s what they do, they responded and they did great”.
Showings from Jack O’Neill and Seán Rynne pleased the Shannon man. “Jack O’Neill is a real, good prospect for us. Throughout this league we are seeing really good talent coming from all the other counties, but we have them as well, so it was great to see Jack and Seán Rynne stepping up and really taking things on with a bit of fight and a bit of attitude. We are delighted for them. It was a good performance from our lads. Typical of Limerick, they started really well in that second half and when Limerick get on top, they can rattle over three, four, five points real quick, which is what they did. They are very efficient when they are on the front foot, but we responded well”.
Falling into the more experienced bracket is centre back John Conlon who responded to a rusty showing against Wexford a week previous, Lohan maintained. “We expect a certain level of performance from John Conlon and invariably he does produce that kind of performance, so I am delighted for him today because there were question marks about him during the week and he did great”.
How Clare settled to a strong Limerick start was a positive, he said. “After a shaky start, maybe during the first five or six minutes, they weren’t going as well as we would have liked them to be going but they settled to their task and did great for the rest of the game”.
On the flash point which led to Diarmaid Byrnes receiving a red card, the Clare manager stated, “It’s one of those incidents which happens sometimes at the end of games, it was a tough game, it really was a tough game with real endeavour from both sides so we’re just delighted with the win”.
It’s must-win territory now for Clare to keep their status in Division 1A with Pat Ryan’s Cork next on the agenda. “Cork is something to look forward to now, Cork had a great win last night, a real good performance, but sure look we are happy with how we played as well so it will be something to look forward to next weekend”.
