*Peter Duggan brushes past John Bellew. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
PETER Duggan and the Clare hurlers are eager to carry the momentum from an unbeaten league campaign straight into the championship, which begins a fortnight from Sunday’s league final.
Clare head into Sunday’s Division 1B decider against Dublin unbeaten, with Duggan starting four games in their successful push for an immediate return to the top tier. By this stage last year, he had featured just once due to an ankle injury.
“It was a very difficult scenario being in 1B. We knew last year’s league wasn’t really great and it kind of reflected when we moved into the championship, so we set a target of performing well and having a good attitude coming into all of our league games this year. I think we set a good tempo and performed at a decent level”.
Thirty-six of Brian Lohan’s panel have seen minutes in this year’s campaign, including eight players making their competitive debut in the league. Duggan said that was one of the main positives of their stint in the second tier. “It probably is a benefit of being in 1B that you can rotate your squad more, there’s still other teams in 1A that are still blooding lads. Every day you go out it doesn’t really matter what fifteen are on the field you want to have twenty-five, twenty-six players that can come on at any stage in any game and that’s what we kind of did in the division this year”.
Duggan told The Clare Echo, “We’ve got a final now and then we’re building for the championship so every day that we go out once we’re getting a good attitude and a good performance that’s all we can really ask for.”
The Banner came out two-point winners in their opening round clash against Dublin, in what was their toughest test of the season so far. The Clooney-Quin clubman is braced for another stern challenge from last year’s All-Ireland semi-finalists in the Gaelic Grounds this weekend. “We’d like to keep the momentum going. Every game that you go out and play you’ll always give it your all to win and that’s the same attitude we’ll be going for against Dublin, who have already given us a good test”.
