*Clare senior hurling manager, Brian Lohan. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
CLARE’s senior hurlers have a lot of “soul searching” to do in the wake of their biggest defeat in seven years, manager Brian Lohan has admitted.
Disappointment was etched all over Lohan’s face when he came out to speak to the media following Sunday’s fifteen point loss to Limerick. “It’s very disappointing, disappointing for ourselves and all our supporters as well”.
“We just didn’t do anything like we wanted to do. We were very ponderous on the ball, our touch was very poor for long periods in the first half”, the manager added.
Lohan continued, “We didn’t want to perform that way. Every one of these games is a must win game and there is no real excuse from ourselves from a hunger perspective. The only positive from the performance is that we are not out of the competition and we have a chance to go back at it. We now go to Thurles to play Tipperary”.
The Clare boss was honest in his assessment when he said “I don’t think we have had a performance as poor as that. We have to look at that and we have a lot of soul searching to do now over the next while and see if we can turn it around”
Asked if it was the most disappointing performance during his seven seasons as manager he said “the first half probably was”.
Shane O’Donnell left Cusack Park in a sling, most likely from the damage of a hit by Diarmaid Byrnes on him in the first half. “We will have to look at it back,” the 2024 All-Ireland winning manager said when asked about the challenge.
Mistakes were too plentiful from the Clare hurlers, he said. “Numerous players failed to control the ball first time, failed to get it to hand, dropped ball numerous times in the first half, didn’t get the return and failed to get the scores we could have got. We missed a lot, missed an awful lot of goal chances. We have loads of areas to work on”.
Not for the first time, the two-time All-Ireland winner voiced his annoyance with the black card. “The black card rule is a very funny rule. There are a couple of counties in Munster that have never got a black card, that’s five we have got now. Obviously I am not a fan of the black card, the penalty is very severe for the crime. Five times we have got black cards. Tipperary have never got a back card, Limerick have got one, Waterford zero, Cork maybe one. It’s a difficult rule for us”.
“The Munster championship is tough, that’s what it is”, he stated when asked how Clare will bounce back.
