*Clare players celebrate. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE minor football manager Dermot Coughlan was a happy man at Mick Neville Park in Rathkeale last Tuesday night and he was entitled to be.
He had just witnessed his charges deliver a superb performance when beating a fancied Tipperary side in the Daryl Darcy Cup Final.
Speaking moments after the final whistle sounded on Clare’s eight point victory, he said, “I couldn’t be prouder. To be a Clareman tonight on the line, the way they performed was absolutely unreal. We are so proud to be involved with them We keep telling them at training we are only facilitators, we are lucky to be involved with them”.
The win has earned Clare a place in the Munster semi-final against Cork on Tuesday evening next while they are also guaranteed at least one more game whether it be in the Munster final or in the Tier 2 championship.
“After the game in Quilty (which Clare lost by five points), they were supposed to have made nine changes, we had three or four. The lads came down here with a point to prove. That was an awesome performance, as good as I have ever seen from a Clare underage team and I am involved a long time”, the Kilmurry Ibrickane clubman stated.
Commenting on the improvement the squad had shown since the start of the campaign he said, “it’s down to my management team, that’s what it is down to. Without a backroom team like that, the quality that is in it, what you saw tonight is what they are putting together on the training field. I am only the figure head, it’s basically down to every guy in the backroom team”.
“I never pick out individuals, it’s an awful hard thing to do after a performance like that. I wouldn’t like to be picking a man of the match in the Clare jersey tonight after a display like that, a lot of boys put up their hands”.
He went on to say, “Conor Burke showed for great ball. He is 15 years of age but he has the maturity to hold his line, to make that run and keep getting the ball into the scoring D, to have the maturity to do that at 15 is unbelievable”.
Looking ahead to next week’s Munster semi-final against Cork when Clare will have home advantage he said, “I keep saying it’s a development squad at the end of the day. We are guaranteed at least six championship matches and with the help of God we will get more. If we can get six, seven or eight championship matches won’t it improve every player in that squad. Full steam ahead for next week”.
