*Caoimhe Cahill takes on Libby Coppinger. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE bowed out of the Munster senior camogie championship with an eight point loss to Cork but manager John Carmody remained “really pleased” with his side as they turn their attention to the All-Ireland series.
Speaking following last Sunday’s loss in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Carmody explained, “Clare aren’t happy with moral victories but anyone that knows the camogie scene will know we played the best team in the country today and we gave them plenty of problems”.
He added, “We are really pleased. We have a great group of players and we started from ground zero with young players. I am disappointed the gap is eight points. We had three or four wides in a row in the second half when the game was in the melting pot. If we had converted those maybe that would have put Cork under real pressure”.
A drop in concentration for the second half was costly, the Kilmaley man felt. “They beat us 24 or 25 points in the first round of the championship last year. Cork came here today as All-Ireland champions and in front of their own crowd they wanted to win. We caused them all kinds of problems. We lapsed for seven or eight minutes before half time and they got four or five points in a row and that was the difference”.
“We have a group of players and we can’t ask any more of them for what they are giving this project. We are building towards the All-Ireland. We have another four weeks preparation now. We play Cork again in the All-Ireland series and we look over the next month to see if we can cut that eight point gap further. Our goal is to get to the All-Ireland quarter final. We feel we are moving in the right direction,” Carmody outlined.
Carmody feels that “Clare need to put more on the score board. We hit 1-9 today and there were three or four wides and one or two goal chances not taken, we will be working on that over the next few weeks”.
Attention now turns to the All-Ireland series and Clare’s clash with Down in the opening game. “Down has been our focus since we started back in January, that first round and the second round v Dublin a week later. Those two games are the making or breaking of our year. We are focused on that week and we will prepare the best we can for that”, the manager said.
He continued, “Today’s performance gives us great encouragement. We had knuckled down since the league, as a management we take responsibility for the Tipperary performance we said we would go man for man that day and we left ourselves wide open at the back and paid the price. The players had been very competitive for most of the league and the last game wasn’t reflective of that. You saw today this team is making huge progress, lots of pace, lots of youth, and they will learn from a big game like today. Clare supporters will be happy I hope with some of the hurling today in the second half”.
As the focus turns to the All-Ireland championship the manager is happy that the team will be strengthened by the full availability of Laura Foley and Roisin Begley who have been busy in recent times playing hockey with Catholic Institute. “They have a cup final next weekend and after that they will be fully available to us. Laura Foley, player of the match in last year’s county final and Roisin Begley, one of the best forwards in the game, see the impact they made when they came on today. Their availability adds to the competition for places, young players going really well.
“Caoimhe Cahill was outstanding today, Grace Carmody, Labhaoise O Donnell, Aoife Anderson, Cliodhna Queally at 18 years of age was outstanding at wing back. We decided to go with youth, a lot of these players have played at Croke Park and won an All-Ireland. We are disappointed with some of the players that didn’t come back this year but equally these young players had to get an opportunity. There is a bright future for Clare camogie if we can keep this group together”, he concluded.
