*David Fitzgerald gets onto the breaking ball as Conor Cleary blocks an attack. Photograph: Ruth Griffin.
CLARE’s hurlers are “a step above” all teams competing in Division 1B of the Allianz National Hurling League according to the Down manager.
Three wins in succession have Clare on course to qualify for the Division 1B final and seal an automatic return to the top tier of the National League.
Their latest outing saw them account for Down by a margin of twenty nine points in Cusack Park on Sunday.
Down manager, Ronan Sheehan noted that Clare are by far the strongest side lining out in the second tier. “It was no surprise in many ways around the defeat or the scale of the defeat. Clare, Cork and Tipperary are playing at a different level to the rest of us, we were saying that ourselves, Wexford, Carlow, Kildare there isn’t an awful lot between us but Clare are a step above and we saw that, there was five or six occasions where we had possession but we were sloppy with how we gave it away and they threw it over the bar.
“The disappointing thing for us is at least two of the three goals were poor goals from our perspective in that we should have prevented them better, the boys will have learned so much from that in the pace and physicality of the game, Clare weren’t All-Ireland champions two years ago for nothing, we just have to roll with the punches”.
As they made the trip to Ennis, Down set collective targets but Sheehan admitted they fell short of their aims. “One of our targets was to not concede more than two goals and we slipped up on that a bit towards the end. For a long period, structurally in defence we had down well and had defended the D well, we’d be happy with that, we’d have hoped to hit twenty points instead of 0-15 but we left chances behind us, I don’t think we were a million miles off the targets we set ourselves, we were happy with the application the boys had, we are just playing at a different level and when you make a mistake you get severely punished”.
Facing off with Clare was a big jump for Down who were playing in the second tier for the first time in nineteen years. “We played Wexford last week, it was a very competitive game and a very good game but it was night and day to the pace there. Diarmuid Stritch was coming through one time and just burnt our lads, it is not that our lads aren’t doing well on their GPS numbers or their max speeds but it is a different level of conditioning and pace, that is where we’re happy in some ways because we didn’t cut wide open down the middle. The goals just came from Peter Duggan being so physical, we felt the athleticism was a real risk coming here and exposing us through the middle but we didn’t let that happen”.
Consolidating their status in Division 1B is the focus for Down, Sheehan admitted. :I don’t think anybody thought today would determine whether we stayed up in 1B or not. If we’re being brutally honest we need to beat Kildare in our next match on the 1st of March and to beat Antrim, we’d be disappointed not to have got something from the Carlow game. There’s probably two leagues within 1B, you’ve Clare at the very top, then Dublin and maybe Wexford to a lesser extent fighting to see who goes up with Clare, at the far end of that you have Carlow, Antrim, ourselves and Kildare all fighting to get four points to stay up, hopefully we get those and if we don’t we will have to dust ourselves down and go again, that is the way hurling goes”.
