CLARE were shown “a lot of disrespect” in the build-up to the start of the Munster senior hurling championship according to selector Ken Ralph.
Speaking following Clare’s dramatic 3-21 2-24 draw with Cork in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Cíosóg, the Clarecastle clubman said he felt “time was well up” before Ciaran Joyce won a free for Cork which Declan Dalton converted to see the sides finish level.
“What a finish. I actually thought we had them beaten, I thought he should have blown it up after the last free, I thought time was well up. They got a chance and we probably would have taken a draw at half time,” Ralph reflected.
There was a strong belief in the Clare dressing room at half-time that the game was still up for grabs, despite a gap of twelve points at this stage. “The talk at half time was that this game wasn’t over and we knew it wasn’t over. We weren’t as million miles off where we needed to be, just get a couple of things right and we did in the second half. We were right, it wasn’t over and it was still there. We almost won it”.
He continued, “on the scoreboard we were in trouble but we felt we weren’t a million miles off it. They got two goals that could have been prevented. We were in trouble on our own puckout and we tried to fix it for the second half. We were a little behind the curve compared to other teams because of injuries. We needed the first half to get to the pitch of it and we got to the pitch in the second half. It was a great effort and it would have been great win and I am a little bit disappointed we didn’t”.
Before the sliotar was thrown in for the start of the Munster championship, there was a lot of disrespect shown to Clare, the selector maintained. “There was a lot of disrespect for the last couple of weeks that we were only coming here to make up the numbers. We are All-Ireland champions and obviously in a lot of people’s eyes it was a fluke. Well it wasn’t a fluke, we put a lot of work in the last five years to win an All-Ireland and some of the commentary I the lead up to this game was. to say the least. not right”.
“On league form, Cork are a serious team, they are favourites to win the All-Ireland and you could see why in the first half. Championship is a lot different to the league. Cork will be there or thereabouts. We needed to get a performance today after our league and for the second half we did. We are back in the game now and hopefully some people might give us some credit,” the Tipperary native added.
A review of Clare’s first half will show there is lots of room for improvement ahead of their second round tie with Waterford on Sunday. He cautioned that the injuries are mounting within the panel. “We have to put on the other hat now and get ready for Waterford next week in Waterford. We have to look at today’s first half when we didn’t turn up and there is plenty to work on, it’s a different challenge next week. We had a number of injuries coming in today and more coming out, we are not getting the rub of the green., the injuries are mounting up again”.
