*Brian McNamara prepares to back heel the ball to the net despite being surrounded by a sea of Kilrush bodies. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
“SILLY MISTAKES” by Cooraclare were punished by Kilrush Shamrocks to see them eliminated from the Clare IFC but the Milesians can be optimistic for the future.
Cooraclare conceded five goals against the Shams as they came out on the wrong side of the 5-6 1-13 scoreline from their quarter-final clash.
To conclude his second year in charge at the quarter-final stage was a disappointment for Martin Daly. “There has been a lot of good work done by the team over the last couple of months, we started back in November doing strength and conditioning so in fairness to the lads they have a huge amount of work put in and we’re disappointed to be out”.
Shipping five goals to Kilrush was a big blow to their cause. “You don’t think when you’re going out in a game that you’re going to concede five goals, I knew Kilrush were good up front with a good bit of pace, we were hoping to see could we counteract that but we got exposed. One or two slips and one or two silly mistakes created one or two for them, they deserved one or two of course but I thought we came back well each time but you can’t keep coughing up goals, you could patch it up if you concede one or two but you won’t patch up conceding five goals”.
Admirably Cooraclare responded to two of the green flags with scoring bursts of four points without reply on two occasions. “Goals take the energy out of teams, we didn’t create a whole pile ourselves, I thought they were a lot more cuter and seasoned than we were, defensively they knew when to close up the shop and concede a few frees, that comes with a lot of experience and having been in the final last year, most of our squad is very young, I think they learned a lot this year and obviously we have more to learn but best of luck to Kilrush going forward”.
Youth is on Cooraclare’s side, the former Clare forward highlighted. “They have an extremely young squad, even Brian McNamara who you think is around forever is only twenty one, Tomas Downes and James Burke are two of the older guys of the team, apart from that most of the lads are under twenty one years of age, they had a minor team which got to the county final last year and will be in a semi-final or final this year, they have a good bunch of guys coming through and lads back from injury. They are in Division 3 next year so it is an okay position to be in to break in some of the younger lads and build a stronger squad because you need a squad to get over the line in these games, they are an up and coming club I know they are intermediate and used to be being senior but they had to go back to go forward and I really think they are taking forward steps”.
Daly will take time before deciding if he and his management team of Mark Tubridy, Declan McMahon and Martin Queally are with them next season to try take those steps. “That is a massive ask at the moment, we have to sit down and evaluate everything. I was very happy with the year and the way it went, I think a lot of the players were happy with it too, we’ll all have to sit down and talk about it again”.
