*Clare senior football manager, Paul Madden. Photograph: Ruth Griffin
CLARE’s opening outing against Down in the Allianz National Football League will not define the county’s season according to new manager, Paul Madden.
Madden’s first National League campaign as Clare boss kicks off in Newry on Saturday evening.
Opening their league campaign against a team most see as favourites to win the division and playing away from home is really good for Clare according to Madden.
Speaking this week ahead of their trip to Newry to face Down on Saturday evening he said “We are entrenched in division 3 and we can always have beliefs of where we would like to get to but the reality is this is where we are. Since we came into the role January 24 was always the weekend we were looking to”.
Éire Óg clubman Madden noted, “On paper Division 3 is stronger than it was last year. The two teams that came down from Division 2 and the two that came up from Division 4 are very strong. The target is to get into the top two but I have always believed that you end up playing at the level that you should be at. We all have ideas about where we want to be but until you are where we want to be, you are where you are”.
Continuing he said “It’s never been the B all or end all that we have to be targeting X, Y or Z. We have to set out our stall as a group that we are going to work really hard and be honest and put ourselves in the best position to compete and I believe that if we are fit enough, strong enough and hungry enough we will be able to compete with anyone”.
The manager is very happy with the response from the players. “I am very aware of club teams in Clare at all levels and the local lads involved with me have a good knowledge. We had an initial list of 70 which we knocked down to 55 and two or three declined because of travel or work. We ended up with 52 including 2 long term injuries. We added one or two after in-house matches.
“One of the toughest decisions any team manager has to make is to cut players from a panel. “This week we had the tough decision to cut the panel down to 40. It was harder than picking a team to play against Kerry or Waterford in the McGrath cup. From the minute they came in we asked for honesty and hard work and we couldn’t have got any more from them”, Paul told The Clare Echo.
He went on to say that he has “a very close relationship with the under 20 manager Dermot Coughlan and the minor manager Joe Hayes and we have a strong relationship with the executive of the county board and with Joe Considine as chair of Bord na nÓg. There is great work going on. We are all working towards the same goal. There is great good will all around and he lads have put in a savage effort. When it comes down to it we will be judged on our results on the field. It is a very short window, seven weeks to prepare and we prepared as well as we could have in that period and hopefully we will hit the ground running”.
Noting that the team will have seven league games in ten weeks he said “the first three are really tough with three trips to the North and Westmeath, another of the favourites to win the group, in between. We have a big challenge but that’s what we want and what we need and our lads must start believing that we are good enough to be anywhere”.
With the various third level colleges competitions also taking place at this time, there are big demands on a number of the Clare panel. The manager is a strong supporter of these competitions “I am very open about that, I made it clear to anyone involved in Sigerson or Trench cup competitions that we would give them full support to play games. We encourage them to play as much football as they can. We need to be careful of the load. I have been in regular contact with the various managers. It’s just about lads being open with us”.
Concluding he said, “the result in Newry is not the B all, it won’t define our year but we want to go up there and give a good account of ourselves, The one thing we want from this group of players is to consistently work hard right to the end, that’s the minimum requirement”.
