*Zi Yan Spillane and Ellen Casey battle with Mairead Eviston. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
MISSED CHANCES left Clare chasing the game for the entirety of Sunday’s All-Ireland senior camogie quarter-final but the side are not far away from making a big breakthrough, manager Eugene Foudy maintained.
Nine first half wides including three from placed balls kept Clare on the backfoot against Tipperary in Sunday’s curtain-raiser at Croke Park. It left them six behind at half time when the margin should have been tighter but the concession of a Roisin Howard goal, twenty six seconds on the restart killed off their chances altogether.
Manager Eugene Foudy was unable to pinpoint what could have caused Clare’s slow start where it took them twenty three minutes to get on the scoreboard, they trailed by seven at this juncture. “We came up last night, we were in really good form and spoke about it all week, this was our third week on the trot for matches, we created the chances. On a big stage and the big day if you don’t take those chances and the ball goes wide then it is multiplied in your head and the little things like a free not going over, if you miss a ball when picking it up it is amplified in a stage like this. That’s sport, we’ll dust ourselves down and go at it all over again and see if we can pick up a few more on the panel and strengthen the panel. Playing in 1A in the league will sharpen us”.
A more clinical approach was needed for Clare to upset Tipperary, Foudy acknowledged. “We had some serious missed chances in the first half, three wides from frees, two balls dropped into the goalkeeper’s hands, a great goal opportunity slipped so that is eight points and there was only six in it at half time, if even scored half of those. Conceding a killer goal after half time didn’t help us. I think the girls showed great character to stay fighting on, Áine O’Loughlin and Maeve Milliea added impetus to the forwards, if we took our chances we would have finished on a high”.
He continued, “We hit two into the goalkeeper’s hands and didn’t put away a goal chance, any chance that Tipp got they punished us, that is what good teams do, that is what we have to learn. We’ll be playing in Division 1A next year against Cork, Kilkenny and Galway so every game we’ll pick up a few tricks and apply ourselves so we’ll dust ourselves down and refocus again”.
There is a noticeable gap between the counties competing in Division 1A and 1B in the National Leagues. Lining out in the top tier will strengthen Clare next year, the Inagh native felt. “Hopefully playing in 1A in the league will sharpen us and prepare us so that we can get back here and progess further, we need to get one big win in the championship and take a scalp off someone, that has to be our goal, until we do that we’re going to struggle in the championship”.
Clare are not far from reaching the last four of the All-Ireland championship, Eugene believed. “I don’t think we’re that far away, a bit of luck in the first half and scored half of our chances then we’d be down by two points at half time and our conversation would have been very different. We went in behind by six and then conceded a goal to make it nine, if there was only two in it because we knew we have the conditioning work done we knew we would finish strong and we have the subs to bring on to finish the game and that was proven today, we just needed to be in that game at half time and be a couple of points closer. The goal after half time really killed us. On the positive side, the girls showed huge character and huge belief with what we’ve worked on since November, I’m really proud with how they finished, they didn’t throw in the towel and say ‘let’s get on the bus and get out of here’, they kept plugging away and the Clare crowd coming in gave them support too, the girls should be proud”.
Failing to hit full throttle in the first twenty minutes was costly for Clare, Foudy said. “Most of them were here last year, you can’t counter for everything, we spoke about it, we went through it and looked at the videos, it is just the rub of the green and it didn’t happen for us in the first twenty minutes. Everything Tipperary touched went over and everything we hit dropped short or went wide, each went of those is like a hammerblow, you keep trying but next thing the hill becomes a mountain. We finished the half to get a couple of scores, we were positive at half time, we still got the ball into positions to make a battle of it. It may have been disheartening for some of the Clare supporters who came in late and saw the score, at least in the last fifteen minutes we showed what we are about and that we can play camogie”.
Having faded away in last year’s ten point quarter-final exit to Waterford, Clare packed a bigger punch this time round when outscoring Tipperary 3-4 0-5 in the final quarter. “You have to be really tuned in when you’re up here on the big stage, you can’t afford a lack of concentration, on a couple of occasions we lacked concentration and the goal came from a quick free, we had seen that already in the championship and spoke about it, you can prepare all you like, the girls tried their best and nobody went out to play a game, at least they finished on a high”.
Foudy a four-time senior camogie championship winning manager with Inagh/Kilnamona was hopeful further progress would be made in his second year in charge. “Last year we got to this stage with one win, in the last group game facing Offaly two weeks ago although it was in our own hands we didn’t know what was going to happen, those competitive games and going down to Wexford, playing competitive games is what we all want to be doing, it was a positive from that point of view, our strength and conditioning has been immense, it showed when we were able to finish good and strong, we need to improve on a few things but we’re making strides. I said to the boys when we were taking on the job in November, we’d only climb so many rungs on the ladder this year, we’ll kick on and strive forward next year”.
