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*Lissycasey’s Michael Meaney. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
YOUTH is on Lissycasey’s side but the “harsh lessons” that accompany championship losses must be put into practice if they are to fulfil their potential at senior level.
Having completed an eleven point turnaround, Lissycasey though not playing particularly well managed to put themselves one point ahead in additional time only to concede a two pointer from Kildysart captain Luke McGrath which dumped them out of the Jack Daly race.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Lissycasey manager David Considine outlined, “It was a game that had an awful lot in it, we were well behind at half time, I wouldn’t have said it was a ten point wind to any team but in fairness to the lads we not only clawed that back but went two points clear. We went a point up again and then Luke hit the winner for them, it gave us literally no time to get the ball back and go up the field to try equalise ourselves, it was a game that had a bit of everything.
“I would have been really happy with a lot of the first half, at various stages playing into the breeze we were comfortable on the ball and opened up scoring opportunities, we missed four but you’d be hoping to get one or two more at minimum, we were only 0-6 0-4 down with eighteen minutes gone, we weren’t looking too bad but then Kildysart hit a purple patch where they had an awful lot of frees around the 45/65m radius, Emmet is regularly in form but he has that five or ten metres longer in his kicks which means you can’t really give away frees in your own half, that period from the twentieth to thirtieth minute where we heavily penalised on breaking ball, catches and a couple of frees which were put over the bar for two pointers”.
When asked if Kildysart maximised the wind more than Lissycasey, Considine stated, “Not necessarily. The two teams have slightly different styles, I don’t think the ball went inside our 45m line for the eighteen minutes but they were 0-6 0-4 up which is unusual and we were attacking well. We kicked a couple of two pointers ourselves, we left one or two more behind, Kildysart are lucky to have such a good kicker of the ball in Emmet, they have other guys that can kick two pointers like ourselves, most lads have three or four guys capable of it but I genuinely believe that the kicks made the last day there isn’t too many lads in the county that can kick with such regularity, he didn’t miss and they all went over the bar, none of them were lucky they were all sweet strikes from him, there’s times where you have to just say fair play if he has the ability to do that and there is not much else you can do. Football is about tackling too, when you give away soft frees around that area but they are still way out, you don’t expect to be penalised with two pointers every time, unfortunately in a knockout game that can happen”.
Shane Griffin one of their standout players in their four games managed to put them one point in front on sixty, a two pointer from Conor Finnucane had the lead at two on fifty three minutes. “The most disappointing thing is we put ourselves in a position after being ten points down to be a point up with a breeze behind us, there’s lots of learnings for our group. It is disappointing to lose first and foremost, it was a tough way to lose, the only way a team will grow is if they learn from those and learn from the defeats, they are harsh lessons but that is hopefully how the group can come back stronger”.
Season one for Considine and his management team which also included ex Clare footballers Joe Hayes and Ger Keane, John Joe McMahon and Brian Geary saw them claim the Cusack Cup but there was plenty of learnings on and off the field. “There is a really young group there, a lot of them now are able to focus on the 21 campaign, of our panel of thirty four about eighteen lads are either twenty two or three with a huge number of them eligible for U21. They are young players, whilst we won a league I’d still say that doesn’t make them twelve or twenty four months older or wiser, sometimes you need a small bit of pain before you start learning. We learned an awful big lesson from this year, when you’re a point up in injury time you would be hoping that all you have to do is get your hand on one kickout, ultimately they didn’t and they are the fine margins when playing a team like Kildysart”.
