*Joe Hayes. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLARE’s minor footballers are in must-win territory despite having only played one game.
A three point loss to Waterford on Monday has Clare on the brink of failing to progress beyond phase one of the Munster championship. They travel to Mountcollins this Monday to face a Limerick side who overcame Tipperary 1-9 1-4 in their opening outing.
Speaking to The Clare Echo following their defeat to Waterford, Clare manager Joe Hayes didn’t hide his frustration. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it really, I’m hugely disappointed but at the same time I’ve no complaints as we were beaten by the better team on the night. We might have showed patches of being better but it was only in patches. We didn’t show what we’re capable of and it’s just so disappointing. We were outfought, destroyed on breaks in the first half and I’m not sure of the stats in the second half but overall I’m just gutted”.
Hayes continued, “Every time we came back at them, Waterford just pushed on again. Does that come down to lapses in concentration on our part or was it Waterford upping it even more? I’m not sure. Now I don’t want to be throwing anything at players because the majority are 16 years of age and this is all a learning process but Waterford are the same age and they are after a five hour drive and they still showed that championship desire and hunger”.
Aggression was lacking from Clare in the breakdown, the former county goalkeeper felt. “I thought when we ran at them in the first half, things opened up but ultimately we got little return score wise from those breaks. Getting breaks from kick-outs, a lot of that is luck and it’s about where you position yourself but the rest of it is desire and hunger. Bar Rian Cotter at number 10 who is probably the smallest man on the field, we didn’t show that aggression at the breakdown”.
He added, “Look we’ve seven days to turn things around against Limerick down in Mountcollins. Limerick were very good in a poor pitch against Tipperary on Sunday. They were very organised and we knew that they would be as they have the calibre of Garrett [Noonan], Muiris [Gavin] and Billy Lee over them. Listen we just need to sort our own ship now this week first before we even think about Limerick. And we’ve a good bit of sorting to do”.
