*Clare defender Emer Burke. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
INEXPERIENCE was not an excuse issued by intermediate ladies football manager Graham Shine following Clare’s quarter-final defeat but he flagged the high turnover of players as a major cause of concern in hindering their progress.
For the third year running home advantage counted for little as Clare were knocked out at the quarter-final stage with Ulster opposition once again leaving the county with a place in the semi-finals secured.
Since contesting the 2023 All-Ireland final, Clare have failed to get beyond the quarter-finals. Shine pointed out that only three of the starting team which lost the decider to Kildare 2-11 2-10 lined out from the off in Sunday’s quarter-final, namely Chloe Moloney, Amy Sexton and Fidelma Marrinan who only returned to the panel in recent weeks.
Listowel native Graham told The Clare Echo, “From the 2023 final we only had three players today, I came in as a performance coach in 2024 and we’ve three left from that team and three that were on the bench are starting, a lot of it is made up of eighteen and nineteen year olds, I wouldn’t be saying getting to semi-finals are the be all, that will come in time, give the young girls championship time, it is coming just give them time”.
On what can be done to stop such a high rate of turnover, he stated, “Can you stop a girl going to Australia? You better talk to the Government about that, house prices is outside Graham Shine’s book anyway. We’ve a massive turnover of players, teachers going to Dublin, girls playing Aussie Rules, girls going travelling, that is life and it happens in a lot of counties, maybe not so much in the bigger counties where the County Boards and area can just keep girls and get them local teaching posts, here we have a lot of girls moving and what can you do, they are young girls who want to move, they have jobs and careers”.
Shine was at a loss to explain why Clare were unable to maximise on home advantage when it came to contesting the All-Ireland quarter-finals. “For some reason it isn’t an advantage for us, we were buzzing on Friday night and looking forward to it, everything was going really well but it was like we were very nervous, maybe it is the nerves of a quarter-final hanging over you for the last three years but passes went astray that normally wouldn’t, they won fifty fifty balls, our restarts weren’t great, we didn’t have the movement, everything came together, the yellow card and the goal in the first five minutes of the second half put it to bed completely”.
Though Clare lined out with a very youthful side in Sunday’s quarter-final, they still had enough experience to overcome Fermanagh, he felt. “A lot of them are on the panel for a second year, they have the experience, I was delighted for young Abi Kelly and Aisling Kelly, they have bright futures ahead of them, we can’t keep making excuses about younger players, we have a lot of experience and we gave them the league for that, we had a good Munster and first two rounds of the All-Ireland series, we beat Wexford who won their quarter-final. I have pity for the girls, on another day and please God down the road they will get over the line because they deserve it”.
Comprehensively beaten 3-12 1-8 by Fermanagh ended the season on a low point for Clare. “I’m disappointed with the performance, the results take care of themselves, we didn’t show up today, our fundamental errors were poor, off the ball running was poor, we showed Fermanagh too much respect, we had a lot of nerves, the yellow card didn’t help when it happened so if you put it all together it was a bad day”.
He continued, “It is one of those days, it is football, I’m twenty five years at it and it just happens but it just seems to happen on the big days and when you don’t want it to happen, we had a great session on Friday night, the last three weeks have been positive, they are gutted inside there the craturs, they give everything to Clare and everything to the jersey, they have a bright future ahead of them. It is a pity they couldn’t get over the line in that quarter-final, results have gone unexpected but I thought today we would get over the line but we didn’t”.
Conceding two goals in twenty five seconds “killed us,” Shine acknowledged. “Restarts today were poor and that is not Rebecca’s (Sexton) fault, the movement wasn’t there, we got punished with two sucker punches of goals and they had another goal before half time which wasn’t given for overcarrying, we were lucky to go in seven points down, we could have been fifteen points down”.
For the entire second half, Clare managed to only score 1-3. “We kicked on for the first fifteen minutes, we’ve been player led in the dressing room and we said we’d throw the kitchen sink at it, a pass came out of defence, we won the ball and passed it straight to Fermanagh and Eimear Smyth put it in the back of the net, the game was gone after five minutes of the second half”.
