*Dermot Coughlan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLARE’S U20 footballers qualified for the second phase of the provincial championship with a game to spare and they honoured their late coach Jack Boddy in tremendous fashion.
So much has changed concerning the Clare U20 football set-up between round one and two with the passing of strength and conditioning coach Jack Boddy having a big affect on the panel of players who had built up such a close relationship with him.
On Saturday, they returned to championship fare overcoming Waterford 1-12 0-6 to seal their place in phase two ahead of their third game versus Limerick.
Understandably it has been a difficult period for all involved with the U20s, manager Dermot Coughlan has always been proud of the squad but admitted the resolve they’ve shown over the past fortnight has been exemplary. “Considering the impact of last two weeks, to come down here and put on a performance like that in the second half, I just can’t speak highly enough of these lads. They were absolutely incredible. “I mean Jack [Boddy] was our S&C Coach and the lads were obviously very close to him, he worked with them up to four times a week so of course it did affect the group. So to come here and produce a statement win like that, just hats off to them, they’re tremendous guys”.
Coughlan told The Clare Echo, “We didn’t want to say ‘let’s win this for Jack’ in the dressing room because if we didn’t win then, it might seem like we disrespected him. But to Maurice, Sarah and Tadgh, my heart goes out to them for what they’ve gone through and while today was only a football game, we wanted to win it for Jack”.
For the second game running, Clare dominated their opponent’s kickouts. Coughlan felt their midfield duo of Evan Cahill and Seán Fennell helped provide a key platform. “Evan [Cahill] was exceptional, Colm [Breen] the same, they caught some fine ball at vital times. Our middle third today was probably where the launchpad was. We won a lot of clean catches from kick-outs but also when it went to ground, we were quick to the breaks as well so overall it was very impressive”.
He continued, “I thought we gave a defensive masterclass all the way through but midfield were exceptional too and we got a platform there. Okay in the first half we rushed a few shots but when I noticed that the breeze was a bit trickier than I originally thought. It seemed to be blowing straight down the field but when I went out onto the field there was a slight tail to the left so that might have caught them out too. Don’t get me wrong, we did rush a few two-point attempts though which meant that it was closer than we would have preferred by half-time”.
At half time, Clare led 0-7 0-4 but limited hosts Waterford to just two points in the entire second half. “Having to play against the conditions in the second half, we said to them at half-time, we just needed to get our hands on the ball and use our support play and coming off the shoulder. And we’re good at that because that’s the football we play. We’re comfortable in the running game and in reality we cold have played like that all day. The trick was that we man-marked their two main threats Joe Brennan and [Paddy] McCarthy and I thought their markers Diarmuid Boyle and Aaron Killeen did an exceptional job as they got over 90% of their scores against Limerick. They were also the two players that did the damage in the minor a few years ago and last year in Doonbeg at Under 20 level as well”.
Three more championship games are guaranteed for Clare’s U20s. “You want to keep up our momentum now. Look, we’ve still a lot to work on we know that and every game is valuable for these players development so we look forward to the Limerick game and thankfully we’ve three more matches to come in Phase 2 so we’re delighted to keep going as long as we can”.
