Online Club Hurling Championship coverage brought to you by the Temple Gate Hotel—home to Chapter 24 Gastropub and Gate 96 Restaurant.
*Clooney/Quin’s Dannan Fox. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
CLOONEY/QUIN’s run to last year’s Clare SHC “means nothing” as they head into the knockout stages this weekend.
For the second year in a row, Clooney/Quin are back in the quarter-finals but any bit of familiarity with knockout hurling is irrelevant in the eyes of manager Fergal Lynch.
Past success is also put to one side, Lynch stressed. “It means nothing. We were in the final in 2017 and we have only three players from that team. We have a totally new group here who have under 16 and minor medals and they mean nothing to us. Our goal is to perform to the best of our ability and whatever happens happens after that”.
Unbeaten in the group stages, Clooney/Quin still need to build on their performances to date, the 2013 All-Ireland winner stressed. Shooting effiencey is a cause for concern following their third round twelve point win over O’Callaghans Mills where they had nineteen wides. “We were focussed on trying to get our own flow in play and we only did that for the last ten minutes of the first half and the first ten in the second. I am a bit disappointed with our shot efficiency. We had been working on it over the course of the last three games and it’s something we really need to improve on going into the next stage of the championship”.
Chances must be converted from the quarter-final stage onwards, the primary school principal underlined. “We are creating the chances but going into step four, five and six there will be way more pressure. Those are the scores you need to get when playing the likes of the Kilmaleys, the Éire Ógs, the Inagh.Kilnamonas and these teams. They have to be going over and if we don’t get those we are on the back foot straight away..There are learnings to be taken and while we are delighted with the win we have to improve on certain areas”.
A day before the third round, five members of their team received their Leaving Certificate results. Jerry O’Connor, Matthew Corbett, Patrick Finneran, Darragh and Sean McNamara “all did well in the exams and they acquitted themselves really well on the pitch also. We are happy with how they performed. We have used twenty two players in the three games and we are hoping we will be using a few more in step four, five and six”.
Bar their first round draw with Cratloe, Clooney/Quin have claimed maximum points in their outings with Feakle and O’Callaghans Mills. “The first day we met Cratloe we were under no illusions that they are a really good team, with huge experience. It’s no surprise that they are there, a lot tipped them to be in the relegation battle, they are far from that now”.
He added, “the thing about the Clare senior championship is that there are two levels. You have to get out of your group number one and the second round is going into a totally different cauldron. Our main focus was to get out of the group and focus for step four and hopefully we will get through that now”.
Getting matters right for the first round can be tricky, Fergal advised. “We were extremely disappointed with our performance the first day, we had a lot of hard work put in. It’s extremely difficult for clubs to get ready, lads are only back three weeks after playing inter county and their heads were in a bit of a spin after a very difficult loss in Croke Park against Limerick. It’s very hard to rally the troops and then we had five tied up in the Leaving Cert. Minds can travel elsewhere and it’s a real juggling act to try and get the right level for the players. We didn’t do it for Cratloe but thankfully we are getting it right so far”.
