*Brian Lohan. Photograph: Ruth Griffin
CLARE senior hurling manager, Brian Lohan has said the early indications are that all of the county’s outgoing panel will make themselves available for next season.
Lohan is to remain in charge of the county’s senior hurlers until 2028 after his term was extended by three years at the July meeting of the County Board as proposed by Chairman Kieran Keating and seconded by Central Council delegate Robert Frost.
Details on the make-up of Brian’s management for what will be his seventh season will be unveiled in the near future. He was joined by selectors Ken Ralph and Tommy Corbett along with coaches Brendan Bugler and Rory Gantley in 2025.
Clarecastle based Ralph has been a selector for the entirety of Lohan’s reign while Bugler and Corbett have been involved for the past two seasons, Gantley was a new addition for 2025 following the departure of Shane Hassett.
On the task at hand for the next three seasons, Brian stated, “It’s a big job but it is a great job to be in, there’s great people involved at all levels within the county, we’ve got a great brand, we’ve got real good structures, real good support and most importantly we’ve really good players at the moment so it is great to be involved again. We’re under no illusions that we have to roll the sleeves up and get working but we will take that on, we’ll be looking forward to it”.
Fresh from his tenure extension, the All-Ireland winning player and manager outlined in an exclusive interview with Scariff Bay Community Radio that he would be studying the upcoming club championships to see what new talent could be added to the county squad for 2026.
He said the management would be casting the net far and wide over the coming weeks. “The first thing that we’ve to do is confirm our backroom team and then obviously looking at the club championships, we’ve had a fairly, the panel hasn’t changed a massive amount between 2024 and 2025 but look that’s understandable but going into 2026 you’re going to be looking at that panel, looking at what is out there in the club championship and obviously the performance of a number of the U20s that have done so well over the last couple of years, that is following on from the real good success of those players when they were at minor level and U20 level.
“It is an opportunity for everyone to show what they can do when performing with their club and an opportunity for us to get to as many matches as we can at all levels really, whether it be senior or intermediate or other levels as well, between the management team we try to get to as many matches as possible”.
While a close eye has been painted on players that have been under the ranks of Terence Fahy at U20 and both Brian O’Connell and Ger O’Connell at minor level, there is a chance for hurlers that may not have made the breakthrough at either grade to get a chance with the seniors. “Are we expecting to see new players coming in? I think there definitely is, there has been some excellent performances at inter-county level at both minor and U20 and obviously we’re more focused on the U20 because it is more recent, previously you were looking at the U21 grade and there is a big difference in physicality for that U20 versus the U21 player, you can see that in our own U21 championship at the end of the year”.
He continued, “At the same time there has been some excellent successes of players who have come through those, the most obvious being Adam Hogan who came into our squad when he was U20, obviously he has been excellent for us for the last number of years, particularly last year, I’ve no doubt there’s guys that will have good championships in front of them themselves this year and obviously there’s fellas that may not have made the top forty in the last year or two years that have got their head down and are a bit put out that they didn’t make the squad and they are working hard, we’ll be looking out for those guys and we hope they are there, if they are there they will be getting an opportunity. It is something to look forward to, the club championships are great to look at and obviously great for us because we’ve an added interest and added incentive to bring in the top guys from the club scene”.
Individual conversations have yet to take place between the manager and experienced members of the county panel on their inter-county future. However, he has been in contact with captain Tony Kelly and early indicators suggest there will be no retirements announced in the near future. “You’d be hoping that all of them will (stay on), the indications are that they all will be which would be great. I haven’t spoken to all of them individually but obviously I’ve spoken to Tony and Tony is very positive about the whole group that are there. We’re looking to get everyone who is available back in, getting them fit and getting them enthused and ready to go again, that is the aim, you always want to perform for all the big competitions that are there and that is what we’ll be hoping to do. It is about working hard, getting our fellas fit and ready to take on whatever we need to take on next year”.
Relegation from the top flight of the Allianz National Hurling League will see Clare ply their campaign in Division 1B in 2026 against Antrim, Carlow, Dublin, Down, Kildare and Wexford. “It was obviously a disappointment for us last year that we went down to Division 1B and we didn’t have a good league campaign, we’ll be disappointed with the performances we pushed out, that is on every one of us and not just one person in particular or one individual but it is a fact and we have to deal with it. We’re at a different level now, there’s some good teams in it but at the same time we would be considered the strongest team in it but that doesn’t mean you can be anyway complacent or anyway take anyone for granted, it’s going to be a focus for us that we go out and attack every one of those games, we’ll see how that goes, you can’t guarantee anything or make any promises when it comes to hurling matches, every single hurling match you play regardless of what level you play is hard to win, it’s hard to win anything so it’s a question of getting ourselves right or as right as we can be and going out and attacking those games and seeing where that brings us,” the Shannon man stated.
Lohan added, “The game is about winning matches whether it be a Munster league or National League or championship, it is all about winning and it is just not that easy to do, it’s an opportunity for us to get out there, try and get a couple of wins, get a bit of confidence and confidence sometimes can add ten or twenty percent to people’s performances, that was one of the things this year we just didn’t get that confidence early on, we didn’t get those wins early in the league and ultimately we didn’t get them in the championship either, there’s a fairly big correlation between performances in the league and performances in championship, we saw that this year the same way we saw it last year but at different ends of the spectrum”.
Reflecting on Clare’s championship run in 2025, he outlined, “The quality of the guys we’ve had from 2024 we just didn’t have those available to us in 2025, there’s no point in complaining too much about it, it is what it is and you get no sympathy from anyone but it does present an opportunity for other people within the setup, that didn’t work as well in 2025 as it did in 2024, there’s questions to be answered there by us as a management and as a group of players, there’s loads of questions we have to deal with it, there’s a load of issues that are there but we’ve an awful lot of positives, we’ve the nucleus of a great group of players, we’ve seen that and the quality we do have, we have loads to work with but it is hard work, you don’t get anything unless you work hard, if you have that hard work done, if you’re growing, open, honest and prepared to do that work then that can lead to good things but it doesn’t necessarily mean anything, it just means you have a chance whereas if you don’t have all that work done you don’t have a chance and that is regardless of who you play”.
In Munster, Clare recorded one win in their last outing versus Limerick following defeats to Waterford and Cork along with a draw to Cork meaning they missed out on one of the three qualification spots from the province. Fine margins are evident in the Munster SHC, he flagged. “You’ll see that in the All-Ireland final, Cork and Tipperary the traditional superpowers are there, with all the All-Irelands they have, they are back and back at the top table which doesn’t make it easy for anyone, if you’re looking at U20 or minor level, those two are winning All-Irelands at both minor and U20 level over the last couple of years, they are back and back at the top table, it is going to be very hard to knock them off it.
“Limerick with the team they’ve had over the last couple of years, they haven’t been in the last two All-Ireland finals, they have a lot of soul searching to do the same as us, if there was one positive from the year it was that we finished on a win beating Limerick inside in the Gaelic Grounds and from their perspective they finished on a loss losing to Dublin and the anguish that brings for them but we can’t be worrying about them, we have to worry about ourselves.
“Margins are very tight in the Munster championship, we all know that but anything that is worth winning is hard work, those Munster championships are worth winning and those games are hard work but they are worth it when you do, the big prize is progressing to the All-Ireland series, regardless of if you’re number one, two or three you’re progressing to the All-Ireland series and it gives you a great shout, you’ve two teams from Munster contesting the All-Ireland final and on neither of those two occasions were Limerick any of those two teams so it gives you an idea of the competition that is there. Not forgetting Waterford, they beat us this year and were very close in a lot of the games, they beat us this year and Cork last year, there’s serious work going on down there, they want to get back to the level of contesting All-Irelands, it’s not too long ago that they were doing that, they had a great boost this year winning the All-Ireland minor final”.
Given the high volume of work required for inter-county management in the present day for the former full-back to have committed to three years underlines he is very sure in his mind about continuing as Clare manager. “There’s a huge volume of work but there is a huge amount of expertise available to us aswell, the days of Ger Loughnane, Mike Mac and Tony Considine, Colm Flynn having responsibility for everything that is done, those days are over, we do have excellent professionals that are there, we have our two physios every year, we have our doctor Michelle for the last number of years, our nutritionist, we generally have a sports psychologist, there is a backroom team typically in any inter-county setup of approximately twenty between our stats guys, our logistics guys and the selectors and immediate management, then you have your player base of approximately forty players, sometimes it’s thirty eight, forty two or thirty six, it depends. There is an awful lot of expertise from our perspective which we’re looking for which is really positive, we have Club Clare with numerous individuals and groups all over the country and indeed all over the world who are supporting the team and Clare hurling which is excellent”.
