*Niall O’Farrell and Diarmuid Stritch. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
LIFTING league silverware is ideal championship preparation for Clare’s senior hurlers according to manager Brian Lohan.
Clare won a second league title in Lohan’s seven year tenure with Conor Cleary captaining the side to win the Division 1B title on Sunday rounding off their spell in the second tier with a seventh victory on the bounce.
Leading by ten points at half-time, Clare had a nervy finish and managed to record a two point win at the expense of Dublin. “It was good to win a good tough game, a game of two halves, happy with the performance and how we saw it out eventually, good preparation for the championship”.
An ability to pick off scores, 2-14 of the 2-26 tally came from play and seven different players helped Clare to withstand any Dublin rally. “We were able to win ball, we were able to get up the field and get scores, to put pressure and kept attacking them and trying to get scores which was pleasing. There’s areas we need to work on and a couple of areas we were shown up a little bit so loads to work on over the next two weeks”.
Taking some gloss off the win for Lohan was the second half display and the concession of three goals. “We conceded three goals, it is never good to concede three goals, we will find it very hard to win matches if we are conceding three goals, that is an area we need to work on, I know one of them a black card was very soft, again Clare were penalised for a black card, I wonder will that rule apply to other teams in the championship or the league but we’ll see”.
Rory Hayes’ black card also led to Dublin receiving a penalty from referee Thomas Walsh which Lohan felt should instead have been a free out. “I thought it was a free out, I couldn’t believe he was pointing to go in and give a black card, I haven’t seen it back this is just from watching it live and I thought Rory was fouled”.
How Dublin managed to get their majors is among the areas flagged by the two-time All-Ireland winner for Clare to tackle before commencing their championship bid. “I thought the second goal that they got was really soft from our defence to give away, we were not watching the runners at all, it was a really poor goal, they had one or two other opportunities, it is an area to work on”.
Injuries for Mark Rodgers and Shane O’Donnell will be a source of worry for Clare’s supporters. The manager said the medical team will be examining the duo to ascertain the extent of the injuries. Rodgers went off with injury in the third quarter while O’Donnell picked up a knock which prompted management to take him off at half time. “We will have to see how he (Shane) is, we are carrying a couple of knocks and we will hope to get them cleared up. We have to get to the pitch of the game, to attack the game and you’re not going to get through these games unscathed which is the nature of the job”.
Both O’Donnell and Rodgers ran riot in the opening half, alongside Shane Meehan, the trio accounted for 2-13 of Clare’s half time tally of 2-15. “They are good players, really good players and when they are attacking the ball, they are really good, inside there they were lightning for us in the first half”.
Lohan said neither Tony Kelly, Adam Hogan or David McInerney were deemed fit to play in Sunday’s league final. “We went with our strongest fifteen that were fit, they were not fit, we will be hoping that our physios and medical people have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks”.
Niall O’Farrell lined out at centre back for the first time in McInerney’s absence. The Broadford man has performed well in his first campaign with the county senior hurlers. “We’ve asked him to do a lot of things over the last couple of weeks, we’ve asked a lot of him he has responded and we put him centre back today and I thought he responded again”.
