*Jack O’Neill. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
NO GAME is easy in the Clare SHC, this is certainly the case in Group 1 as Clooney/Quin will attest to after coming up just short in their first outing against Éire Óg.
By Ross O’Donoghue
Clooney/Quin had chances to claim the win against Éire Óg so there was a sense of regret for them at falling short but a predominant theme of pride was emanating from manager Fergal Lynch in the aftermath of Saturday’s game.
Lynch told The Clare Echo, “We came out at the wrong end of it. We’re disappointed that we’ve lost. At the same time, we’re very proud of the way the lads applied themselves today. Their attitude was brilliant. We did our best. We’ve got very intelligent guys on the field and we’ve got good ball winners. We’ve worked really hard over the course of the last six months on certain plays and building on what lads have done the year before”.
He continued, “Today was an epic battle and Éire Óg had just got those few extra chances. We had three or four chances in the second half. Unfortunately one dropped short, one was blocked short and we’d two wides”.
With four members of the Clare panel in their ranks, two of which Peter Duggan and Ryan Taylor featured in the All-Ireland final while Jack O’Neill was a recent addition to the county squad and John Conneally remained sidelined with injury, the talent within the Clooney/Quin ranks cannot be denied. “We have certain players that have played in Croke Park over the last number of weeks and we try to put them in positions where they’re going to excel. Ryan and Peter did really well, albeit that Peter was carrying a very serious injury.
“If you look at the other 13 guys, Conor Grogan was potentially marking the Hurler of the Year and did a really good job. Cillian O’Gara came out of minor two year ago and did a really good job marking David Reidy. You can’t be but pride of our guys but pride doesn’t win matches and we really have to knuckle down and focus on our next game”.
An All-Ireland winner himself in 2013, Fergal was confident a reaction would follow from his side in the second round. “These guys will bounce very quickly. Young lads these days are quite resilient when it comes to Sport. They’ll park it and move on. The good thing about this is we’re playing in two weeks’ time so we’ve no time to lick our wounds. We just have to get on with it”.
