*Cian Maxted charges out of defence for Clare. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
CLARE’S minor hurlers have to be “a lot more aggressive in the tackle” if they are to bounce back from their first round loss.
Ger O’Connell’s charges fell to a 4-20 3-19 defeat to Tipperary in FBD Semple Stadium on Friday.
They’re back in action on Saturday at home to Limerick in Zimmer Biomet Páirc Chiosóg. Seeing as the Shannonside neighbours also lost out in the opening round to Waterford, championship survival is on the line for both sides.
O’Connell outlined where Clare need to improve, “We need to be a lot more aggressive in the tackle too than we were against Tipp and Limerick are a similar team style-wise to them as they have a lot of good runners and we have to meet them head on next Saturday.”
Tipperary were a very strong test, he acknowledged. “It’s disappointing to lose but you reflect on the balance of the entire game, we were probably lucky to be still in it after twenty minutes as they [Tipperary] were dominating at that stage. Look we had started well but when Tipp started to get on top, they could have scored three or four goals instead of the one they actually got.
“But we made a few tactical switches to help and we definitely came into it again as we managed to get the half-time deficit down to just three which if I’m being honest was a godsend as we could have easily been ten or twelve down by then. So it gave us something to cling to at half-time and to be fair, whenever Tipperary scored a goal or got ahead of us, the lads came back and to be fair, we had them in trouble with ten minutes to go. We got it back to a point and had a few chances to either equalise or go ahead but just didn’t take them and they went up and got goals at vital times to finish it off,” O’Connell added.
Now in his second season as minor manager, Ger admitted they were aware of the quality of the Tipperary forwards they were going to face. Five of their six starting forwards accounted for 3-16 of Tipp’s 4-20 tally. “We knew going into the game that Tipp had really good inside forwards and that was certainly true. It was a really open game, I mean we scored 3-19 which would win a lot of games but up the other end we also can’t be going into games conceding six or seven goal chances and still hope to win them”.
Clonlara’s Ger praised the ability of the Clare side to bounce back. “We know we’ve work to do in the lead up to the Limerick match but there are plenty of positives too. I thought the boys showed great character and in the second half we worked the ball really well at times to get scores so there are a lot of positives to build on. We just kept coming back from whatever set-backs came our way and that doesn’t surprise me because that’s just the type of group that they are. We have to learn from that game now as it’s a quick turnaround to the Limerick game this Saturday and obviously being in Cusack Park, our home games are massive and to be able to play there for this group is a big deal”.
