*Colm Collins. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Clare’s first half error count was lamented by manager Colm Collins as they exited the 2021 senior football championship.
Collins felt the tie was lost in the opening half and was hugely disappointed with their turnover count. “When you play against top teams mistakes are punished. The key thing was handing the ball over too cheaply, it cost us big time, it was a killer blow. We conceded 1-7 in the first half because of turnovers. When you are up against the better teams you are going to get punished and that is what happened”.
“It’s a learning curve, these lads are young and they more they play against teams of quality, the better they will get. We came here to win. A lot of things we had been doing really well, we didn’t do so well today. We missed easy chances from lads that normally never miss”.
Although they trailed by nine points at half time, the Cratloe man still felt they had a chance, however he admitted “the wheels came off the wagon” following the third quarter. “I would not fault this group for heart. They are a great bunch of players but we need to be a lot meaner with the ball. When the real pressure comes on we have got to keep the ball and move it quickly”.
That said, he remained proud of the efforts of the Clare men. “Some of these guys are very good players. Eoin Cleary would get on any team in the country. On he day some just didn’t click and some of our top forwards missed easy chances that they would normally put away. It was not a great day at the office”.
Too much praise is given to inter-county managers when things go according to plan, the Kilmihil native stated. “Far too much credit is given to managers in particular. You have a brilliant bunch of players who work really hard, you have a tremendous coaching team, a brilliant S and C coach. Everybody involved in the set up is so professional. You feel a bit of a fraud when you hear managers getting credit for everything because they don’t deserve it”.
He refuted suggestions that a more defensive approach was implemented by Clare for the Munster quarter-final. “Don’t be fooled, every team playing football including Kerry, play people behind the ball. When Kerry lose the ball they play their 15 behind the ball just as good. This makes me die. Watch Dublin. If they lose the ball they defend. If you don’t have the ball you defend and whatever you have to do to make sure your man is covered you do”.
“We didn’t do anything different today from what we did against Mayo. The mistakes we made against Mayo were, unfortunately, replicated today. We were a bit careless at the end and conceded a couple of silly goals. If you play against teams like Kerry and Mayo you just have to keep the ball, you cannot give away the ball cheaply. If you take the ball into the tackle you are going to be turned over and that’s what happened,” Colm added.
For the second year in a row, Clare’s senior side have lost out in their first championship encounter and do not get to avail of the qualifiers. “It would be great to be looking forward to a back door but its hard to be critical in the times we are in. The backdoor system has served us well and coming out of here you would be looking forward to playing a qualifier. It’s not to be and we knew that coming down here so there is no point in complaining about it now”.
When asked on his future in charge of Clare, Colm said he would be taking time before announcing plans for 2022.
Meanwhile Kerry boss Peter Keane was “pleased with the result It’s championship it’s knockout and you don’t get a second chance this year. It was all about winning and whatever way you win, you win”.
Continuing he said “we had a very very good first quarter and we continued that in the second quarter, third quarter wasn’t so sweet but we had a very very good last quarter. We were playing a team that kicked 2-18 against a team that played an All-Ireland final last year, a team that kicked 1-18 against a team that beat us last year, Cork. We always knew that they had good forwards and that they were going to be a big threat up front”.
Keane went on to say “if you look at the games Kerry have played against Clare in the last few years, in 2019 we had a right good struggle to get out of there so we knew it was going to be tight”.
