*Joe O’Connor and Brian McNamara battle for possession. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
BASIC ERRORS were Clare’s undoing in their eleven point Munster final loss to Kerry, coach Eoin Curtin believed.
Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney witnessed David Clifford produce a man of the match display on Sunday as Jack O’Connor won the battle against his predecessor as Kerry manager Peter Keane who is now Clare boss.
Belief was a key message hammered home by Keane in the Clare camp before Sunday’s final and also the importance of not allowing Kerry take control from the off.
Clifford’s two goals in the space of three minutes, all before seven minutes had been played in the game undid such aims. Clare coach, Eoin Curtin rued the turnovers that enabled the Kingdom to have such a strong start. “We wanted to be in the game after the first ten or twenty minutes, we knew they were going to come at us. I know it doesn’t like it on the scoreboard but we actually started quite okay, we had a couple of chances but our own turnovers cost us, you can’t turn the ball over against a team like Kerry, they were clinical”.
He continued, “We made simple errors, simple mistakes, maybe it was the pressure they put on us coming out, I think in the first half we conceded 3-1 from turnovers which at this level you will always come out second best with that. Lads were disappointed at half-time but in the second half they went out, battled manfully and showed the character that we know is inside the dressing room, they could have shied away from it but we went out and won the second half 0-14 0-10”.
Mistakes will always be punished at this level, the St Flannan’s College school teacher noted. “The errors at this level and in this modern game will crucify you. We have to take the learnings from it, stop making the mistakes, I think we will, there is a lot of progress being made, the boys are trying really hard and I think we’ll reassess our injuries and that nobody is too badly hurt and we’ll be back to the drawing board at training and go at the All-Ireland series”.
Having missed out on promotion to Division 2, Clare based on league rankings are effectively inside the top twenty teams in Ireland whereas Kerry are in the top three. That gulf ensured heading to Killarney to play the Munster final was a far from easy assignment for Clare. “It was always going to be a tough task coming down here. They are Division 1 champions, I didn’t think there was a massive jump in pace or fitness levels, it came down to simple errors, we were as fit and fast as any of those guys, the skillset was shown up at different times and Kerry punished, they are clinical when they get the chance”.
Clare’s full-back line had a difficult encounter because of the space in front of them and the quality of ball delivered to Kerry’s inside forwards, the 2015 Clare SFC winner said. “At times in the first half we stood off them a little bit and it was very difficult for the inside line to defend, the quality of ball they were giving in was phenomenal, we would have liked to have applied more pressure on the kickouts but in general we’re really proud of how the boys kept going till the end”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Curtin explained why management waited until the fifty third minute to make a substitution. “We were giving lads a chance, there’s no point being too rash on the sideline and taking lads off, some lads come into the game, they might have a good five minutes and a lull for a spell, you have to be very careful in this game that you don’t make substitutions too early. In the game against Tipperary we nearly had our fifth sub used when our goalkeeper went down injured, you have to be careful because a lot of things can happen very quickly”.
Management are now treating the All-Ireland series as a separate competition as they turn their attention to Down, Monaghan and the Leinster champions. “There’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves in this condensed season. Emotions are quite raw at the moment, we will reassess and meet on Wednesday, do the recovery in-between, try get the bodies and mindset right to have an attack at Down”.
