*Clare manager Brian Lohan with selector James Moran. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
BEFORE A BALL was pucked on Saturday, Brian Lohan was confident his Clare charges would deliver a performance.
They certainly did that and recorded their biggest championship win in his four year tenure, defeating Dublin by a total of eighteen points.
Speaking shortly after the All-Ireland quarter-final, he said, “the big thing for us was that we felt we were going to play well, we thought we had a good bit of work done throughout the year. You always worry that you won’t get a performance, we felt that we were going to get a performance but then the question was how good were Dublin going to be.
“We felt we were going to be good, our lads worked hard and did well, maybe it was not a brilliant first quarter but after that the lads worked really well, worked really hard”.
Scoring 2-02 without reply prior to the half-time whistle put Clare in a powerful position, the Shannon man said. “Before half time was crucial, it gave us that bit of a cushion and forced them to come out a bit and attack a bit more. We are just delighted with the way the lads played”. He continued, “it was a great performance from us today, to put up that kind of a score is great for us” before noting that “Dublin are at the start of their development”.
“Every year you go you learn. From our perspective maybe the Munster championship didn’t take as much out of us as it did before. We are a little bit more resilient as a bunch and probably a big stronger personnel wise than we were last year. We had a lot of young lads on the panel last year and they are a little bit older now. They are pushing hard and trying to make the team rather than just been panel members this year,” Lohan added.
Injuries will serve as the main headache for the two-time All-Ireland winner. Conor Cleary continues to recover from a dislocated shoulder while John Conlon left the field after a heavy collision and Shane O’Donnell limped off with thirty nine minutes played. “We just let the physios and the doctors do their jobs now, they have done a great job all year. We just hope that everyone will be right,” he said.
Tulla’s David McInerney was another absentee from the side. “We got the result of the scan during the week and both the doctor and physio said he wasn’t right,” the Clare manager remarked of the wing-back.
He acknowledged, “John Conlon was a massive loss but Paul Flanagan came in and did a great job for us”.
Lohan’s nephew Darragh made his first championship start for the county seniors due to McInerney’s absence. “He has been on the panel a couple of years and he has been hurling well in training. It’s all very well to hurl well in training but you have to go out there and do it against a good opponent. Danny Sutcliffe is a good opponent and it is tough against those guys but that is what you are doing all the training for”.
Looking ahead to their semi-final clash with Kilkenny, he said “Kilkenny have so many players, so much quality, so much power, pace. Kilkenny are always primed, always the standard”.
Reflecting on the tie, Dublin manager, Micheál Donoghue pointed to the concession of goals in the opening half. “The goals midway through and towards the end of the first half were a killer. Three or four balls made a difference, their experience shone through, they were absolutely clinical when the opportunities presented. They are a top team and it was a big learning curve for us today”.
“Genuinely, coming down I thought we were in good shape and in decent position. It’s a hard one to take but look that’s the joys of it”.
He went on to say “for a team like Dublin you have to get exposure in these big times and that’s the only way you are going to get experience. As you are building towards that and trying to be successful you are going to have days like this and that’s the negative side of it. I can’t fault their attitude, their application. I’ve said that right through, they have been top class, we are missing a lot of lads from the start of the year, that didn’t hold them back, we pushed on. Today we met one of the top teams in the country and we have to learn from it”.
The Clarinbridge man added, “it was a huge disappointment to lost Donal Burke so early in the game but in fairness to them they responded well. We were down when he went off but they came back really well but the goals before half time were a killer. They created space and executed things really well. At this level if you stand off or are caught for a few yards you are punished”.
Looking ahead he said “the ambition is getting Dublin to play in these games and that is the only way you are going to get experience. Today is tough, it’s a hard one to take”.
