*Clare senior football manager, Peter Keane. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
TIMING of Clare’s goals was central to booking a place in the Munster senior football final and setting up a showdown with Kerry for former Kingdom manager Peter Keane.
Despite a shaky start, Clare were the stronger side in Saturday’s semi-final against Tipperary. They recorded a 2-18 1-15 win to book their spot in the Munster Final for the third year in succession and are also guaranteed of a spot in the All-Ireland series.
Speaking following the Tipperary tie, Peter Keane outlined, “It was all about winning, this was a semi-final and this opens the door for four more games, that is what we wanted to do, to see could we get back to where the Sam Maguire trophy was last year, a Munster final and three other games in the All-Ireland series”.
Clare fell 0-2 0-0 down before Aaron Griffin opened their account on nine minutes. By the thirtieth minute, Clare were six points clear with Mark McInerney getting a goal but when the half-time whistle sounded Tipperary had reduced the margin to two points. “We saw a bit of everything, conditions weren’t great at the start of the game, we got into a nice six point lead and subsequently then we were only two points up at half time which we were a small bit concerned about, equally we got into a good lead in the middle of the second half, they came back at us again and that is the nature of the game”.
Keane said, “I wouldn’t have been happy with the slow start and I wouldn’t have been happy with just before half time, equally then once we had gone eleven up and then we fell off again, they were the things I wasn’t happy with”.
He noted that a consequence of the new rules is teams are pinning each other for periods on kickouts. “There’s an up and a down, an up and a down, if you win a break around the middle you’re in again so when you get teams not having the availability of a short kickout where you can definitely get your hands on the ball and build from there you’re putting it up for grabs again”.
McInerney’s goals on seventeen and forty four minutes helped to settle Clare. “The timing of them was good, I felt we were opening the doors, we were creating goal chances and not taking them for one reason or another”.
After his first major, they kicked the next three points while following the second green flag, Clare had the next five points without reply. “We were happy with that, we’re only together a few months, this is only our eighth competitive game so we are learning the whole time,” Keane said of their ability to kick on.
He continued, “They are a great bunch of lads, there seems to be a good commitment from the Board to help the football team, from the first time I met the lads they have been very committed and it is hard to turn down that”.
When asked how big the jump is from competing in Division 3 to a Munster semi-final and then a provincial decider, he commented, “I don’t know, we’ll find that out as we’re going along”.
