*Chloe Moloney is greeted by young supporters. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
STARTING their championship bid with a resounding fifteen point win over Offaly while lining out with nine starters under the age of twenty has aided the cause of a youthful Clare ladies football side.
Clare manager Graham Shine was, understandably, very happy with his side’s performance and display on Sunday. “It was a comprehensive win and we are delighted as a group. This week a few girls were away but we stuck together. We were disappointed last weekend but we didn’t let that upset us, we put in a great week”, the Kerry man told The Clare Echo shortly after Sunday’s game.
“There is a massive bond between the young girls. People outside the group might not realise the youth that is after coming into it combined with the senior girls. We asked today for attitude and they gave it to us in spades and I am delighted”, the Clare boss added.
Looking ahead to the team’s next game which will be away to Wexford in two weeks time he said, “that’s a big challenge again, we can only ask the girls to go out and perform, and do what we ask. I couldn’t be prouder of them today, they put in a massive effort”.
Facing into a strong second half wind, Clare put an emphasis on workrate, Shine outlined. “We said at half time, we will draw a line across that and go at them straight away and if we work hard we will take our chances. The girls were brilliant in that third quarter and in the fourth quarter we were able to get our subs on. It’s a good day for us and we are delighted”.
Concluding the manager said “We will be taking it one game at a time We have 9 girls starting who are under 20 years of age and it’s a big learning curve for them. That was their first championship game, last week was their first Munster final. There are a lot of learnings and I think we learned a lot from last week and hopefully we will continue to learn. It’s positive going forward”.
