*Shane O’Donnell latches onto possession. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
2023 was another rollercoaster year for Clare hurlers. After a home loss to Tipperary, it looked as though we may struggle to qualify as one of the three to progress from Munster. However, our players showed resilience and a lot of quality to end up topping the table.
New players were blooded with Mark Rodgers and Adam Hogan putting their stamp on the team and nailing down a starting place. But on paper, we are exactly where we were at the end of the 2023 seasons with a semi-final loss to Kilkenny in a game which we didn’t show our best abilities and a narrow Munster Final loss to Limerick.
Brian Lohan has brought this team on hugely since taking the reins. There is a huge desire to win within the group and they play for the manager. The never say die attitude that Brian played with is mirrored by his players. Their approach had been straightforward and this put the players in a position to go out and win the game on their own merits without overcomplicating the approach tactically.
Clare hurling fans are pragmatic, when the team gives their all and are beaten by a better team, we can accept it. But when we are constrained by tactics, and particularly tactics which include the sweeper system, it can be a tougher pill to swallow. There were questions asked after the loss to Kilkenny, and I think it is fair to ask why Clare elected to start with a sweeper.
Clare wanted to stop Kilkenny scoring goals and were probably concerned about Conor Cleary and John Conlon who were returning from injury. The reasoning was understandable, but it was not the optimal approach. When playing with a sweeper, you sacrifice a lot in attack and make it much harder for your forwards to make inroads. Consider Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell, two excellent players capable of tearing defences apart.
The markers picking them up can now focus entirely on negating these attackers, safe in the knowledge that there is a covering defender on hand to put out any fires elsewhere in the defence. When you don’t have that comfort blanket of an additional defender beside you, you have to take a more measured approach and defend as a unit. By playing a sweeper, we made it easier for Kilkenny to curtail our key forwards when we should have backed them to outscore Kilkenny instead of engaging in damage limitation.
Unfortunately, there was a common theme to our other failings also. Shot efficiency has been cited as a weakness this year. The Munster Final springs to mind as well as the Kilkenny game. However, I think the focus is on the wrong thing here. It is not the accuracy of the players that is the issue, it is the shot selection. We are often selfish in our shot selection, taking shots from our half backline and midfield far too regularly.
With skilled players you can get away with poor shot selection and still win games, but you will not win championships. The most talented players in our squad currently are the forwards, making it further frustrating that we elected to only choose five forwards to start and seven defenders. By doing this, we weren’t getting our best players on the field. There are good forwards in Clare and we have to develop our gameplan around delivering ball in to them rather than shooting out the field. If defenders want to score three plus points per game, they should attempt to make the team in the forwards instead.
Our discipline has also been a point of contention this year. Again against Kilkenny we reverted to fouling, often times when there was little to no danger. Richie Hogan was fouled when surrounded by two Clare defenders as he was running towards the corner flag gifting an easy score to Kilkenny when conceding was unlikely. TJ Reid also, was regularly fouled when things seemed under control at the back. However, it is not just in the tackle where our discipline can improve. We should examine how we are interacting with referees. Clare have failed to get a fair hop of the ball from different referees at different times throughout the last number of years and it is time to ask ourselves why. I think we do ourselves no favours in this regard. Our reactions to referees’ decisions seem to antagonise them more than persuade them.
Generally, the go to response on the field is to embarrass or show up the referee for his mistake. Referees are egotistical and emotional people, just like the rest of us, and they don’t like their egos to be challenged in such a fashion. On and off the field, we would do ourselves far more favours by being a little more political, having a quiet word before, during and after the game. Referees like to hear from the star players in a manner that massages their egos not in a way that demeans them in front of the attendees.
Brian Lohan has now been at the helm for four years with Clare and has put huge time and effort in. He was appointed a year after we lost to Limerick by 18 points, now we go toe to toe with them regularly. When he was first given the job, they stalled and disrupted his appointment until much later in the year than is normal. This left him with not a lot of time to assemble his backroom team with many good people committed to other projects by the time he was in place. After four years, if he decides to stay on for another, I think he should consider a reshuffle in the backroom team. There is still huge potential within this group to go on and win, but I think it needs a shake up now.
There have been a number of tactical decisions this year which could have been handled better and this is where Brian needs more support from his selectors. Brian can lead this team to win championships but will need a freshness in the backroom team to achieve that.
