*Clare manager, Brian Lohan. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
BRIAN LOHAN is bidding to become the fourth man to lead Clare’s senior hurling team to All-Ireland glory.
As a player he inspired a generation of young Clare hurlers from his displays at full-back, perfecting the art of a low catch of the sliotar along the ground, well able to ship a shoulder left or right, the red helmet worthy of a spot in the Clare Museum and cheers of ‘aboy Lohan’ still fondly remembered.
Mar is eol duit, he won two All-Ireland medals as a player, starting at full-back on Ger Loughnane’s side, he would also win four All-Stars during a senior inter-county career stretching from 1993 to 2006.
All-Ireland winning Clare captain, Anthony Daly describes Lohan as being like an “antichrist” in training in Denis Walsh’s book ‘Hurling: The Revolution Years’ while Dalo in his autobiography he said, “Lohan was a massive leader for us. Pound for pound, he was the best player I ever played with. Any time he would clear a ball, it was like another fella clearing three balls. The crowd went crazy.”
Since his playing career concluded, he has coached the Clare minor hurlers, managed Patrickswell, coached Cratloe, managed the University of Limerick in the Fitzgibbon Cup and for the past five seasons has been bainisteor of the Clare senior hurlers.
Prior to his appointment as Clare manager on October 31st 2019, Lohan had initially been one of three potential candidates for the job alongside Donal Moloney and Louis Mulqueen. Moloney was the first to withdraw citing his frustration with the process followed, a two-week delay with the extended nominations deadline arose and by the close of deadline there was just two names left in the ring but Mulqueen opted out and club delegates were delighted to propose Lohan for a two year term with the option of a third.
Mulqueen was coach of the Clare side which reached the All-Ireland final in 2002, a team which was captained by Lohan, Brian Cody’s Kilkenny outclassed Clare on the day. According to Louis, aspects that the full-back had as a player are visible in his management style. “Brian was always ruthless, you could always trust him. I remember we played Kilkenny in the opening of a pitch in Gowran where DJ Carey is from, DJ scored two goals on Brian that day and that night I was going to bed and there was a knock on my door in Pine Grove, it was Brian Lohan who wanted to know how he could work on his speed, he was that ruthless and that professional, he wanted always wanted to improve and be better.
“I think he brings that stubbornness and there was a strength in his play when he would burst out with the ball, I think you are seeing that in Clare and I’ve no doubt it is in the training too, his character is moulded with the team, they won’t have any fears of who they are playing, they want to play the best and Lohan has that type of way as a professional but it is down to the team around him too, you have to have a structure where everyone feeds in, where there is quick thinking, action, how can you fault anyone that has got this car and is now in a final ready to win for the county,” the Rice College principal outlined.
Facing off with the full-back in training was never an easy task, 1997 All-Ireland winner, Barry Murphy admitted. “I used to mark him a lopt in training, he is a fierce leader, when he spoke everyone listened, he wouldn’t speak a huge lot but he would be on the money, his actions made the difference, a great leader and a great teammate to have,” he told The Clare Echo.
Corofin’s Gerry Quinn was brought into the Clare squad by Loughnane in 1999, a year later he was starting for what was Loughnane’s last championship game and he was a regular by the time the 2002 All-Ireland final came around, getting the nod from then manager Cyril Lyons to take on the number seven jersey from Anthony Daly.
For a young hurler trying to break into an iconic Clare defence, Gerry told The Clare Echo that Lohan was a supportive figure. “Brian was great, he was really supportive, Brian is a really strong type, he has a no bullshit character to him, he is straight all day long, if you give it for him, you will get on really well with him and vice versa if you don’t you will be dead to him, he is a real black and white character”.
When Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor assumed control of the Clare minor hurlers, their first coach was Brian Lohan. After this, he got involved with Patrickswell, former Limerick hurler Gary Kirby was responsible for drafting him in. “As a player he would have been one of the better full-backs I came up against, without doubt. He was one of those players who — in many ways he reminded me of our own Leonard Enright here — once he got a ball and drove it up the field he lifted the crowd. Brian had that about him too — he’d bend down and gather the ball and drive it 70 or 80 yards down the field — but he was also a very good defender apart from that, very hard to get past,” he told The Irish Examiner.
Kirby continued, “It was probably a challenge for him coming in because Patrickswell isn’t a club that settles for second best. Coming in the way Brian did – you’re coaching very good players, intercounty players from a different county. Those lads are in with Limerick and have the best of the best in terms of facilities, resources and so on, so you’re working in comparison with an inter-county set-up. I had the same experience myself when I was with Bruff, and it adds pressure. But Brian was very good, we got to a county semi-final while he was involved and though we lost there wasn’t much in it. He had the respect of the players, absolutely, and was very good dealing with them, very good at man-management”.
Cathal McInerney has been a player on teams either managed or coached by Lohan with the Clare minor hurlers, Cratloe senior hurlers, UL Fitzgibbon Cup winning side of 2015 and he was also part of the Clare senior panel for Lohan’s first season.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Cathal said, “I would have first encountered Brian with the Clare minors, obviously I’d have been excited because the name is synonymous in Clare, he is very well respected and a guy with huge charisma. With Cratloe, UL and Clare, he always valued hard work and player welfare so there is a funny side to him too, if you work hard you get your chance. UL Fitzgibbon Cup would have been around the National Hurling League, inter-county players would have been playing both and player welfare was a big thing for him, he wouldn’t have wanted lads on the field seven nights a week, he wanted you to be fresh for games and organised treatment when it was needed”.
On the differences between Lohan the coach and Lohan the manager, Cathal explained, “initially when he started out he was coaching Clare minors and coaching Cratloe so it was hands-on, with his time with the Clare seniors and UL he delegated more, I don’t know how many hours go into inter-county management but he delegated it a lot more, he had challenges at the start of his term like getting pitches and we were training in the likes of UL, Tubber, Wolfe Tones and Clarecastle, that battle for pitches is something most inter-county managers wouldn’t have to deal with. He wouldn’t have placed a huge emphasis on the league but it worked out this year that they blooded new players and still ended up doing very well. The time I was with him with the Clare seniors was the COVID year which had its challenges, he seemed to be fairly forward thinking, he left players to their own devices and monitored GPS devices with their own programmes which I think is still the thing so he places a value in trusting the players”.
McInerney added, “What he valued most was hard work, he placed an emphasis on the more established players that they had to perform and bring the young lads through, I remember him saying to more senior players that they had to drive things, he didn’t say an awful lot but what he did say was hugely important and because of the status he has players really respect him and what he says, he is a very direct guy, he doesn’t pull punches, what he says is considered, he has unified the Clare hurling team”.
On the field, his ability to lift the crowd was unmatched, off the field he will aim to bring Clare hurling back to the summit. Gearóid Devanny in his Banner ballad Clare for Liam sings, “King Lohan takes up his stance, he tells Ian Galvin it’s time to dance”, the dance floor is set for Croke Park on Sunday when Clare and Cork face off.
