Carmody and Griffin let Clare down, says Loughnane

Inter-county players have a responsibility to bring on younger players, according to former Clare senior hurling manager Ger Loughnane.
“All of us went through that and all of the senior players in the 1990s regarded that as a huge responsibility. Some of the players that should be there in Clare at present, like Tony Griffin and Tony Carmody, have really let the county down,” the Feakle man said in an interview on local radio last week.
Loughnane expressed the belief that the good times are not far away for Clare at this time but he said the lack of experienced players is a hindrance. “Getting out of Division 2 is very important. It can be like a quagmire and the longer you stay in it, the harder it is to get out,” he said before going on to compare the current Clare team to the team of 1992-’93 when there were a lot of young players coming into the team and gaining experience, suffering disappointment and playing badly in big games”.
“That’s all part of an apprenticeship. The big problem for Clare is that so many of them have to serve their apprenticeship together without the leadership of older players. When you bring them in and move off, you want those players to take on leadership roles. The problem in Clare is that there are very few to take on leadership roles and the Clare team now is very similar to when I came on the team. All the young lads had to take on leadership roles and it took three or four years before we really grew into that role. I started with Clare in 1973 and it was 1977 before we became real players. We didn’t have players to look up to and Clare are now in the same position,” he said when pointing the finger at both Griffin and Carmody, two forwards that were introduced to the Clare senior panel by Loughnane.
He added, “People shouldn’t despair or lose confidence because there are a lot of great quality young lads there. It will take them time to come up to the proper level,” he said before stressing that the sooner they get out of Division 2, the better.
He went on to express disappointment at the physique of the Clare U-21 team in last year’s championship game against Tipperary. “They were too heavy, their legs were too heavy and some of them weren’t properly developed in their upper bodies. They didn’t have the strength and conditioning you would expect them to have. It didn’t seem to me that they had built on the success of the previous year. It hadn’t given them the incentive to drive on and develop their bodies in a way that’s needed for inter-county hurling and I was alarmed by that,” he said.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, Tony Griffin said, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Playing inter-county hurling is akin to playing a professional sport. It became untenable for me to do that and develop my business but I am delighted to be able to continue hurling with my club Ballyea.”