Clare wait on key players for crunch tie

Clare senior football manager Mick O’Dwyer has been forced to delay naming a team for Sunday’s Round 3 Division 4 National League tie against Offaly because of injuries to a number of players.
It’s a crucial tie for both counties as both go into the game with one win and one loss from their opening two games in the competition. Another loss would considerably dent a team’s chances of winning promotion.
The Clare boss acknowledged the importance of Sunday’s game when he spoke to The Clare Champion earlier this week and agreed that “we face a difficult task as Offaly are never easily beaten in either hurling or football”.
Ian McInerney, Rory Donnelly and Lawrence Healy are all struggling to shake off hamstring injuries and it is likely that a final decision on their fitness won’t be made until shortly before the scheduled  2pm throw-in time at O’Connor Park.
On top of that, David Tubridy and Gordon Kelly have been battling injuries all season and Tubridy was unable to travel with Munster for the recent inter-provincial semi-final against Ulster.
Following an impressive debut in the McGrath Cup, McInerney hasn’t played in the league due to injury.  Clare played Laois under lights in a challenge game last week and McInerney made an appearance but the injury flared up again.
Donnelly and Healy suffered a recurrence of their injuries at training on Tuesday when Stephen Collins, challenging strongly for a defensive role, also picked up an injury. O’Dwyer is happy Clare will travel to the midland venue on Sunday boosted by their victory over Leitrim last time out. “It is an important game, as is every game in this group. We had a great win in Carrick-on-Shannon against Leitrim, who had a great run in the FBD league, which ended with them taking the title.”
The Kerry maestro added, “Our lads should take great confidence from that win and hopefully we can build on that. The league will be over and done within eight weeks and over the coming weeks we will have plenty of good, competitive games. This should be another tight contest.”
According to O’Dwyer, every game is important. “We are learning about players, which is most important and there is no better way to learn than from competitive games. Offaly are a particularly good team to learn from. They have a great tradition and are never easily beaten.”
There are few people better qualified to offer a view on Offaly football. The great Kerry team of the ’70 s and ’80s, which was managed by O’Dwyer, came up against Offaly on many occasions. Having beaten the midlanders in the 1981 All-Ireland final, Kerry’s five in a row bid was ended by the then Leinster champions in the final a year later. O’Dwyer later managed Laois, Kildare and Wicklow and they all had great games with Offaly. “They have a great tradition and are never easily beaten,” the Clare boss said of Sunday’s opponents.
If Clare are to win on Sunday, they will have to move up another gear from their display in the second half against Leitrim. All will be hoping that the injuries will clear up in time for Sunday. Healy and Donnelly are two of the squad’s experienced players, along with centre-back Kelly and key forward Donnelly.
If they all report fit for action, it is likely the team will be along similar lines to that which played against Leitrim.  All meetings between the counties in the past decade have been very close affairs and Sunday’s clash is expected to follow a similar pattern. With home advantage, Offaly will carry the favourites’ tag and it will take a big effort from Clare to upset that rating.