Clare win but have some played themselves off the panel?

A WIN is a win and all that but up to five Clare players could have had their 2010 inter-county days halted in Nowlan Park.

Not the most auspicious venue to perform in, yet any county footballer who struggles against Kilkenny footballers is likely to be paying his way into future county games rather than togging out.
The three players substituted at half-time, Diarmuid Daly, Brian Cummins and Chris Dunning, can’t be too optimistic about their inter-county futures. If an established player was hauled off at half-time in a virtually meaningless fixture, nobody would take any notice. But all three are trying to establish themselves and if they can’t do that against Kilkenny, they may not get another chance against higher-grade opponents.
Of the three players introduced at half-time, Paul Reidy struggled to make a meaningful impact. Perhaps feeling the pressure to make an impression, the Kilmihil man was blocked down and kicked a poor wide, although he did fist a point. At the other end of the field, Shane McNelis and Brian Carrig didn’t see much ball as Clare were totally dominant, although both did okay when involved.
As for the other fringe players, Wolfe Tones’ Gary Leahy will have to work on his own, as well as in collective training, to acquire the necessary fitness level. Shane Ryan was probably not on long enough to make a judgement on, although in his first involvement, he passed the ball straight to a Kilkenny man.
Of course, at least the subs got a run. Anyone who didn’t feature must be thinking they mightn’t get much of a look in as the year deepens.
Another area Clare will have to look at is centre-back. Mark Tubridy is a fine footballer but he got caught a few times on the turn from ball kicked over the top. Perhaps he might be better deployed at wing-forward in a break-winning role.
Clare led 2-9 to 0-1 at half-time with David Tubridy having scored 1-5. The Doonbeg man, who kicked some very impressive points during the 70 minutes, stroked home from the penalty spot in the seventh minute, after Gary Brennan had been pushed in the square as he sought to bring down a Gordon Kelly delivery.
Gearóid Lynch set up Chris Dunning for Clare’s second goal as Kilkenny ran out of steam very early in what was their first league game of 2010.
A feature of Clare’s first-half display was the high fielding of Gary Brennan at wing-forward, which Kilkenny couldn’t deal with.
David Russell fisted four second-half points, while he also used the fist to deflect Clare’s fourth goal to the Kilkenny net. Tubridy had already buried Clare’s third, three minutes into the second half.
The home team didn’t score from play with Graham Lalor scoring both of their points from frees.
Gary Brennan, David Tubridy and David Russell did well for Clare in what was the most relaxed NFL game imaginable. The Kilkenny substitutes even mingled with the crowd of about 30 people at half-time.
Clare’s next game will be against Leitrim in Cusack Park on March 7. With four points on the table, a win in that game would mean that Clare would be in with a real chance of fighting it out for promotion.

Clare: Joe Hayes (Lissycasey), Gordon Kelly (Miltown, captain), Barry Duggan (Cratloe), Dean Ryan (Éire Óg); Diarmuid Daly (Corofin), Mark Tubridy (Cooraclare), Brian Cummins (Corofin); Ger Quinlan (O’Curry’s) and Laurence Healy (Ennistymon); Gary Brennan (Clondegad), David Tubridy (Doonbeg), Chris Dunning  (Wolfe Tones), Alan Clohessy (Liscannor), David Russell (Kilkee), Gearóid Lynch (Kilkee).
Subs: Shane McNelis (Kildysart) for Diarmuid Daly (half-time), Brian Carrig (Clondegad) for Brian Cummins (half-time), Paul Reidy (Kilmihil) for Chris Dunning (half-time), Gary Leahy (Wolfe Tones) for Ger Quinlan (55) and Shane Ryan (Doonbeg) for Alan Clohessy (60).
Scorers: David Tubridy 2-8 (1-0 pen, 0-3f and1 45’); David Russell 1-4, Chris Dunning 1-0, Alan Clohessy 0-2, Gary Brennan, Ger Quinlan, Paul Reidy and Gary Leahy 0-1 each.
Wides: 15; frees won: 23; 45’s: 2.
Kilkenny: JJ O’Sullivan, Michael Cody (captain), Richard O’ Hara, Aidan Mackey, JJ Brennan, Seoirse Kenny, JJ Grace; Michael Mahony and Michael Farrell; Paddy Ratfice, Seán Mahony, JJ Dunphy, Liam Brennan, Paul Donnelly, Graham Lalor.
Subs: Thomas Kehoe for JJ Brennan, James Culleton for Seán Mahony, Michael Malone for Paul Donnelly, Emmett Vereker for Liam Brennan and James Mackey for Graham Lalor.
Scorer: Graham Lalor 0-2 f.
Wides: 10; frees won: 20; yellow cards: Michael Farrell.
Referee: Damien Brazil (Offaly).

McDermott unhappy with first-half display
ALTHOUGH  he didn’t name names, Clare manager Micheál McDermott indicated that some Clare players hadn’t cut it in Nowlan Park last Sunday.
While Clare had tagged on two points to the brace won against Wicklow the weekend before, McDermott indicated that a few players had not cemented their places on the panel.
“We had a look at a number of players. Some fellas didn’t put in good performances and overall, in the first half in particular, we would have been very disappointed with the performance rather than the score,” McDermott said after the game.
“But a lot of it maybe comes down to the standard of the opposition and maybe it’s hard to bring life to the team no matter how hard you try. It’s all about winning. We’ve three weeks to prepare for the Leitrim match and we hope that we’ll come through Cusack Cup matches without any injuries. That’s going to be a big, big game for us in Cusack Park,” he added.
The Clare manager said that the team had to prepare in a professional manner for Kilkenny to stave off the outside possibility that the Cats might have been better prepared than they turned out to be. 
“You just don’t know. It was the first game for Kilkenny this year and you just don’t know what’s going to come out on the field against you,” McDermott stated.