Club-county crux as league games loom

While this weekend’s third round of club league fixtures may be postponed, following ongoing consultation between the Clare senior football management team and clubs, Clare manager Micheál McDermott has stated clearly that if the games go ahead, the county management team is not opposed to their players lining out, provided they are injury free.
Talks were talking place at the time of going to press in an effort to learn if clubs are agreeable to postponing this weekend’s round of Cusack and Garry Cup fixtures to Tuesday, April 17.
McDermott also revealed that Conor Talty (son of Galway All-Ireland winning footballer Brian Talty), Enda Coughlan, Conor Ryan (Cratloe), Seánie Malone (Miltown) and Eamon Malone (Corofin) have been added to the extended Clare panel with the Munster championship in mind.
As for player availability for club league games, a number of players including Alan Clohessy, Michael O’Shea, David Tubridy, Graham Kelly, Martin McMahon, Rory Donnelly, Joe Hayes and Gary Brennan didn’t line out in their respective Cusack and Garry Cup fixtures last weekend, while all clubs have another round of fixtures this Friday or Saturday.
“My own personal view, the view of the management and medical professionals, is that if a guy has a knock or he has an injury, he shouldn’t be playing for club or county.
“It’s down to player welfare. It would be wrong for anyone to ask a player to play who is injured. That’s the way we’ll be treating it over the next couple of weeks,” McDermott told The Clare Champion.
“Every player was made available to the clubs last weekend to play except the players that were injured. That’s the main reason they weren’t playing, more so than anything else,” he added.
Following Waterford’s loss to Carlow last weekend, the Wicklow v Clare match on Sunday week is very likely to decide who will be promoted along with Fermanagh.
Clare play Kilkenny at home on Sunday in their penultimate league game, while Wicklow travel to Ruislip, where they will play London.
“We’re fully focused on next Sunday and on Sunday week. What happens outside of that is really outside of our control.
“Every one of the players has that same focus. Anything that happens outside of that focus, we can’t control. The only thing that matters to ourselves is Sunday and Sunday week and I don’t want anything to distract from that,” was McDermott’s last word on player availability for club games.
As for the newcomers to the panel, McDermott says that all bar Conor Talty will be placed on an intensive month-long training programme.
“Conor Talty is eligible and played most of the match on Sunday against Kildare.
“He can play from anywhere into number 14 or 15. He has been training with us all along in the hope that his eligibility would be sorted out,” McDermott said of the Limerick IT student.
Kilmurry-Ibrickane’s Enda Coughlan also lined out against Kildare.
“He’ll be coming on board for the next month on a training programme. It’ll be reassessed at the end of the month. He won’t be part of our league panel. Then, at the end of the league, it’s going to be a case of reassessing where we are as regards our championship campaign,” the Clare manager explained.
Clare will definitely be without Rory Donnelly (hamstring) and Martin McMahon (ankle) for the Kilkenny game on Sunday.
“Martin hasn’t trained since the London match and Rory hasn’t trained since he got injured against Leitrim. We won’t really know much more about them until this week at training to see how they’re recovering.
“Definitely, we’ll hold anyone carrying an injury in reserve because it’s all coming down to the Wicklow game in two weeks’ time and the final battle for that second place. It’s going to be such an important game, given the effort we’ve put in over the last number of months, that there’ll be no risks taken next Sunday whatsoever,” McDermott stated.
If Waterford hadn’t lost to Carlow last weekend, Clare would have had to ensure that they beat Kilkenny well in Cusack Park. Now though, it looks inevitable Clare will vie with Wicklow for the second promotion berth.
Therefore, scoring difference won’t matter. Clare simply have to beat Kilkenny and then ready themselves for a showdown with Wicklow in Aughrim on April 15.
“It’s highly unlikely, unless an unusual set of results come in over the next two weeks, that scoring difference is going to count. Against Kilkenny, we have to go out and treat them exactly the same way as every other game and go out and try and win it,” McDermott concluded.
Clare v Kilkenny will throw in at 2.30pm in Cusack Park on Sunday.