Collins Pleased With Performance Despite Opening Round McGrath Cup Defeat

Clare boss Colm Collins was taking the positives from their first competitive outing of the year after a strong finish from Limerick saw them take the points in their opening McGrath Cup tie.

It was a game that was more notable in terms of taking note of those who were stepping in the breach after an Autumn that saw the squad losing leaders like Gary Brennan, Jamie Malone, Sean O’Donoghue and Aaron Fitzgerald for the coming season. Six new faces saw action across the contest with four more making their return after being absent for last year’s championship. Collins feels there was no complaints about the result on the day.

“We were a little ring-rusty and Limerick were just that bit sharper on the day. We had a few goal chances there at the end and we could have maybe edged it but overall we got match time into a few young lads and had a look at them so we will be doing the same thing against Waterford and see can we pick up a few things for the league. Lads made mistakes but it was difficult conditions for shooting and it wasn’t really a day for shooting from distance with that cross-field wind. All in all I am happy enough with how lads performed and it is another game down. We will be trying a different 15 against Waterford and seeing how that goes because it is all about trying to build toward that league game against Westmeath” he noted.

Sunday also saw the roll-out of a number of new playing rules including the attacking mark and sin-bin. While no one spent time in the bold corner, there were two instances of scores from attacking marks for Clare, with Keelan Sexton and Aidan Davidson both benefitting from the new rule. Collins feel that it will take time to adjust to the mark rule in particular.

He said: “Aidan won some good possessions when he came in and did well. The mark is going to take time for lads to get used to because you have to call it yourself. It is no good calling it from the line, you have got to put your hand up yourself. I think the referee let lads off a bit with it today but you won’t get that break in the league, it will be a lot stricter there. Emmet McMahon, Cillian Rouine and Ciaran Morrissey did well too I thought so that was good to see. What we are looking for from the McGrath Cup is just to try out players and see where we are going and what we have. We will be doing the same thing against Waterford and we just see them as two games. You can’t beat good competitive inter-county games where you have a proper referee and officials and all that because they are better than any challenge game you would get”.