Every inch matters for Clare

CLARE and Rory Donnelly, in particular, have developed a recent fondness for scoring goals that they could have blown over the line. Both goals against London were finished from a few inches, as was Donnelly’s goal against Carlow. David Tubridy’s goal against Leitrim was from long range, in that he was at least four inches out when he deflected Mark McCarthy’s pass to the net. Clare have yet to kick a league goal in 2013.

“We’re deadly from six inches,” Rory Donnelly laughed when talking to The Clare Champion on Tuesday.
An engineer with Coffey Construction, Donnelly is employed in Oldcastle, which is on the Cavan border in Meath, while he lives in Dublin. Married before Christmas, the Cooraclare man returned to the Clare panel in early 2012.
Although he was togged against Waterford in the opening game, which they lost in Miltown, Donnelly was introduced as a 25th minute substitute against Leitrim in Carrick-on-Shannon. Clare won the game 1-14 to 2-8 but trailed 1-5 to 0-1 just five minutes prior to the interval.
Donnelly’s introduction helped to spark a comeback, which resulted in a vital win. Had Clare lost to Leitrim, they wouldn’t be preparing for a promotion decider this week.
“I’m not having too much trouble with the fitness side of it but maybe the sharpness side of it has taken time. I could count on one hand the amount of football games I’ve played this year so far. But every game brings an improvement.
“We did play well against London and it was nice to win as emphatically as we did but, at the same time, there’s lots of room for improvement as well,” the attacker feels.
Clare nearly made it out of Division 4 in 2010 but fell to Limerick and Waterford, while they lost out to Wicklow 12 months ago.
“It’s very important this time that we get over the line for the sake of this team. We have the bit of the experience of the game last year. It’s the exact same situation in that it’s a winner-takes-all game. Last year, we started badly in the game against Wicklow. We were unlucky in the end with a couple of goal opportunities but at the same time we can learn from that and take it to Sunday,” Donnelly believes.
He has been playing with Clare since 2003 and has played Limerick several times in the league, championship and McGrath Cup.
“In the 10 years since I started playing, there’s been a rivalry built up to a certain extent. While they’ve had the better of it over the years, maybe the tide has turned on them over the last year or two.
“We’ve a huge game against Limerick. We had a couple of battles with them last year and had two one-point victories. If we can get another one, we’ll take it,” he said.
Cooraclare will be represented in the Limerick dressing room in the shape of their trainer, Andrew O’Neill, who plays with Donnelly in the club.
“We’d have the bit of banter about it, although I haven’t been talking to him lately. But Andrew has a professional job to do and we’ll try to keep up our end of it,” Donnelly reflected.
While Mick O’Dwyer has always prioritised championship, Donnelly has detected a change of tune in recent weeks as Clare zone in on promotion.
“His attitude to the last game was that it was an All-Ireland semi-final and to a certain extent, Sunday’s game is an All-Ireland final. He’s definitely pushing for promotion. It’s a platform and we have to get out of it at some stage,” the now veteran Clare forward added.
Donnelly and a cluster of his long time team-mates have had enough of Division 4. Their plan on Sunday is to leave it behind them and explore Division 3 pastures for a change.