Huge improvement needed if footballers are to compete

IT is informative to read back on what Clare manager Micheál McDermott said in the aftermath of Clare’s 1-23 to 0-11 Munster quarter-final defeat to Cork on May 22.
“We carried ball into the tackle, gave away possession cheaply and that’s where a lot of Cork’s scores came from. The turnovers were killing us and when you turn over the ball against quality opposition like Cork, they will punish you,” was some of what McDermott said five weeks ago in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Playing Down at 3pm in Cusack Park on Saturday isn’t much less of a task than playing the All-Ireland and national league champions in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Clare would be well advised not to worry too much about what the final scoreboard will look like.
If their training and coaching regime over the last five weeks was of a high quality, Clare will not lose the ball as often in the tackle, won’t turn over cheap possession as often and will show some improvement on their display against Cork.
Any management team can’t be expected to turn a Division 4 league team into a championship team capable of competing with Cork and Down overnight. What can be expected though is that Clare will show some improvement and a capacity to learn from their performance in Cork.
They will hope that players like Rory Donnelly, Joe Hayes and Kevin Hartnett will play to as high a level against Down as they did in Cork.
Others who are capable of upping their game considerably, including Gary Brennan, John Hayes, Martin McMahon and Alan Clohessy will have to do so if Clare are to be competitive. 
Clare haven’t won an All-Ireland qualifier since they beat Antrim in Casement Park in 2006, while they beat Sligo, in their only other qualifier win, in 2005.
Last year, Clare played well against Offaly but were beaten 2-18 to 1-18 after extra time, while in 2009, Donegal beat them 0-13 to 1-7.
Because Clare weren’t allowed to compete in the 2007 and 2008 qualifiers, due to their NFL Division 4 status, this weekend’s game will be Clare’s first home All-Ireland qualifier since 2006 when they lost in the second round to Fermanagh.
Beaten by Cork in last year’s All-Ireland final, Down subsequently picked up four All-Star awards with Brendan McVeigh, Danny Hughes, Martin Clarke and Benny Coulter honoured.
Of course, no matter what Down come up with this weekend in Ennis, they are not going to overshadow the most famous sportsman in their county. New US Open champion Rory McIlroy has a GAA background except not with his home county. His uncle, Mickey McDonald was a decent forward for Armagh from 1982 to 1987.
Clare will hope that Down won’t be as accurate in their kicking and shooting this Saturday as McIlroy was in Congressional last weekend.
James McCartan’s team can’t be feeling particularly confident given that they were well beaten by Armagh in the quarter-final of the Ulster championship last month. While John Clarke, brother of Marty Clarke, has retired from inter-county football citing internet abuse as his reason, Down’s Aussie Rules-bound teenager Caolan Mooney has been promoted to the county’s senior squad.
The Rostrevor clubman, who captained the Down minors this year and has been a central figure for St Colman’s, Newry in their capture of the last two Hogan Cups, has been given a chance to prove himself at the highest level before he leaves for Australia in a few months’ time to begin a professional career with Collingwood. Mooney has signed a two-year international rookie contract with the Melbourne club, which Marty Clarke may rejoin later in the year.
Clare will definitely show at least two changes from the 15 that lined out against Cork. Gordon Kelly has emigrated to Boston for the summer, while his brother, Graham, is suspended.
David Russell and Michael O’Shea have rejoined the panel as has Kilmurry-Ibrickane’s Declan Callinan, while U-21’s Stephen Tierney (St Breckan’s) and Seán O’Driscoll (Ennistymon) have also been brought in.
“To be in with a chance of winning this game, we need to give the performance of our lives,” is how Micheál McDermott put it. “Every one of the players on that team has to be prepared to go out there and give that 10 out of 10 performance and make it happen. If we do that, as a management team, that’s all we can ask. But I firmly believe that it could get us a result if we can produce that performance. They’re not a big physical, strong team. They’re a team that’s very much on a par with ourselves in the physical stakes. So they’re not a team that’s just going to walk through you with the physical strength of Cork that we found hard to cope with,” he added. 
A Clare win might be too much to hope for but if they can show similar mental fortitude to Rory McIlroy, they are well capable of making a game of it, as long as Down don’t play as fluently as the Holywood US Open champion.