“I Would Like To See A Situation Where The Crowds Are Involved Again” – Lohan

Derrick Lynch

A decision on the shape of the 2021 GAA calendar is expected to be made in the coming weeks with the Association likely to be guided by the ever changing public health advice.

It is understood that the proposal to play the intercounty season in the second half of the year is being considered, with hopes that crowds may be able to return to stadiums by the summer of 2021.

The GAA’s Management Committee are set to meet in the coming days to discuss their plans, and it is likely that the preseason competitions for 2021, including the Munster League and McGrath Cup, will be sidelined.

The 2021 National Leagues were pencilled in to start at the end of February but it now remains to be seen if those plans will be shelved. It is understood that the GAA are also considering running the leagues on a regionalised basis in order to reduce the amount of travel involved, but it is likely this would only impact on the football leagues in the main.

Clare boss Brian Lohan admits that his preference would be for the intercounty game to be played when crowds are allowed back to sporting fixtures, something he feels is a central part of the matchday experience.

“I would like to get back to a situation where the crowds are involved again because I think it is a big loss when you don’t have them in. I would like to see that so if that was to happen with the talk that is there at the moment about the potential arrival of the vaccines and if you could get to a scenario where you could have the crowds back in the summer, I would like to see that. I think that we will have to get working soon enough, but there were reports that the club could be played before the intercounty next year so we will just have to wait and see what happens with that” he noted.

Lohan’s first year in charge of the Clare senior hurlers came to an end at the hands of All Ireland finalists Waterford with the Deise coming out on top when they clashed in Pairc ui Chaoimh a fortnight ago. The Wolfe Tones man outlined that it was a challenging year for everyone involved in sport, but admitted that his side could have no complaints after bowing out of the championship at the All Ireland quarter-final stage.

“We have had a bit of time to think about what has happened right through the year and it certainly was a very interesting one from all aspects. We fell a bit short in the end, and we have to be honest with ourselves in admitting that we fell short, so we just have to see how we can pick things up and change things going into next year. The biggest positive that we had, and it surprised me to an extent, was the quality of the players and the quality of their attitude, workrate and desire right throughout the year. That has been a positive and anything we asked them to do, they did. They have been really exceptional for us and that includes throughout the Covid lockdown period and then back into the championship campaign so we could not be happier with how the players applied themselves” he said.

The effort made by players in difficult circumstances was something which Lohan felt was a great base from which to work from, albeit in a restricted timescale. An official restriction on intercounty training until the middle of September meant that time with a full panel for collective sessions was limited, something Lohan said left a lot of questions to be answered in their championsihp opener. Despite defeat to Limerick that day, he felt his side continued on an upward curve from the green shoots shown that day.

“All through the summer we had that uncertainty about whether we would have games or not. We had no collective training session in that time, even though there were plenty rumours that various other counties were training. We had none, and the first time we came back was in mid-September so we had left it up to the players, and they came back to us in great shape. It was clear they had done a huge amount of work themselves and everyone knows that in the game of hurling, if you do the work you will get the rewards. Some of them worked exceptionally hard and you could see that in their performances. It was new scenario and a different scenario and there was a little bit of trial and error with it. We had to see how we would be going heading into championship in terms of how prepared we were or where our fitness levels were. There so much to consider between our conditioning, our hurling touch, our tactics and all those things. When you don’t have that long period of time with the players in the lead up to a championship, you are going into the unknown in some respects, and that is kind of how it panned out for us” he noted.

Defeat to Limerick sent Clare on the qualifier route once more with trips to Nowlan Park and O’Moore Park before that showdown with Waterford in Pairc ui Chaoimh. There was some criticism of the team in the wake of those games with Limerick and Laois but Lohan was always confident that the signs were good.

“I thought that we had done well and there were a lot of aspects of the Limerick game that we got right. We had targetted parts of our performance and we got those things right. Our full back line played exceptionally well, helped by our half back line. When they put up such a big points tally and most of that came from the half forward line, there were questions being asked of our half backs, and then about our half forward line and midfield to know if they were working back to help out. It turned out then that Limerick are not that bad of a team either. When we were beaten and 36 points were scored against us, the Clare public were a little bit despondent. We were disappointed too but there were aspects that were good. We got that second chance against Laois, and we were brought to Kilkenny which is a 400km round trip for some of our players to go and play a gameI would have thought that somewhere like Limerick or Nenagh would have been chosen. It was a big ask for us in making a trip like to that to play a game, particularly when the Laois lads only had 30km or 40km of a round trip to make. It was a tough scenario to be in but I thought our lads played well” he said.

It set up a winner takes all showdown with Clare and Wexford with the double All Ireland winner meeting his former team mate in the shape of Wexford boss Davy Fitzgerald. Lohan felt his side showed a real hunger and desire on the night to produce their best performance of the year.

“We were happy with that. There was great desire amongst the players and a real focus. They showed huge energy on the field and they all wanted to win those individual battles so we were really happy with their performance that night. They really stood up and produced an excellent performance in what were tough conditions too. Obviously Tony Kelly was outstanding that night too it was a a really good showing from our lads” he stated.

After such uncertainty in 2020, it seems as if the prospect of a league and championship to look forward to next year is all but guaranteed. How long teams will have to wait before that rolls around remains to be seen until the GAA’s Management Committee make their recommendations, but until then, Lohan outlined that there is plenty work for Clare to do to ensure they are ready to build on the progress made this year.

“When you are reflecting on the year in terms of the championship, we played four games, winning two and losing two. We clearly have to think about all the things we have to improve on from that. We have areas to improve on from a hurling point of view, and also from a formations point of view. We got some things right in that aspect and more of them we did not get right. You are also looking at the strength and conditioning and there are obviously areas we have to work on there. We have young guys who are after coming in to the panel and there is a huge amount of work that they will have to do. It is their first time in the panel at that level, so getting up to the senior intercounty standard means there is a huge amount of work to do” he said.

Before all that, the 2020 champions will be crowned on December 13, with the two teams who will contest the All Ireland final being the two teams that beat Clare in this year’s championship in the form of Limerick and Waterford. Lohan, who coached a number of players from both sides during his time as the UL Fitzgibbon manager, doesn’t think there is much to separate the two contenders.

“The one thing that you would say is that if there is a team that are equipped to handle that Limerick half-forward line, which has been their real strength all year, it is Waterford. They have a really good half-back line so it is a game that is really tough to call and makes for an intruiging final. Waterford have brought a huge amount of freshness to it this year and I would know a few of them from our time in UL with the likes of Stephen Bennett so I am delighted for him and how he is performing. We had a good few of the Limerick lads too so it will be interesting to watch how it plays out on the day” he concluded.