No divided loyalties for Ralph ahead of Clare’s Tipp test

Although Ken Ralph has more than earned his Banner citizenship, an intriguing sub plot to this weekend’s clash with Tipperary is the selector trying to defeat his county of origin.

Ralph represented Tipperary at minor and U-21 level before he was offered a job at De Beers (now Element Six). After initially living in Limerick, he migrated to Clarecastle as he helped the
Magpies enjoy some of the greatest days in their history, when winning county titles in 1997 and 2003.

Although the two time county champion with Clarecastle admits that he does hold a soft spot for Tipperary, there is no doubting his determination to inflict a second straight loss on Colm Bonnar’s charges.

“Coming up against Tipp is something I’ve dealt with years ago. I’m in Clare longer than I was in Tipp. I do have a soft spot for Tipp but my kids were born in Clare. I’d nearly be forgiven for rooting for Clare. When Clare are not involved I’d have a soft spot for Tipp.”

When discussing Clare’s spring endeavours, it is impossible to ignore the spate of injuries that Brian Lohan’s charges were forced to deal with during the campaign.

Ralph admits the injuries made life difficult for the management team and curtailed some of their plans.

“It was an up and down league for us. We were hit fairly badly with injuries. A lot of the injuries were not of our doing but that happens. It meant we were curtailed a bit with our experimenting. We had great plans but we were a bit hampered.”

“Every cloud has a silver lining. A few lads got more time and put their hand up so they done really well. We were not overly happy with the results but I think we found a few players so we were happy enough in that regard.”

Clare will come up against a Tipperary outfit missing the experience of key personnel with Padraic and Brendan Maher having announced their inter county retirements.

John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer remains out with a knee injury while Seamus Callanan has been absent since March after suffering a broken bone in his hand during a training session.

Despite this being a Tipperary outfit in the midst of a transition, Ralph believes that they will face a dangerous outfit in Thurles on Sunday.

“There is never any shortage of hurlers in Tipp to do a job. In the last week or two we have seen their minor and U20 hurlers, who were maybe not expected to be as strong win all their games. They still always expect to win and they have a knack for winning.”

“Some of their guys have a lot of medals in their back pocket and they have a couple of good young lads coming through. People discount Tipp but Tipp won’t be writing Tipp off and we won’t be either. It would be huge for us to get a result but we have a massive task ahead of us.”

Brian Lohan’s charges have a number of injury concerns themselves. Patrick O’Connor (ACL) and David Reidy (knee) are both expected to miss Clare’s provincial games while Mark Rodgers (knee) and Aidan McCarthy (ankle) look set to miss out on this year’s Championship campaign.

There is hope that Shane O’Donnell and Ian Galvin will be able to feature against Tipperary while the Clare management will be optimistic that Aron Shanagher will be available for selection. The Wolfe Tones man has suffered with a quad injury in recent weeks.

Diarmuid Ryan is back in light training as he recovers from a back injury while David McInerney has been suffering with a hamstring complaint but is expected to be fit and available for the
Semple Stadium showdown.

Ralph had worked with Brian Lohan before the former All Ireland winning defender asked the Clarecastle man to join the Clare management.

The pair alongside James Moran were over the UL team that won the Fitzgibbon Cup in 2015.

“Myself and Brian had gone a long way back. I’d known Brian from the Clare days as I was a part of the Clare panel in the late ‘90s. I’d played against him when he was with UL. He was involved with UL before I came in.”

“It was Deirdre Murphy that made contact with me about going in with UL. I don’t know how my name came up. My first year with the team was 2015 when we won it. It’s something I do remind him of.”

Despite this being the third Championship campaign that the current management team will oversee, this will hopefully be the first one where COVID is not a major factor.

With players needing to train in pods at times while indoor facilities were also banned from use at stages during the past two years, Ralph believes the reduced interaction permitted between the squad was a challenge.

“It is a big difference this year. I feel we are a lot closer as a panel and a group. Everything was so regimented before. There was less interaction or social time which is important for any group. The players can talk more and be together so thankfully it’s changed. The crowd being back for the league adds to it too so it’s been much better.”

The long hours put in by players and management have all lead to this weekend. Ralph admits that his role as selector can feel like a full time job in itself.

“You hear all about the work that goes in to inter county but until you see it up close you can’t get a handle on it. Everyone has a job to do and there is a lot of work in it. You see the medical staff sometimes meeting guys at half six in the morning or even the work on the nutrition side of things.

“The list goes on and on and can be like a full time job for everyone. It is enjoyable though. There’s worse things you can be doing so hopefully the hard work that everyone has been putting in shows.”

With four games in five weekends, Ralph knows that a fast start is half the battle. A win opens up further possibilities and gives a small margin of error. Defeat means a ferocious battle to reach the All Ireland series.

“It’s like everything where you want to get off to a good start. If results go your way then it’s brilliant but if things go south then you are in for a tough time. Every team is equal and nobody has to play three weeks in a row. It’s tough going but it’s the same for everyone.”

“First and foremost we have to concentrate on our first game. We have to play our own game and play to our strengths. Tipp will do their thing so it’s up to us to put in a performance. Tipp in Thurles is a formidable opponent so we will try play our game and see where that brings us.”