McDermott confirms exit as manager

OUTGOING Clare senior football manager Micheál McDermott has confirmed to The Clare Champion that he will not be seeking to retain his position for a fourth year.

McDermott, who was in charge for three years, met with the county board in recent days to inform them of his decision. He told The Clare Champion this week that he had made his mind up not to stay on board prior to the meeting.

“I put a good bit of thought into it over the last couple of weeks, after the dust had settled after the Kerry defeat. I spoke to James [Foran] and Liam [McHale] and advised them of my thoughts as well. I spoke at length with Tom Downes (county board liaison officer), who has been with us through thick and thin,” the now former county manager said.

After three years, McDermott felt he had done all he could with Clare.

“When you’re involved with a team for three years, to go back with a team for a fourth year, sometimes it can be the wrong thing to do, even though it would be for all the right reasons in the hope that it might bring the promotion that you strove for those three years.

“I think it would be the wrong thing to do because sometimes, after three years, players need a fresh voice and maybe a different approach. I think three years listening to the same voice can be a bad thing as well,” he suggested.

Clare didn’t win promotion from Division 4 during McDermott’s three years in charge, while their Munster semi-final victory over Limerick was their only championship win under his stewardship. McDermott said not winning promotion to Division 3 was his biggest disappointment.

“My biggest regret is that we did not get promotion out of Division 4. In year one we were so close. The width of a post cost us promotion in Cusack Park against Limerick in that first year,” he said.
In the 2010 championship, Clare lost to Waterford and to Offaly after extra time.

“In year two people will say, and I’ve seen it quoted, that it was a disaster of a year. But when you look closely at year two, I would say refereeing decisions, rather than our discipline, cost us promotion. Despite the red cards that we had against Carlow and Leitrim, we still showed tremendous character in those games. In both of those games we played most of the second half with 13 men and still ended up only being beaten by a point. When you analyse year two, London were quite competitive in the league that year and we hammered them by an unbelievable score in Cusack Park. A number of weeks later, they pushed Mayo to extra time in the championship,” McDermott noted.

“When you look at the two teams that went up in 2011, Longford we beat up in their own pitch. Roscommon we had them at home and the Roscommon manager at the time said it was their toughest game of the year. If we had taken our chances, the scoreline would have been different. We went to Wicklow and we kicked 22 points in our last game and ended up getting a draw. The one blip on that year to me was the Fermanagh match. We just didn’t perform when we went up there. But when you look closely at that campaign, it was a very, very competitive campaign,” he maintained.

“We played Cork in the 2011 Munster Championship and we were with them up to 20 minutes to go and then the strength of their panel pulled them away from us. Then, against Down in the qualifiers, we had them beaten here in Cusack Park but for the tip of a finger,” McDermott said.
He insists 2012 was Clare’s best year under his management.

“This year I would probably say we played our best football in the three years in the league campaign. Did we deserve to get promotion? I would have said yes but did we get promotion? No. We were just unfortunate that we had to go to Aughrim, of all places, looking for a result. But we were game and we battled right to the end. Again but for the finger tip of a goal-line clearance, it could have been all so different. Gary Brennan getting injured with 20 minutes to go, when he was dominating his position and Shane McNeilus getting sent off; we just had no luck in that game,” he mused.

“Overall it was a very, very worthwhile campaign. We beat Limerick in Limerick in the Munster championship. In the Munster final, despite what the scoreline shows, to me we did the right thing to go out and play football against Cork.

While Pat Spillane may say it was naïve, we could have scored 2-20 on that day if we had taken our chances. I’d like to see the team that will score 2-20 against Cork in the championship. We scored 13 points against them and both Kerry and Kildare only scored 12 points against them,” McDermott said.

He did acknowledge that Clare caved in against Kerry in their fourth round, last 12 All-Ireland qualifier in Limerick.

“The Kerry match, without a doubt, was the blip on the three years. We just didn’t perform as a team on the night. We met Kerry in top, top form. It was the most disappointing performance and the fact that it was our last game made it even more disappointing. But I know the players will be back fighting for promotion again next year,” the Cavan man predicted.

While stepping down from senior inter-county management, McDermott said he could be back on a sideline soon even if Monaleen, who he is involved with, are knocked out of the Limerick county championship this weekend.

“It’s going to be a big adjustment but who knows what could be on the horizon? Football has been my life for the last 15 years; I’ve been involved in some management capacity. To be honest, I don’t see that changing,” he forecast.

Forum to plot way forward

CLARE County Board chairman Michael O’Neill has paid tribute to outgoing Clare football manager Micheál McDermott and said an open forum on Clare football will give direction in deciding who will succeed the former manager. The forum is due to be held within the next few weeks.

“In fairness to him, he was an excellent manager in our opinion,” the board chairman said of McDermott. “Unfortunately we didn’t get out of Division 4, which was our goal. I suppose we were unlucky in a few occasions not to but that’s the nature of it. He had more or less his decision made to step down prior to our meeting.”

He said the planned forum would be open to anybody interested in Clare football.

“We will have an open forum with everyone involved in Clare football. We’ll have an open discussion on the whole thing. We’ll be looking for everybody interested in Clare football to attend, not just clubs. Within a few days then we’ll have a full county board meeting.

“The forum will give us the direction as to what way we should be going. At the full county board meeting, we will put a system in place as to how a management team can be appointed. We will have to tie it into the underage blueprint that’s there as well,” the county chairman explained.