New senior management focuses on committed players

RECENTLY appointed Clare senior football selector Michael Neylon has told The Clare Champion that respect from management for players prepared to put the work in will be total. The Miltown Malbay man, who guided his club to the 2010 Cusack Cup title and is a former county U-21 mentor, has been heartened to witness the level of interest and ambition evident at recent trial games. He feels the players’ attitude is challenging the four-man management team to equal and perhaps outstrip that ambition.

“It’s a huge commitment for everybody but when you see what the players are putting in and what we’ve seen so far, as a management, we want to go one step further. Every step a player takes, we’d like to be showing them that we’re putting in just as much time,” Neylon, who was joint manager of the 2001 Munster Senior Championship-winning Clare ladies’ team, said.

While trials are ongoing and have had good attendance numbers, some players, for various reasons, have not yet come on board. However, Neylon and the management team are interested in those who have put their hands up.

“We really want to focus on the players who want to play for Clare. They are the key focus. They’re very special people in our eyes; any fella who comes in and really wants to play for Clare. When you see the disappointment on players’ faces, who might not be selected on a panel, you realise how important it is for most guys in Clare to put on the county jersey,” he added.

Although the new management team is still in its infancy, Neylon says their short-term aim is crystal-clear – they are intent on leaving the all too familiar confines of National Football League Division 4.

“We all want to become a Division 3 team but we know it’s going to be very small steps. There are probably a thousand little boxes that are going to need to be ticked to achieve that aim. Everybody might be comparing teams around the country to Donegal but what Donegal have achieved is pretty remarkable and very difficult. It happened very quickly. We’ll try to achieve as much of that as we possibly can in small steps. One by one we’ll tick those boxes,” he predicted.

On a personal note, Neylon has harboured an ambition to be involved with the Clare senior team, as long as he felt he could work as part of a progressive management set-up.

“When that happened this year, given the mix that was in there with Micko [Dwyer] Ger [Keane] and Micheál [Cahill], it was very easy to make the decision. Even though we’re all coming from different backgrounds, when we sit down to meet it’s amazingly easy to make decisions. We have very similar views on how we’d like to prepare teams and what we’d like to see the teams doing. We’re looking for speed in our game and releasing the ball quickly,” Neylon revealed.

“Once you’d played a little bit with Clare, you’d have an ambition to get involved at some stage. When you’re coaching at school or club level, in the back of your mind, if the opportunity arose, of course you’d take it very seriously,” he added, noting that all members of the new management team are bringing their skills and game experience to the set-up.

“Everybody is bringing their own piece to the table. Micheál’s professionalism, his attention to detail and the way he explains things and the coaching ability of Ger and Micko, I think we’ve a nice mix there at the moment,” he said.

Neylon feels O’Dwyer’s legendary standing in the game has helped to increase player interest in committing for the season ahead.

“Players want to come in and impress Micko. I think when they’ve come in, they’ve seen what we’re about. Our ambition and the professionalism we’re trying to bring is replicated by most of the players we’ve seen so far,” he said.