This week’s Clare Champion includes a very special, 16-page souvenir supplement to mark Clare’s success in the All-Ireland Hurling Final. In this supplement we talk to Tony Kelly, Brian Lohan, Shane O’Donnell, John Conlon, Conor Cleary, Cathal Malone, Eibhear Quilligan, Brendan Bugler, Pat O’Donnell, Tommy Corbett, Deirdre Murphy, Davy Fitzgerald and many more. We also have all the colour from before, during and after the game, the excitement from the homecoming events on Monday night and a souvenir team poster. This collector’s item is in the shops now.
Below, Dan Danaher chats to Brendan Bugler.
Clare selector, Brendan Bugler believes the hurt of losing three Munster finals drove the team to scale new heights in extra time to help them edge Cork after a thrilling All-Ireland SHC decider.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, the Whitegate clubman said sometimes a team learns more from a defeat and recalled the Clare management learned a lot from losing to Limerick in the Munster SHC final.
“We learned a lot about our distribution and use of the ball because Clare were pretty even with Limerick in most of the stats in the Munster final. Once Clare tidied up on that, we got better against Wexford and in the second half against Kilkenny,” he said.
The St Flannan’s teacher said it was nice for Clare to produce their best performance on the biggest day in the hurling calendar in the All-Ireland final.
“I thought Clare made steady progression as the year went on and it was nice to leave our best for the last game in the final,” he said.
Asked if the criticism after the Munster final hurt the players, he said no one is as critical as the Clare team and management are after a defeat when things are broken down to the finer details as part of an extensive review.
“There is no one as critical as we are, there is no one who reviews a game, particularly after a loss as we do. We might watch the game five or six times from different angles. No one can be as critical of our ourselves than ourselves.
“That is where the learning and the growing comes from. There were a lot of harsh realities in terms of the Limerick game but if you are not learning from it, you are not making progress. We did learn, make progress and improve,” he said.
Commenting on his appointment as a new selector last September, Mr Bugler said when Brian Lohan rings someone to get involved in the backroom team a person isn’t going to say no.
“Brian Lohan is a terrific man to work under from a coaching and management point of view. He is also a great man to play under as Tony Kelly alluded to in his speech. When you think of Clare hurling and players, Ger Loughnane, Brian Lohan and Tony Kelly, great people come to the fore.
“Clare don’t win too many All-Ireland senior hurling titles. Clare had a great group of players and backroom team in 2013 and we have the same again this year.
“It doesn’t matter who is over the team, the only thing that matters is that the Liam MacCarthy Cup came back to Ennis on Monday night, which is a huge achievement,” he said.
East Clare correspondent, Dan Danaher is a journalism graduate of Rathmines and UL. He has won numerous awards for special investigations on health, justice, environment, and reports on news, agriculture, disability, mental health and community.