‘Soft goal killed the game’ – Moloney

JOINT Clare manager Donal Moloney wasn’t prepared to use Cork’s superior physicality as a reason for Clare’s defeat in Sunday’s provincial semi-final.
“We knew coming down here that they were going to be a physically imposing side and I wouldn’t use that as an excuse for a second. The hurling they produced was very good and irrespective of physique, we didn’t hit the form we needed in certain areas. Unless you are really on top of your game, you are not going to win these games,” the Scariff man said after the game.
Was it a big advantage for Cork to have the assistance of the strong wind in the opening half?
“We elected to play against the wind,” came the reply. “Sometimes, the type of game we play, we play better against it but they got a grip on things. We held them fairly well and to go in only seven down after playing against a storm wasn’t any great disadvantage.”
Continuing, the Clare mentor said, “We gave away a few soft frees before half-time and it could have been a four-point gap, rather than a seven-point one at the break. That was a factor. I can’t put my finger on it. The guys seemed to be going well at training the other night. The physicality of Cork maybe had a bearing. We needed to be able to adjust and cope with that. Unfortunately, we didn’t do it well.”
Moloney felt, “At the start of the second half, we were getting on top but we couldn’t close the gap and then that goal came. It was a soft goal and it killed the game and made the gap too big.”
“We have a very young set of guys, we used 15 U-21s today. They are a very young group and they need to learn from that; the physicality Cork had, their ball handling and their cuteness on the ball. Our lads might not have come up against a lot of that before,” he continued.
This is sure to benefit the players going forward, provided the team learns from it and provided every guy out there understands that the standards are very high, said Moloney. “There is no God-given right to win anything and the lads really need to digest that lesson,” replied Moloney.
The Clare mentor stressed that he is not taking anything away from Cork. “They were well prepared, a fine bunch of players, physically very imposing, all really good players. Full credit to them. They were better than us.”