We must make life awkward for Tipp, says O’Loughlin

WHILE failing to win promotion from Division 2 was disappointing, Clare manager Ger O’Loughlin has no hesitation is saying that the championship is the be all and end all.
“We regrouped after the league final and we decided we would give this a good lash. We are playing the best team in Ireland at the moment and they showed in their opening game against Cork that they have lost none of their appetite or their sharpness so we know we have a huge task on Sunday,” he said.
That said, he promised that Clare “ won’t be found wanting in the trying department”.
“Hopefully, we will do justice to ourselves as we are beginning to build up a nice panel. We started from scratch over the last two seasons. There is a bit of shape coming into it and hopefully, we will do ourselves justice on Sunday.”
Stressing that preparation has been very good, he added, “Probably our setback has been coming out with injuries from the club games and that’s disappointing. We lost Liam Markham and both Nicky O’Connell and Darach Honan came back injured. Honan hasn’t trained really since the Limerick game. We could do without that sort of interruption when preparing for a championship game. We have trained awful hard and lads have put in the hours and I am hoping we can bring that to the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday.”
The All-Ireland-winning corner-forward from 1995 and 1997 said Tipp are playing with great confidence. “That happens when a team wins an All-Ireland or a Munster title. They get a huge belief in themselves and Tipp are at the top of the ladder at the moment and are definitely the team to beat,” he said.
Recalling the recent Munster first-round game in which Tipperary beat Cork, he said “Cork aren’t a million miles behind. Both sets of forwards dominated their backs but Tipp were better finishers and their forwards were a lot sharper and that’s something we have to contend with. We must make life awkward for them and try and win the battle at the other end.
“They are the best seven or eight forwards in the country and we will have to try and close them down. If you give them a yard, they are fierce hard to stop and that’s the task ahead of us. I am hopeful that we will come out with all guns blazing and throw everything at them. If it’s good enough on the day, it will be brilliant for us. As long as we play with pride in the jersey and give it our best, I can’t ask for any more. We have seen in the past with Clare teams that we have gone in as underdogs and we have turned the tables. It would be a great boost for this group of lads if we could do that,” the two-time all-star said.
“We are very much in the building mode and it would be a huge surge for this group. We have plenty talent coming behind this group,” he concluded.