CLARE’S DUGGAN ALMOST QUIT

HE’S THE hurling Championship’s top scorer and a strong contender for an All-Star, yet — only last autumn — a disillusioned Peter Duggan considered quitting the Clare panel. The 24-year-old forward made the startling admission as he picked up his PwC GAA/GPA July Player of the Month award. He scored 3-76 in total from eight Championship games — a point more than Joe Canning. That was precisely 3-75 more than the Banner man’s haul in 2017, when his summer amounted to two appearances from the substitutes’ bench. Was he close to packing it all in? ‘I was, and the year before too, close on a few occasions over the last few years,’ said Duggan (right). ‘I wasn’t on the panel for the Limerick game last year and I just wasn’t going great. I found it hard to get motivated. ‘If we didn’t go so well with the club, ClooneyQuin, I don’t think I would have gone back. The club run was just an extra motivation, gave me the confidence to stay going at it, and that’s why I stayed. I could have very easily not gone back. ‘I remember saying it straight after the county final that, no matter what, I’d give it the full hog this year. I just had it in my head that I was going to do it, and had the confidence then at that stage.’ Duggan fired 1-20 over two games against Galway in the AllIreland semi-finals as the Banner ultimately came up short. He admitted that he never actually voiced his concerns to joint manager Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor after the 2017 Championship. ‘I don’t think we even had a chat about it, this will probably be news to them,’ he said. ‘The whole thing was that I was on the panel for so long and never really breaking through. ‘Obviously next year is a fresh campaign again and I mightn’t get my place but at least it’s a lot easier to go back now that I was starting this year.’