O’Connor: ‘Hurt’ of Munster losses serves as rallying point for Banner

CLARE’S most experienced defender Pat O’Connor has identified the ‘hurt’ of their mid-campaign Munster Championship collapse last summer as a real rallying point for a group of players determined to set the record straight.

Clare lost to Tipperary and Limerick in their second and third games of a four-game campaign by a collective 31 points, prompting abuse which moved joint-manager Donal Moloney to hit out strongly against it after their victory over Cork in the final game.

That win wasn’t enough to earn Clare a place in the All-Ireland championship and they had to sit out the rest of the summer which gave them plenty of time for reflection.

A long, drawn out management process saw Moloney pitch for the job on his own before withdrawing when it became apparent that the board were looking elsewhere.

In the end Brian Lohan was appointed but even through those months without stewardship the players, O’Connor revealed, were already planning improvement.

“We were very hurt by what happened last year,” he acknowledged. “It came down to seven days where it all just fell apart for us. Even in the off-season when we weren’t sure what was happening, the group was together talking about how we can make it better, how we can drive it on and how we can look for more out of ourselves.”

O’Connor (right) admits there is a “feel-good factor” developing under Lohan and particularly results which have seen them come from behind to beat Wexford and draw with Kilkenny for a place in the league play-offs.

“You saw the kind of player Brian was and what is fascinating for me is to see the way his mind works.

“He always refers to it as a dog when he puts us through our paces at training. Who is going to come out with the ball when we are tired and fatigued and Sean Treacy and James (Moran) are the same. They all just look for who is putting their shoulder to the wheel when it gets tough and ultimately it doesn’t get much tougher than Nowlan Park against Kilkenny.

“Hopefully we saw some of the stuff that we’ve been doing on Tuesday and Friday nights out there, particularly in the last 10 minutes. We were very disappointed with our start and the start of the second half as well.”

O’Connor was at the heart of Clare’s defensive effort which saw them concede their first goal in four league matches so far. But their own third goal from Shane O’Donnell, to accelerate their comeback, had a touch of luck about it, he conceded. “That’s the first goal we’ve conceded all year and aside from that we kept it fairly tight back. “Donal Tuohy was very calm with the next puck out and we won a break and got on the ball, won a free and put it over to get us going again. Then when we were really chasing it, how many teams have you seen a team that really digs in and really goes for it just get the rub of the green?

“That goal was reminiscent of what you might see at Twickenham, it looked like a scrum from where I was and a stray boot knocked it in. So many times we just got the rub of the green from lads going hard at it.”

For O’Connor, more important than the point they earned was the character examination many of their new players came through.

“The league is all about seeing what guys are made of and no better place to test lads, no better scenario.

“I think we were four down, so to see what was in lads – we know it’s in the likes of Tony Kelly and David McInerney. Then you see Liam Corry thundering in, Aidan McCarthy and newer faces, that is what it is about.

“Regardless of the points, they’ll be long forgotten. But a few of the plays will live in the memory going home.”