GOING OUT ON LIM ONCE MORE
Banner captain ashamed of woeful run in Munster
CLARE captain Patrick O’connor is poised to play in his eighth Munster SHC game on Sunday and the frustration at his record in the competition is plain to see. Of the previous seven games, O’connor has been on the winning side just once, in a preliminary round tie against Waterford in 2013. Since reaching the final in 1999 as champions, Clare have been back to the provincial decider only once. Despite that, they are favourites to beat Limerick in Sunday’s semi-final in Thurles. O’connor said: “I think what bothers us a lot as a group is that we haven’t really said ‘That day we went out and gave it our all’. “If it ended in defeat, so be it and we’d have satisfaction in our performance but we haven’t done that. “We’ve been dominated in performances and we haven’t really got our game going. “The Munster Championship is so close and the other side of it is we haven’t been beaten out the gate any day either. “No Limerick and Clare game has ever been a runaway defeat or victory, it’s always been close. It’s such a traditional derby and it’ll be the same on Sunday.” O’connor has operated in both the full and half-back lines for Clare though he has yet to line out competitively for the current management duo of Gerry O’connor and Donal Tuohy having only returned to training last month after shoulder surgery. It looks as though he’ll be slotting into a rather different defensive system, however, with Clare unlikely to employ the sweeper set up that was championed by former manager Davy Fitzgerald, inset. O’connor explained: “The sweeper was used for obvious reasons for the betterment of the team but we’ve changed, we’ve had to adapt, readjust, realign, so we can perform for what’s best for the team. “What it means for me is that we don’t have that safety net around. We have to work as a unit because in hurling now forwards are so good, no teams goes one on one any more. “No defender can be left alone. Forwards are so good and skilful. “It probably has meant that whatever happens you need a defensive unit that knows each other’s role and applies a selflessness to their game. “It’s not just their man is their duty, it’s for the betterment of the defensive unit.” Conversely, the absence of a seventh defender may make the job of O’connor and Co easier. O’connor said: “A big criticism levelled at us is our forwards are isolated and it meant, ironically, the ball coming into us was probably better because there was a free man able to hit us from out the field. “It gives us a bit more of a chance. If the defensive unit is working well there should be someone dropping back and he also has a responsibility as well to get back out the field.”