IN THE CATACOMBS of O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, reporters waited patiently for the arrival of Clare manager Brian Lohan, as he tidied up a few other obligations.
He arrived and ducked into the dressing room, re-emerging a few minutes later to give a masterclass in the non-interview interview.
Responses were kept as broad as the Shannon and kept to generalities. No bones were being thrown to the huddled inquisitors. Nothing to gnaw on.
It was when he was invited to give a good hard pat on a player’s back when the responses became virtually mute. One word answers were the norm, but even then, he limited the syllable count. If he could have, he’d have kept it to nods and gestures.
Noting that Adam Hogan put down a strong 66 minutes in limiting Jake Morris and Conor Leen did likewise on Jason Forde, Lohan responded, “Good players.”
Asked if they were building depth with Leen and his nephew Darragh Lohan adding something, he responded, “Yeah. Good players.”
Asked if the turn of events in Cork the night before might have influenced their approach, he stated, “No.”
There comes a time in every manager’s spell in charge that they just need to hang their hat on silverware. In Lohan’s fifth year, there is no suggestion that his position would be under threat or that there are a queue of potential suitors for the role.
All the same, a league title for Clare could have a whiff of the 1990 FA Cup for Fergie about it.
Just like that triumph, you can gently stretch yourself into shape to find comparisons with Fergie’s Fledglings and Lohan’s Learners.
You have Conor Leen and Cian Galvin showing up here.
Darragh Lohan is a forceful young punk, as you might imagine from a Lohan of Shannon with a fire-engine red helmet. Then there was young Keith Smyth who has been bubbling under in the squad for the last couple of years and flung over the first two scores, along with Sean Rynne coming off the bench.
Those to come back in are Shane O’Donnell, Tony Kelly, David McInerney and Ryan Taylor.
Seadna Morey, another substitute, provides a sweeper option if they need it sporadically.
Aidan McCarthy came off the bench at an early stage to take over from Mark Rodgers on free-taking duties. Apart from one free he sent wide in first half injury-time, he nailed nine other attempts.
“You must be delighted,” asked this reporter, undeterred about the previous responses from Lohan, “that when Mark Rodgers goes off injured, Aidan McCarthy can replace him and be so proficient with his frees at the same time as Tipperary are struggling to get over?”
“Yes. I suppose so.”
Never mind. Onto Tipperary.
The obvious one, the one that the blind man blindfolded riding a blind galloping blindfolded horse could have pointed out, was the freetaking situation.
The bald statistics were that there were 19 wides. Nine of them came from the dead ball and another was the result of a sideline.
And it was an oddity. It’s not like this issue has been brewing or there have been hints. It’s more like a ‘just add water’, instant problem that presented itself and will more than likely disappear.
In the first two league games, Gearóid O’Connor nailed 16 frees, a penalty, two ‘65’s and a sideline from placed ball against Dublin and Galway.
When Jason Forde returned to make his first start against Westmeath, he resumed the duties and clipped over 11 frees. He added 0-3 from frees against Limerick, and eight frees and a ‘65’ against Antrim.
“The narrative coming into today was, ‘Who will take the frees?’” said manager Liam Cahill afterwards.
“We still have plenty of options there, we just struck a day where everybody decided to be off on the one day. That’s disappointing. It does happen and when it does, it does hurt you.”
It’s fixable.
Back to Clare and the league final against Kilkenny. Their record against them hasn’t been great, but they have no hang-ups either.
The last two All-Ireland semi-finals have held contrasts. The gap that existed in the 2-26 to 0-20 beating in 2022 was significantly closed last year. It took those memorable acrobatics from Cats goalkeeper Eoin Murphy to keep out Peter Duggan’s double from hitting the net as they won 1-25 to 1-22.
Take yourself back to the far end of last weekend and the prevailing wisdom was that Clare might find it easy to hit the canvas in Portlaoise, lest they meet Limerick in a league final just a fortnight before they would meet again in Ennis in the first round of Munster.
In such a scenario, the Dr Croke Cup for the hurling league winners instantly is the product offered in a bait and switch scenario.
Celebrate it? You’re not taking Munster seriously enough, you’re enjoying the candyfloss too much.
Don’t celebrate it? My, oh my, why so uptight? Why can’t you guys just chillax? Take a night off.
Kilkenny represents the perfect tune-up now.
Win it and they have silverware. Lose? Only the league.
Asked about the prospect of Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell returning for that game, Lohan admitted, “Just depends on the medical team, physios, doctor, to give us the nod in relation to getting them on the field. We’re hoping they will be in a position to play the next day but we’ll see.”
So that’s it. Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell back for the final. Lohan did actually save a tasty morsel for last.
