BRIAN LOHAN IS set to remain as Clare boss for a further three years once his reappointment is ratified by the clubs.
The Clare county board announced yesterday that a fresh three-year term for the two-time All-Ireland winning player was the unanimous recommendation of the county officers.
Speaking to Clare FM, Lohan revealed he is happy to accept the offer. He now awaits confirmation from the clubs, which is expected to be a formality.
“I’m happy with that,” said the 49-year-old. “I was looking for commitment for the three years and happy that we’ve got that from the executive of the board. Now it goes to clubs and they’ll decide whether that suits or not.”
Asked if he is confident he’ll get support from the clubs following two years in charge, Lohan replied: “I think so. There’s been good enough support from the clubs since I got the job. So happy enough that it will happen, yeah.”
Tony Kelly voiced his support for Lohan remaining in place a couple of weeks ago. Despite off-pitch turbulence at county board level, Clare appear to be on an upward trajectory under Lohan.
They reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals in 2020 and were unlucky not to defeat eventual All-Ireland finalists Cork in round 2 of the qualifiers this season.
“In inter-county hurling there’s an awful lot of work involved in it,” reflected Lohan on his tenure.
“It takes a bit of time to get your team together and get the good, professional advice. I suppose the board would be conscious of that and are looking at the job that was done over the last two years and have decided to give us the next three years to see if we can improve things.
“We felt we had good players. Looking around the country, there are very professional set-ups out there. We probably needed to get to a different level because the game is constantly moving on and we seen that over the weekend with the performance of the Limerick lads and how professional their set-up is and the kind of advice they have access to.”
The Banner anticipate former All-Star Peter Duggan rejoining the panel following his return from Australia. The Clare Echo reported earlier this month that Duggan will line-out for Clooney/Quin in this year’s club championship.
In addition, Clare are hopeful for Shane O’Donnell’s recovery from the concussion that ruled him out for most of the 2021 season.
“It’s about trying to move Clare up to that level because we think we have the quality of players,” added Lohan.
“We think we have that potential but it takes a huge amount of hard work obviously.”
