ANOTHER MUNSTER FINAL loss and a familiar challenge awaits for the Clare hurlers.
They went down this road last year after losing a provincial final and having to take on Tipperary in an All-Ireland quarter-final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
It’ll be Wexford or Westmeath next up on Sunday week as Clare try to pick up the pieces after yesterday’s defeat to Cork.
“We’ll go back and we’ll feel sorry for ourselves tonight for a while but we’ll refocus and do our recovery tomorrow night, like we’ve been doing for the last couple of weeks,” stated Clare joint manager Gerry O’Connor in the aftermath in Semple Stadium yesterday.
“It’s a short turnaround but maybe that will suit us. The reality is we’ve got to go and prepare diligently for an All-Ireland quarter-final in two weeks’ time.
“They came out at the start of the second half and you have to give them great credit, the reality is they were worthy champions last year and they are worthy champions this year.
“They played really good hurling in that 15 minute spell just before half-time and I think that’s where the game was won and lost.
“We stabilised things after 15 minutes of that second half but they appeared to get on top of our half-back line. Their half-forward line stormed into the game, they seemed to get a lot of scores from there.”
Cork’s ability to come to terms with John Conlon, the early fulcrum of Clare’s hurling attack, was key in altering the course of the match.
“That’s why they’re champions and worthy champions,” stated O’Connor.
“The game is played over 75 minutes, we just weren’t able to get possession from our own puck-out as regularly as we were in the first half and as a result of that there was a lot of ball being cut out by their half-back line and feeding their forward line.
“Also, as a consequence of that our supply to our full-forward line, particularly to John who was having an excellent game in the first half, we were being starved of possession inside in the full-forward line in the second half.
“In the first half, we were using our midfielders and our wing-backs as puck-out options. I think Cork probably had a discussion about that at half-time and they pushed up on our half-backs and midfielders.
“But we still got a few puck-outs to our half-backs and midfield but we were probably turned over or the ball was dropped. We’ll have to refer back to the video to see where we have to improve on.”
