Today is just a win big
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Hard to see Galway keeping it pucked out to Clare in that kind of form. Itâs been a slow process, but they have been finally de-Davyâd.
No Galway are different animal lions
Congrats Joe. Better team by an Irish acre
Thanks bud hard luck what happened limerick
Didnât show up Joe. Probably a little tired and our tactics were badly wrong. I think we showed ye too much respect and we didnât trust our full back line. Still though ye thought us a lesson.
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Off the actual bench?
No tickets on Sale yet
dowling scoring 15 points against Waterford also happened meaning he couldnât be dropped
that made pat o Connors job far easier
Clare doing everything they can to lose in tullamore.
Should be out of sight
Gearoid OâBrien makes it a two point lead in injury time
Kevin Hartnett comes off the bench to seal a two point win
We made hard work of that
Tough football draw
Perfect draw Joe. Tough but winnable.
HURLING
Colin Ryan: Losing to Cork would leave a scar on this Clare team
Christy OâConnor
June 30 2018, 12:01am, The Times
Wednesday lunchtime in Lahinch and the Atlantic Ocean is shimmering like a giant mirror. A heat haze is visible against the backdrop of the promenade. The tide is out. The beach is thronged. The seaside resort is buzzing as the crowds bask in temperatures that have already soared to 29C.
Just behind the cliffs, Colin Ryan is relaxing at the Ocean View caravan park on the Milltown-Malbay road. He and Louise, his wife, are teachers who make the most of their mobile home when the chance presents itself. They have been coming to Lahinch for years but it is only been in the past two summers that Ryan has been able to fully enjoy what the place has to offer. âIf I was still playing for Clare,â he says, âIâd be inside all week, hiding from that sun.â
Ryan took a break from Clare last year before officially retiring in October. He was just 29 but getting off the carousel for a year convinced him that it was time to leave it all behind.
âAt the start, I just needed a break,â he says. âIt wasnât until I started really enjoying the freedom that I started thinking, âIs that me done?ââ
Initially, Ryan struggled to go to Clare matches. He continued to wrestle with his decision until the reality hit him. Louise was pregnant. Their son Cooper was born in the middle of last summer. That changed his perspective but the decision still had to be finalised.
There was a local clamour for Ryanâs return because Clare had missed his freetaking accuracy. His form with Newmarket-on-Fergus had been excellent. A few days after they beat Ballyea in the county quarter-final, DĂłnal Moloney, Clareâs joint manager, called. The Clare management had been tracking Ryan and were happy with his form. They still felt he had something to offer.
Ryan asked for more time. He spoke to Brendan Bugler and Pat Donnellan, who were also contemplating retirement. When he weighed up the options, there was only one decision.
âIn my own head, I couldnât see where the balance would be,â he says.
âIf I was going back, I couldnât be making excuses.
âI just couldnât commit to that. And I didnât want to commit to it.â
A long journey was over. Ryan was part of the crew of All-Ireland Under-21 winners in 2009 who were loaded with the burdens of being Clareâs present and future. They often struggled but never doubted where their road would take them. Seven of that under-21 team from 2009 started in both of the 2013 All-Ireland finals but nobody stumbled on that path up to that point more than Ryan.
He was the first gem off his generationâs production line. On his first senior championship start in 2009, Ryan arrived like a comet, hitting 0-12 against Tipperary.
His stock continued to rise that summer with the under-21s and when Ger OâLoughlin took over the seniors the following season, Ryan was considered one of the main pillars of the side. Yet his confidence waned and by 2011, Ryan was an afterthought in the managementâs plans.
In 2012, Ryanâs championship petered out with two late substitute appearances against Dublin and Limerick which amounted to just 12 minutes. By that stage, Ryan was bracketed in an unglamorous category: a class hurler who lacked something.
He tackled that challenge head on. Davy Fitzgerald heavily reinvested in Ryanâs stock and, while it crashed in Fitzgeraldâs first season in 2012, it steadily rose afterwards.
Ryan was a massive factor in that 2013 success. His conversion rate from play and placed balls that summer was 88 per cent. He was one of the leaders on that young team. âItâs definitely a sense of pride that I came through all those tough times,â Ryan says. âProving people wrong is one of the most satisfying things you can do.â
Ryan was always motivated by that desire to prove a point but the overall grind eventually wore him down too. In his last season in 2016, Ryan didnât start the drawn or replayed league finals against Waterford while his championship appearances were limited to a handful of late substitute roles.
âI felt that the emphasis had changed on how we were trying to play,â says Ryan. âWe ended up with five forwards against six backs in every game in 2015 and 2016.
âIt was a different style and I was a small bit resentful that my, and some of the other ladsâ attributes, werenât being used as much. We were slightly resentful towards the backs too, in that they were getting this handout and we were getting bollocked for running around chasing shadows.
âWe were so frustrated because we felt that when we did go man-for-man that we were in with a good shout.
âI wouldnât be where I am only for Fitzy [Davy Fitzgerald] but everyone has their opinion on tactics.
âWhat Iâd say here, Iâd say to him too. I said to him at the end of 2016 that I felt I could have been an asset to the team that summer.â
When Ryan took a break afterwards, he immersed himself in soccer. Ryan spent a week at Harry Redknappâs Portsmouth on trial when he was younger.
Last year he played with the Clare side which won the Oscar Traynor All-Ireland Inter-league Junior soccer title. They reached the semi-final this season while in April, Newmarket Celtic went down 3-2 to Pike Rovers in the FAI Junior Cup semi-final before losing to Janesboro in the semi-final of the Munster Junior cup.
The rhythms of Ryanâs life are different now. Being able to relax by the beach during a heatwave on the week of a Munster final offers proof.
Ryan missed the buzz last July but he is at peace with his decision now. And being detached has enabled him to look at the match this weekend in a different way, too.
âThe last few times Clare played Cork, they almost seemed to be waiting to go for it in the last ten minutes rather than going for it from the start,â he says.
âClare need to just go for it from the word go. They are definitely good enough to win but I would be a little concerned if they donât.
âAnother Cork defeat now could leave a small scar on this group. Whereas if they turn Cork over, the confidence will go through the roof.
âIf Clare get back to an All-Ireland semi-final in Croke Park, anything can happen.â
What are Corofin like in hurling?
Middling intermediate team, I wouldnât have seen them this year though.
Would you say theyâre better or worse than Scarriff?