2nd Waterbreak
Inagh-Kilnamona 1-13
Eire Ăg 0-15
Very good contest.
1 Like
Inagh-Kilnamona 1-15
Eire Ăg 0-16
Aidan McCarthy gone off injured for the Combo, David Fitz also carrying a knock since the first half
23 gone
Eire Ogâs big names not firing. Hard to see them turning this around
SOD is still carrying the fight, Russell has been disappointing. Reidy playing too deep.
1-15 to 0-17 with three + left
Two huge scores by hegarty this half.
Inagh-Kilnamona 1-17
Eire Ăg 0-17
Pelanty Eire Ăg
OâDonnell wins a penalty
Poor effort, Pa Kelly puts it out for a 65
Full-time
Inagh-Kilnamona 1-17
Eire Ăg 0-17
Ger Loughnane: Weâve known for years that Clare has been run like a 60s village shop
Former manager gives damning verdict on the mess at board level â and fears little will change despite a recent report underlining the countyâs deep failings
ďżź
True to form, Loughnane pulled no punches in his withering assessment of Clare
Ger Loughnaneâs first memory is from when he was just two. He was standing at a rainwater tank alongside his mother when a pack of beagles stormed down the hill behind their house in Feakle. Loughnane initially thought they were pigs, but he soon knew from the shrieks piercing the air that they werenât. âI can still feel the shiver from the cry of those hounds,â he says. âAfter that, I was addicted.â
Itâs an addiction that Loughnane feeds now at every opportunity during the hunting season. Loughnane always has between 12 to 16 dogs. He is rearing more pups at home. Beginning at daybreak, Loughnane hunts for up to seven hours. His GPS tracker regularly shows him covering between 20-25km.
Thatâs not a casual stroll either because Loughnane will climb walls and gates, jump over trenches and bog-holes, cross rivers at their lowest point, negotiate his way through heather and ditches and forests. If some of his young dogs are in deep cover, Loughnane will scramble in under bushes and briars to get them out.
He looks as fit now as he was when managing Clare over two decades ago; lean, strong and imposing. Always imposing. âIf somebody followed me theyâd say, âThis man is completely crazy,â â says Loughnane. âItâs nothing about killing. Itâs to hear that first cry of the hounds when they are hunting. Thatâs what drives the adrenaline through your body. Itâs like a Clare player scoring a goal in an All-Ireland final.â
Loughnaneâs obsessions have always been authentic because of how much he has always physically and emotionally invested in them. Hunting dominates his time now, but hurling will always be indivisible from Loughnaneâs personality.
His presence in the game is no longer as dominant as it once was, but his words still carry a weight few possess. Loughnane has never sugar-coated his opinions. He can still be excoriating in his assessments.
He always gave it hard to every county and he never spared his own. That commentary was invariably around attitude and application on the field, but Clareâs performance at county board level has left Loughnane with plenty to say.
The recent findings of the report of the Strategic Review Committee were stark and concerning. The county board have scheduled a meeting focusing on the report for Wednesday evening, throwing the discussion back to the clubs. The next question is how everyone reacts.
âItâs hard to believe the report is as bad as it is,â says Loughnane. âWe all know who is responsible, and whatâs responsible for it, and the big question is, what do we do now? Apathy has crept into Clare to a huge degree. People have known for years that the whole thing is being run like a village shop in the 1960s. Itâs almost like the old Communist regime where people they just accept it. There is no outrage.â
The report presents opportunities to affect actual change but Loughnane is fearful of what will happen. âI think theyâll accept the report, pass it at county board level, and then people will let it go.
âI can understand that apathy. No young person was encouraged to come in at official level. We have lost a generation because, put simply, people will not get involved.â
The board have presided over an unholy mess ranging from governance to finance to games development and coaching. The supposed centre of excellence in Caherlohan has been a monument to such drastic failure; Caherlohan needs approximately âŹ500,000 to address the state of the four pitches and a further âŹ1.9 million to bring the facility up to the required standard. âWhat happened with Caherlohan should be warning signs for what could happen with this report,â says Loughnane. âThis committee has shown that Caherlohan isnât fit for purpose. Itâs scandalous that millions of euros have gone down the drain on the project.â
The effects of such mismanagement have filtered down to all levels. There is no evidence of a strategic approach to games development, no additional formal structures in place to support the progression of games and coaching development.
If weâre not careful, we could lose generations,â says Loughnane. âWeâre going to disappear into the horizon as far as hurling is concerned. You cannot operate now without structure. The top counties are training and promoting the best coaches and rewarding them by promoting them within the system. Weâre dependent on individuals. What system is that?
âPeople say Limerick have money. Itâs not, money is only a byproduct. Itâs the structures they have in place, supported by money. We wouldnât have a JP McManus but if we had structures, and the right people involved, other people would support us.
âItâs not always about winning All-Irelands. Itâs about producing your very best but in order to do that, you need to be producing players, and weâre running out.â
Clareâs recent record at underage has been really poor but the senior team have remained highly competitive. Brian Lohan has done a brilliant job as senior manager but the barriers and obstacles consistently put in Lohanâs way, even before he was appointed, underline how deep-rooted the malaise is at board level.
âWhat Lohan went through to become manager showed the absolute treachery of some,â says Loughnane. âTo treat a man of that integrity like that, and to undermine him, was scandalous. But itâs equally scandalous that Clare hurling people didnât support Lohan better. Hurling people are letting them get away with it.
âIf you look at all autocratic regimes all over the world, they didnât care that their country was being driven into the ground, as long as they were in power. That is the characteristic of autocratic rulers, they donât care as long as theyâre in power.
âYet once they were ousted, the countries recovered and thrived. You see the seeds of regrowth once theyâre gone. But there will be no regrowth in Clare while that regime is still there.
Itâs that simple, but we need one person to unite behind. Unless we get that, weâre going to slide into a backwater.â
In 20 years as a columnist and across both of his All-Ireland triumphs, Loughnane has never tempered the tone and language of his punditry. He was often accused of ulterior motives but he has no agenda in this debate.
âIâm 68,â he says. âSaying I have an agenda is just the catch-cry of the clown. Wouldnât it be easier for me to stay hunting and say nothing? I only want to see Clare doing well. I want us to have that ambition because if we lose our ambition to be champions, weâre finished.
âWe cannot lose the ambition of winning All-Irelands, but we cannot have that ambition unless we have structures in place that are guaranteeing us that players are getting the best possible preparation to come into the Clare senior team.
âI donât want to see the legacy we left destroyed. I donât want to see the whole hurling landscape in Clare, like Caherlohan, overtaken by weeds. The whole system in Clare will collapse unless this is addressed. And itâs on the verge of it
18 Likes
Canât understand the glorification of it at all.
Was in the park yesterday, have a connection to Inamona. Fantastic game, great contest. Always felt as I said before townies need all of Russell, Reidy and Sod playing well to beat a good team. Didnât happen for them yesterday yet they still could have drawn it. Onwards and upwards now for the combo. Itâs been coming for years and itâs great to see, hope they see it through now, theyâll be favourites in the final against a bigger name and tradition which will pose a different problem
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Inamona have been consistently strong at underage since the amalgamation. Iâd say 90% of the teams they have fielded in that time have been in A championships. They are a coming team and will never have a better chance now. Could well win multiple titles between now and the end of the decade.
They will struggle without McCarthy and Fitzgerald I think unfortunately, we wonât find out officially but I believe they are both in big trouble with thier injuries
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They will if they are out but whoever they face in the final will be functional enough you would think. It is at worst a 50/50 game with the injuries
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Dressing rooms not open it looks likeâŚ
What time is Josephâs/FOB throwing in at?
The Blues 1-13
United Nations 1-13
Ten left
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