Thoughts turn to possible successor

CLARE HURLING:WITH MICHAEL McNamara still expected to make no move in response to demands from his players that he step down from the position of Clare senior hurling manager until Tuesday's county board meeting there were no signs in the county that the clubs are ready to force the issue.

As of yesterday evening no motion of confidence had been tabled for next week’s meeting when McNamara will address delegates to review the year and outline plans for next season.

County chair Michael O’Neill is currently conducting back-channel talks with both sides and is publicly optimistic that the impasse can be broken: “I’m still in negotiations with the different parties and that will be ongoing for a few more days,” he told the Clare Champion. “I will have discussions with the players and the management as I undertook to do last week”. But the matter is seen as having gone too far to permit amicable resolution.

McNamara isn’t without support in the county and even if a motion for his removal were to be tabled and passed it is considered unlikely that it would attract the necessary two-thirds majority, as the manager was appointed for two years after a successful first season in charge in 2008.

Nonetheless there is still growing speculation in the county about the Scariff man’s likely successor given the difficulty of remaining in charge without the support of the players.

Obvious candidates include the All-Ireland under-21 winning management of John Minogue and Cyril Lyons, who took the county to its most recent All-Ireland final in 2001. Minogue has ruled himself out of consideration and whereas Lyons was more ambivalent, it is believed that he won’t consider stepping up until the current controversy has been cleared up and would be reluctant to promote himself as a rival to McNamara.

That under-21 team has been seen as the solution to the county’s current senior plight, languishing in Division Two of the NHL and having won just one match between league and championship last year but the bulk of the side (11) that recorded the breakthrough success in a thrilling final against holders Kilkenny in September are still eligible for the grade next year.

There is a strong feeling in Clare that these players would be better concentrating on trying to achieve back-to-back All-Ireland titles than graduating to senior just yet – a step taken by virtually none of the panel during the summer.

McNamara’s harsh training regime is also seen by some within the county as not being appropriate for such young players at the start of their careers rather than the more mature hurlers whom he trained to All-Ireland success as part of Ger Loughnane’s management team in the 1990s.

Two of that team’s best-known players, Anthony Daly and David Fitzgerald, are currently serving as manager in Dublin and Waterford respectively and the latter is understood to be keen on taking over with his own county at some stage although his coaching experience in Clare yielded just one county title – a junior championship with Ennistymon.

Rumours in Clare that a county board meeting in Waterford to ratify Fitzgerald for a third year had been postponed for a week are unfounded on two levels: firstly the meeting goes ahead and secondly, and more importantly, Fitzgerald has already been ratified and Monday is simply to announce new selectors.

Loughnane himself is seen in some quarters as a possible candidate despite the controversy caused by his punditry in the years since his stepping down as manager in 2000.

But he was involved in coaching the current under-21s when they were in development squads.

One county board source said a saving grace of the current situation is the players are united on the question of McNamara. Had the panel been split on the issue the matter would have been far trickier to resolve.