CLARE GAA chairman Michael O’Neill has vowed to put measures in place to ensure there is no repeat of the bitter dispute that led to Mike McNamara’s resignation as the county’s senior hurling team manager.
O’Neill believes a drop in the levels of communication between players, management and officials in 2009 helped to create the saga which saw McNamara step down at a specially-convened county board meeting on Tuesday evening.
O’Neill said regular meetings between all parties took place in 2008 to ensure any problems were nipped in the bud before they escalated out of control. But McNamara’s decision to drop Gerry Quinn from his squad last March eventually led to the stand-off which saw the Scariff man resign.
In a statement read out by county board secretary Pat Fitzgerald in the West County Hotel on Tuesday, McNamara stated the players’ vision and desire for success fell far short of the required standards. He also claimed there was an agenda to have him removed, irrespective of the views of club delegates or the county board, who publicly backed him in recent weeks.
Privately, McNamara was deeply unhappy and indeed angered by a core group of four or five players who he believed orchestrated the heave against him.
Relations between McNamara and his players crumbled to such an extent a parting of the ways was inevitable and O’Neill has now vowed that regular meetings will take place between management, players and officials next year.
O’Neill recommended monthly, or even fortnightly gatherings, to ensure smooth relations when Ger “Sparrow” O’Loughlin takes over the reins.
O’Neill reflected: “Maybe player power is the wrong wording to use but from our perspective as a county board, we have to recognise the needs of all strands and people involved. We have to sit down around a table and come up with structures to avoid this situation in the future.”
O’Neill will propose that two or three players will meet regularly with team management and a county board delegation, led by O’Neill and secretary Pat Fitzgerald, who has also acted as team liaison officer.
O’Neill also spoke of a mood of “sadness” which hung over Tuesday’s meeting, stating: “At our November meeting, I was entrusted with the job of going away to meet the players and management and to come up with a formula to resolve the issues. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and the mood of the meeting (Tuesday) had a certain amount of sadness that a person of Mike Mac’s calibre had to step down, along with Ollie Baker and Alan Cunningham.”
It is expected new boss O’Loughlin will contact Tony Griffin in an attempt to get the player to reverse his recent decision to retire from intercounty hurling. O’Neill is a Ballyea clubmate of Griffin’s but wouldn’t be drawn on the subject of the player’s future.
He said: “That’s not for me to say. That’s for the management coming in and Tony himself . . . I’m very optimistic about the future because we have massive potential in the county. Down the road we will be very successful and that success may not be too far away if everybody pulls together and gets on with it, starting from scratch.”
O'Loughlin will be no soft ride - Daly
DUBLIN senior hurling manager Anthony Daly has warned any Clare stars expecting a "soft ride" under Ger O'Loughlin will get a rude awakening. Daly has also urged Clare county board officials to hand O'Loughlin a three-year deal so he can successfully blend the cream of the 2009 All-Ireland Under-21 winning team into the senior set-up.
Daly and O'Loughlin won All-Ireland senior medals together in 1995 and 1997 with Clarecastle. Daly said: "Everyone is waiting with bated breath for Ger's backroom team. He will be a very good manager with a certain ruthlessness so if any player thinks he's in for a soft ride, he won't get it. Ger does things his way and he's always shown himself to be single-minded, both in business and sport. He's very determined and will bring leadership."
Daly added: "I would have a large amount of sympathy for Mac, Alan (Cunningham) and Ollie (Baker). It seems like only yesterday when everybody was raving about getting to a Munster final (2008) and finally winning a few games."
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