Looking to replace greatness

KEITH DUGGANtalks to Ollie Baker, the former Clare star and now a selector with the senior team, on what lies ahead for the county

AFTER WATCHING his Clare team lose narrowly to Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds last Sunday, Mike McNamara lightly rebuked himself and his backroom for not introducing more of his younger players over the afternoon.

“We probably made a few mistakes – the management should have probably introduced maybe some of the newer boys who had been showing well. But we decided we would go with an array of strength. We were looking to introduce some of the younger fellas and it didn’t transpire really. The opportunity didn’t arise.”

The Scariff man nailed what has been the most pertinent issue for Clare hurling since the post All-Ireland winning years: how to replace the Clare Invincibles.

Although the sight of Kilmaley’s most enigmatic, Colin Lynch, defying time and the notion that modern hurling is a young’s man lark must have been a gladdening sight for the Clare faithful, almost all of the All-Ireland winning gang have departed the scene.

In recent years, the retirement of Seanie McMahon followed by Brian Lohan left a gaping void in the middle of the Clare defence: as McNamara rightly testified when Brian Lohan quietly announced his decision to lay down the red helmet, Clare had lost two of the greats in quick succession. But in an odd way, it has been the departure of Frank Lohan, whose consistent excellence and versatility was rarely sung as loud as it should have been, that reinforced the old truth that change occurs whether we like it or not. Suddenly, for the first time since 1993, there will be no Lohan name in the Clare defensive line.

“As someone remarked to me, it is probably inevitable that Clare will suffer a bit from the myth that the Lohans leave behind,” agreed Ollie Baker, their friend and former team-mate who has been a selector with McNamara since the beginning of last season.

“It is unbelievable to think that either one or both of the Lohans have been a consistent presence over the last 15 years. It is an unreal contribution to Clare hurling coming from one family. And yeah, they are a huge loss. What it means now is that there is unbelievable pressure on any Clare player that is asked to come in and wear, in particular, the number three jersey. And we would hope that the public will continue to be conscious of the fact that it is going to take time for players to find their feet and that it is not easy to replace the greatness that went before in those positions.

“But I do think we have the hurlers to fill those gaps – and the modern game has changed dramatically, even in the last two of three years that maybe the traditional stand-up full back is not what is required for the current demands.”

There are moments, when Baker is standing on the sideline, that his eyes will rest on Colin Lynch and he will feel a pang lying somewhere between envy and guilt that he is not out there beside him yet. “I’m a year younger than Colin,” he confesses.

As it turned out, recurrent injuries made his decision to bow out fairly straightforward. And anyway, Baker had a long innings. He was one of the new faces selected by Ger Loughnane and his backroom team of McNamara and Tony Considine when Clare embarked on that fated, unstoppable championship journey back in 1995. The other debut lads were Frank Lohan (who was exam-tied in the build-up to the match and came on as a substitute), Mike O’Halloran, Fergal Hegarty, Stephen McNamara and Conor Clancy.

It was in that June match against Cork that the seeds of the Clare legend was formed: McMahon operating in the left corner despite the handicap of a badly injured arm and then the lurching, nail-biting drama that would define them in the coming summers. It took a perilously late goal from Baker, who swept home a sideline ball from Fergie Touhy to prevent that match – and that championship – from being yet another story of gallant loss for Clare.

But the importance of going with fresh, new players was central to Clare’s success and it has become a tenet of Mike Mac’s reign. The recent win in the Waterford Crystal Cup against Tipperary bode well and in the Gaelic Grounds, McNamara singled out Camin Morey’s performances for special merit. Morey, however, had the flu, which meant he was out of contention for the Gaelic Grounds and, facing into an away match, against Justin McCarthy’s first selection as Limerick boss, the Clare management decided that if they were going to err in any way, it was towards experience.

So the claims of Newmarket’s James McInerney and John Conlon (who did come in for the busy Barry Nugent with 10 minutes remaining) were put on hold. Mark Flaherty, who was on dead-ball duties last year, was also on the bench, with Colin Ryan putting in an encouraging performance at corner forward. Nonetheless, Clare headed back down the tunnel in an uncertain place, after a chastening 10 minutes before half-time saw them conceding three goals.

“I suppose it might have been expected that we would have thrown the kitchen sink at them in terms of what we said to them then,” Baker says. “But really, we just asked them quietly to stand up in the second half. We had an experienced guard out there and some of the mistakes and unforced errors that we had made in the first half were unforgivable. And we did respond and came to dominate certain positions and forced our way back into the game.”

As Baker points out, the price for a poor league is fairly sharp, with a drop into Division Two hurling. There is a fine line between bringing young players through and making sure that you avoid relegation. Last year was fairly satisfactory for Clare, with a Munster final appearance against Tipperary and a close-run quarter-final against Cork, which they lost by two points after surrendering a handsome half-time lead. Closing out those games, eliminating the kind of small, unforced errors that erode collective confidence and emulating the mental toughness of those lionised Clare teams are among the chief ambitions of the current management.

Although Niall Gilligan was forced off last Sunday’s team with an ankle injury, his availability brings immeasurable experience to the Clare attack and, along with Lynch, he retains the link between the current squad and Clare’s last All-Ireland winning side. After confirming his decision to return for another season, Gilligan said that Clare would be “delighted” to win another Munster championship.

Defending champions Tipperary will be heavy favourites in that competition, particularly given the on-going civil war in Cork. But with Brian O’Connell yet to come back and the early competition suggesting that Clare are developing a very promising squad, there is plenty of reason for optimism.

Like all serious hurling counties, Clare know that Kilkenny are out there and after last year’s stunning All-Ireland final performance, defeated manager Davy Fitzgerald managed to sound a defiant note. His message was clear: even though Kilkenny looked utterly unbeatable, teams and managers had to continue to believe they could beat them. It is an attitude that Baker shares.

“You have to believe that it is not impossible. The alternative is that you go to training, you do the drills, you take the gear, you go on the holiday, you play the games, go through all the motions and then when the season is over, you look at yourself and ask: did I give it all. It is going to take an absolutely unbelievable performance for any team to beat Kilkenny as they are now.

“What they have achieved up to now will go down as one of those key GAA timelines, one of the signature periods in the game. And the thing is, if you look at the great Kerry football team of the 1970s and 1980s, once their key players left, they struggled to maintain their standard and their grip on the game. We know that won’t happen with Kilkenny because the players and the formations are in place and that has been one of the key attributes that Brian Cody has brought to bear in his time there.”

But the Kilkenny aura is something that all hurling counties must live with. These days are about the more immediate task of getting houses back in order. The return of Davy Fitzgerald to Cusack Park tomorrow adds a dash of spice to the meeting between Clare and Waterford. And the sight of the Sixmilebridge man, one of the totemic figures of Clare hurling, now standing in the visitors’ dugout will seem strange. Baker knows Fitzgerald’s visit is bound to provoke some public interest but as far as he is concerned, it is just another league game.

But it will make for an evocative occasion, as Clare move steadily away from what they once were and on towards what they hope to become.