Clare must reach the last twelve in the All-Ireland Football Championship otherwise their year will be a failure according to Martin McMahon.
Corner-back, Martin spoke to The Clare Herald pitchside after the Banner’s three point Munster quarter-final win over Limerick. He expected it would be a tough affair and that’s the way it turned out to be however he believes forwards from both sides will be dissatisfied with some poor wides.
“It was very tough, we always knew coming down here that you were going into the Lions den that you were going to get a tough game and it was pretty much clear to see that that’s the way it was, I think in the first half anyone that was looking at it from a neutral point of view I’d say the notions of puke football up in Ulster would have came to mind. I suppose on the other side of that there was a lot of maybe the forwards when they go and look at the video both sets of teams are going to be looking at it going it was a bit reckless, the shooting efficiency would be nowhere near of the top Division 1 teams or where you need to be, I think that’s an area where both teams will have to improve on”.
A Limerick attack in the forty second man resulted in a wide from Kilteely/Dromkeen’s Sean O’Dea. What stood out from this move wasn’t the centre back’s miss but the fact that twenty five players were situated in the half of the field where he kicked for the posts. Martin believes Clare will need to adapt to the overly-populated area in their semi-final bout with Kerry.
“Sometimes it can be great having the numbers back there but I think today and it’s where we’ve to work on a bit, we find that everyone tends to drop into the space and no one actually ends up doing the job, you’re still letting lads get away a shot and looking out against us the next day we’re going out against Kerry who are probably going to take those chances and in that if we get lads back into that space around the d there that lads actually have to push up on to people so that we can prevent those shots going in”.
With such strong characters in the Clare dressing room, the Kilmurry/Ibrickane man insists there’s no place for moral victories in their setup. “That’s the one thing with having lads like Gary, Gordon and all them in there, moral victories don’t really work with this team at the end of the day like. While we’re going to be disappointed with our personal performance, at the end of the day the best thing is you have something to work on and go forward, it’d be worse to be in there and looking at a qualifier route, maybe that’s the downfall of the Championship with Limerick they have four weeks now till the next match and that’s not really great for football”.
When asked on their objectives for the year ahead, Martin shoots from the hip and says they need to make the last twelve in the country if not even with their Division 3 League title in the bag their year will be a failure.
“At the start of the year our first goal in the League was to get promoted, the next day now we’re probably looking at going out to put on a good performance and if that gets us a victory it gets us a victory and if it doesn’t it doesn’t, nearly every day we go out we all have our personal targets and we all have our defensive targets and attacking targets and if we can reach them we’re usually happy.
Where do we want to go? Listen we’re aiming for last twelve and if we don’t get there our season getting promoted or not is a failure, it’s where you have to get to be. I know you could if you go through the qualifier route you could get a tough team but listen if we want to be anywhere and see an improvement we have to get to the last twelve”.
A secondary school teacher at St Munchins College in Limerick, McMahon admits his place of work ensures the victory was that extra bit special. “It is alright considering I’m down in the heart of Limerick, it’ll be nice to go in there tomorrow morning, there’s a former Limerick player Jason O’Brien in there so I’ll be up to his class first thing tomorrow morning and see how he is. Listen it’s grand like, it’s a perfect school there, they’re always accommodating like whether you’ve to come home early for training or last year I’d to go get an injection in my back and they were nice about it they let me off for the day”.