In the wake of one of Clare’s heaviest defeats since returning to the senior grade in 2009, Trish O’Grady was searching for the positives.
Twenty four points separated Cork and Clare in the Liberty Insurance All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship on Saturday. After the first thirty minutes three points was the difference but Cork ploughed ahead in the second half as their quest for goals proved fruitful to their cause and fatal to the Banner’s.
Speaking after the game, Clare boss Trish O’Grady was happy with their showing in the first half but felt the concession of two goals in the space of thirty five seconds after the resumption were blows they couldn’t come back from.
“They put in a great battle in the first half and it was a very spirited performance like I know our backs were to the wall coming down here and I don’t want to be making excuses with injuries. On the positive side of it we introduced very young players who really in fairness stepped up to the mark and at times were the drivers on the team. The two goals in the opening thirty seconds they really were a suckerpunch to us and it was a real uphill battle for us, it was quiet difficult for them.
“Having said that we introduced three players in the second half and they brought a new dimension to the game but we were on the backfoot and the experience of being All-Ireland Champions with two goals they were going to drive on, we were trying to defend really which is always going to lead to more scores so in terms of that a lot of the scores they got were self-inflicted based on our defensive but what can you do in situations like that”.
In contests like this the underdog needs to take every chance that presents itself. Clare failed to do this and it’s not good enough according to the Newmarket-on-Fergus woman. “In the first half primarily we had a few bad wides but we conceded the goal close enough to half-time it probably would have been putting us level if not ahead if we’d taken all our opportunities having said that I know Cork had some wides aswell. Second half aswell we had some erratic shooting as opposed to ones you’d expect to be going over the bar but listen you have to put them over to put the scores on the board and there’s no point us talking about they were nearly over they weren’t nearly over they were wide end of story”.
Cork appeared to be the stronger team physically, mentally and skillwise in this clash. However O’Grady doesn’t agree that her side were beaten in the air. “I wouldn’t necessarily agree that we were comprehensively beaten in the air, I thought we played reactive camogie last week and that’s not a true reflection of Clare camogie, watching the game today in the first half Clare gave evidence of what they’re capable of, you can’t buy experience when you’re putting out minor players that are going to learn, Cork will have runners every day you play them and all these other teams but that comes with experience with players”.
She believes that Clare are strong enough to carry injuries to key players. “It’s All-Ireland champions at the end of the day and it’s a work in progress for us, without hampering on our injuries, the two marquee players being injured but we’d two more players coming back from injury and a few more that are injured, you need the strength in depth of your panel, Clare can’t carry all those injuries at the minute especially when you’re bringing in underage players”.
With so many young players thrown into the mix, Trish is confident that these outings will bring on the inexperienced players. “They’re going to learn, that’ll all come good and the more experience they get it’ll help Clare camogie in the long-run and the more experienced players will draw on it no more so than the minors will draw off our experienced players aswell”.