Jesus, you’d nearly think winning the All-Ireland was the worst thing that could’ve happened to Clare.
If you can get your head around that twisted logic, you might just be able to see that the expectation and hunger that has risen in the Banner county since 2013 has been one of their biggest hindrances.
Every year Clare come into the summer, big things are expected of them. But every time Clare fall short of those grand plans, it’s crisis lockdown mode in the county.
It’s not something that is particularly easy to put a finger on and, after the league success this year, it was all-the-more infuriating. Tony Kelly feels that more than anyone.
“It was a frustrating year in many respects,” the Ballyea man told Colm Parkinson on SportsJOE’s GAA Hour podcast.
“We started off well in Division 1B, we were winning all our games down there. Once we got to a quarter-final, our goal was to win the quarter-final and get more games to prepare ourselves for championship.
“Looking back on it, we probably put too much into the league, trying to get wins under our belts from having a poor year last year. We kept going and going and we ended up winning the league. But we just kind of seemed to stall.
“As a team, we didn’t really up our performance or bring our level of performance from the league into the championship.”
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It’s not the first time that the wheels have come off the Clare machine at the wrong time.
It’s not something that is lost on Tony Kelly either though.
“That’s been a stumbling block for us the last two or three years, the first round of the Munster championship,” Kelly said.
“You have to win your first round to give yourself a chance to be hurling for the summer.
I know we won the All-Ireland going through the back door but if you’re going through the back door and you’ve had won bad performance, you’re out in your ear.“I can’t answer the question as to why we couldn’t bring our form in from the league but it’s definitely something we’re going to have to address because you’re not really giving yourself a fair crack of the whip if you’re going out every year in the first round of the Munster.
“You’re not leaving any room for error heading into the back door either.”
(Continued below)
Are they training too hard, too early? Are they putting too much emphasis on almost punishing themselves with their winter exploits, getting up early to train on Christmas eve for example?
“Management teams have different ways of getting lads fit,” Kelly explained. “In 2013, [training on Christmas eve] was a great thing because that was the message we were using and we were winning and, I suppose, if we won with that, why change it?
“It depends on the team you have. Other teams wouldn’t buy into it. I see Waterford were similar, stuff came out that said they were training on Christmas day. The whole training on Christmas eve or Christmas day can be blown out of proportion – if you did that on another day, boys wouldn’t see it as a problem.
“We didn’t have much of a problem getting up and training on Christmas eve or anything like that. I don’t think it affects you at the time of year.
“Looking back over the last couple of years, we probably weren’t as fresh coming into the Munster championship. As a team, we were unable to lift our performance but I don’t think training over the Christmas period has that much of an impact come May or June.
“You should be well able to time your approach after the league but that’s something over the last two years we’ve haven’t been able to do.”
Listen to the full interview below.
The GAA Hour chats to Ballyea sensation Tony Kelly and features a raging argument over which road you should take from Clare to Wexford. Subscribe here on iTunes.
