You would’ve expected that Clare were watching Cork’s defeat of Tipperary with an eagle eye.
They would’ve been assessing the competition, analysing their potential opponents strategies and tactics, enjoying the game.
No, the Banner boys were out training.
It was a conscious effort too, the Clare management pairing of Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor arranged training for 4pm on that Sunday, the exact same time as the throw in of the Tipp v Cork Munster quarter-final clash.
“I only saw it on The Sunday Game (that night), because we were actually training at 4pm,” says Banner man Brendan Bugler.
Clare have tunnel vision for their Munster semi-final with Limerick this Sunday, and they entered the tunnel a long time ago.
“That was the view of the management, that game was irrelevant to our focus,” Bugler explained.
“Our focus was Limerick, they didn’t want us watching that game and thinking ahead.
“I suppose it has thrown things wide open. From our point of view, there’s only one game (to focus on) and we’ll see after that.”
It’s understandable too. Since Clare’s All-Ireland triumph of 2013, they haven’t won a game in the Munster Championship. In fact, since their last Munster final appearance in 2008, Clare have lost eight out of nine provincial clashes. That’s a damning statistic, and one that Bugler and his team-mates are keen to banish.
“There are no excuses this year, it is a shocking stat when you look back on 2008,” the Whitegate man said.
“I think that was the last time we played in a Munster final. I think on that day only one current panel member played, Patrick Donnellan.
“All of us want to play in a Munster final, we want to tog out on that day because it is a special day in the GAA calendar. That is a motivation, to get to that day, we need to try to get over this hurdle.”
Bugler is enjoying the management approach of Moloney and O’Connor and claims that one of the most important aspects of their management is their communication with the players, many of whom they are familiar with from their spells as the minor and under-21 management teams.
They see eye to eye with the players and know how to treat them.
“It is just their outlook on the way they want us to play – number one: they’d have obviously worked with a lot of the guys at minor and under 21 level,” he said.
“They obviously have a view that the game should be played a little bit different to the previous management. They work very well together, the two of them, they are very successful when it comes to their own jobs, they run the set-up like an organisation.
“They are both managers in what they do, they work with people on a day to day basis so their people skills are very, very good. They are a good fit and they know the players, they haven’t worked with me or one or two others, but they have worked with most of those players since they were 16, they know their strengths and weaknesses.”
Brendan Bugler was at the launch of the Littlewoods Ireland sponsorship of the GAA Senior All-Ireland Hurling Championship. The fashion, sportswear, electrical and homeware retailer will continue with their successful #StyleOfPlay campaign following on from its introduction in the recent Littlewoods Ireland National Camogie Leagues.
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