Clare manager Brian Lohan after the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Final between Clare and Cork at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Brian Lohan hopes necessity can be the mother of invention for his team in the early rounds of the Allianz Hurling League.
The reigning League and All-Ireland champions have something of an injury crisis at the moment, but Lohan’s glass remains half-full.
“From the starting 15 from the All-Ireland Final we're down 10,” said Lohan today at the launch of the 2025 Allianz Leagues.
“We're under pressure from an injury perspective and we've just been a little bit unlucky with that. But it's an opportunity as well for other guys to come in and see how they go and pitch themselves up against good quality players and that starts next Sunday.
“We want to win as many matches as we can in the League and see where it brings us. From a management perspective you want to win matches but you also want to introduce a couple of guys into the set-up.
“We've made a conscious decision over the last couple of years to do that in the League. This year it's been taken out of our hands a bit because we have so many players injured at the moment so we'll certainly see different players and it'll give us an idea of what they're like and how they're able to handle good quality teams which is what is there in Division 1 of the League.
“We start out in the League next Sunday with a big game for us, Kilkenny coming to Ennis, so it's something to really look forward to and we're hoping we have another good year.”
2024 was an exceptional year and Lohan his hopeful his team will drive on again in 2025 rather than rest on their laurels.
“We've worked very hard,” he says. “The team works exceptionally hard every year and sometimes you just don't get the rewards for all that work and then sometimes you do and we did last year.
“There's a good level of ambition in the squad, within individuals in the squad, and we're hoping to add to that by bringing in a couple of new guys. A couple of guys have finished up with us as well so it's a different group.
“We hope that we'll have a good amount of spirit in that group and that we'll take on the challenges that are ahead of us now.”
