Working it out
Brian Lohan sits behind his desk in the eponymous auctioneering and financial services business in Shannon Town Centre. Work is a key motif. He had to throw himself into it to catch up after the team trip to the US in November and it usually tops the list of hurling virtues he details in answering questions about his team’s success.
When interviewed back in the 1990s about what made the Lohans – himself, brother Frank and father Gus – different, the 25-year-old Brian answered for all of them: “We work harder.”
Whatever the components, last summer it all – well, it all worked.
The Clare team he was appointed to lead five years ago incrementally improved until this year, after a couple of seasons having to make do with the faintest of praise that they were Limerick’s toughest opponents – in Munster, there came an unarguable campaign.
The year it all worked out: Brian Lohan on Clare’s All-Ireland deliverance
Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’
Malachy Clerkin: After 27 years of being ignored by British government, some good news at last for Seán Brown’s family
It delivered the county’s first league and championship double and did more than enough to consign a fitful Munster campaign to the status of postscript.
He has always maintained a warm relationship with the 1990s manager, Ger Loughnane, even when his old mentor’s public criticisms as a pundit had struck others as outlandish.
One of the iconic images of the post-All-Ireland mayhem is of the two men embracing. Loughnane had said to his former full back that he delivered the Liam MacCarthy and that was all that mattered. The bottom line on any county’s annual report.
Four All-Irelands in 30 years: as many as Tipperary, more than Cork; only Kilkenny and Limerick above them. Also, two minors and four under-21s. A proper elite county. A legacy of the 1990s team.
Brian has this persona and the media even get a colder version of it because maybe he doesn’t speak as fluently to the media as he does to us. He is an exceptional person; he really does see the person behind the player taking to the pitch
— Shane O'Donnell
Beginnings
As a player, Brian Lohan wasn’t much mapped at underage but Loughnane saw in him what he wanted. He became the decade’s dominant full back for all sorts of reasons: pace, concentration and a completely unflinching attitude. His charges out of defence, that distinctive red helmet on the move, and the 70-metre clearances unfailingly turned up the volume on Clare’s support.
In the breakthrough All-Ireland of 1995, he played the latter part of the match through a hamstring injury. Indomitable.
Plain-spoken to the point of abrasiveness but ultimately a team player, he recounted during his career setting out to Loughnane’s house to argue some point of team selection, but halfway there deciding it was not his place to be telling the manager who to pick and instead turning back for home.
When the vacancy arose in 2019, he was interested but had to navigate political turbulence. Unusually for someone, who – to understate – never courts positive PR, he is very popular in the county and was before winning the All-Ireland. Put that to him and he appears a little uncomfortable.
“I don’t know. When I went for the job originally, the county board didn’t want me but the clubs did and the players did. We had a good management team and we were prepared to work – we went to an awful lot of matches and put our heart and soul into the job since appointed. I think that’s appreciated by supporters and players and a lot of people on the ground.”
Earlier this month, Munster GAA named him their Manager of the Year, but a more personal accolade came from the team’s Hurler of the Year, Shane O’Donnell, speaking at the time of his award.
We’ve a good group of players. They generally don’t need to be told where they’re going wrong and in many cases are driving the tutorials after games as much as the management
— Brian Lohan
“Brian has this persona and the media even get a colder version of it because maybe he doesn’t speak as fluently to the media as he does to us. He is an exceptional person; he really does see the person behind the player taking to the pitch.
“That environment he has fostered in the last few years has been incredible to be a part of. It has been a joy. It has been so enjoyable. It has been the best years I’ve played with Clare. That was even before we won. It is a great panel to be a part of, Brian should be the one that is commended for that.”
As is well documented, relations with the old county board were strained but he gets on better with the current administration even if he riffs on the ‘political careers’ aphorism by telling Clare Head of Operations Deirdre Murphy that he fully expects her ultimately to fire him when the time comes.
But’s he’s happy with the county board?
“Yeah, happy. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as she does.”
Springtime
At the start of 2024, Lohan and his backroom team of Ken Ralph, Tommy Corbett, Shane Hassett and Brendan Bugler felt that they needed to expand options to fortify their championship challenge.
The league became a matter of balancing preparation and development of players with the nagging imperative to win something. It wasn’t simply a matter of finding new players, but giving greater game time to younger panellists.
One player decided that the league was not for him. Shane O’Donnell’s phenomenal year is almost an advertisement for taking a break in the early months, but Lohan frowns at the idea that others might be tempted to skip the league and become Hurler of the Year.
“From my perspective that would be completely against my beliefs on preparation, but he’s a special individual and there were other factors. He had got concussion [an almost career-ending incident in 2021] and there was a full understanding that playing games in January and February brought an extra risk, plus he was living in Dublin.”
Any grumbling in the undergrowth?
“None. We had regular contact with him and he’s a good guy to train on his own. He’s come in and everyone else has been training since the start, but he’d be pinging the ball around as if he’s been practising every day for the previous three months. He has exceptional ability.”
O’Donnell got back for the league final against Kilkenny. Winning not only ticked the box for silverware but also redress for disappointment against those opponents in the previous two All-Ireland semi-finals.
“It was very significant for us,” he says. It would prove as much three months later.
Springing a leak
With the momentum of a league win and decent competition for places, Clare were set fair for the championship and the big collision on day one with champions, Limerick. That’s how it played for 50 minutes or so and a nine-point lead didn’t flatter them.
Calamity followed with a precise gift of the same nine points in the form of three preventable goals. Lohan was all but speechless afterwards.
Reflecting, he underlines the on-field jeopardy of losing concentration and the off-field frustration of watching.
“Sometimes players mightn’t have practised sufficiently the basic skills of defending – blocking the ball and marking your man – or there might be other things on their mind – like getting up the field and scoring points, which is lovely but not what defenders are there for. But they are up against top players in the championship. Any loss of concentration is going to be costly.
“We’ve a good group of players. They generally don’t need to be told where they’re going wrong and in many cases are driving the tutorials after games as much as the management.”
This was déjà vu for Clare. Twelve months previously they had unexpectedly lost at home to a goal-crazed Tipperary team. Facing into the remainder of a Munster campaign having to win matches brings excruciating pressure. They survived in 2023 and reached the provincial final. Now they had to do it all over again and first stop was Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork.
That win, illuminated by a radiant O’Donnell, got Clare back on track. Nervy victories against Waterford and Tipperary followed and they were back in the Munster final against Limerick, who had ruled the province for five years and were now in pursuit of hurling’s Holy Grail, the All-Ireland five-in-a-row.
Three Munster finals and two All-Ireland semi-finals. We couldn’t keep losing these big matches. It was a case of ‘enough is enough’. In the development of every team, that point is reached. Everything was on the line from the All-Ireland quarter-final on, everything for the group and for me and the management
— Brian Lohan
It was the third year running for the counties – something that hadn’t happened in Munster for over 50 years – but compared to the electric storms of 2023 and ‘22, this year’s final was a summer shower, as Clare wilted to a six-point defeat. By now, the league had been forgotten and in championship terms, the team was seen to be regressing.
What happened next changed the year.
Priorities
Another Munster final defeat and this time with no ‘what if’s’ and then, Lohan and the management decided to give the players a week off despite there being just 13 days between the provincial final and the All-Ireland quarter-final with Wexford.
They had other things going for them, however. Unlike previous years, there was no agonising over a near miss – the opposite: an underwhelming performance had created the imperative to improve, do better on the part of the players.
Management did its bit by allowing the week off, as was planned had they won Munster, and with it, a reset. The team was also shaken up with Aidan McCarthy dropped in favour of Aron Shanagher – a switch that prompted an almighty response from McCarthy in the matches that remained.
Still, it was all a gamble, as the manager acknowledges.
“The attitude was that by taking a week’s break, you were leaving yourself vulnerable if you got beaten by Wexford but if you got past them, it gave you a better opportunity because you had that break taken – a better chance of beating Kilkenny.
“I’d have preferred to lose a quarter-final rather than a semi-final or a final. There was an element of a gamble but we were prepared to take it.”
They were assisted by Rory O’Connor, Wexford’s best forward, getting sent off before half-time but there was an energy about Clare and some high notes hit.
Tony Kelly had his most productive afternoon (0-5 from play) since returning from injury and O’Donnell was as usual electric, scoring 1-4 – the goal a signature combination of persistence and breathtaking technique.
If the gamble had paid off, there was still Kilkenny waiting in the semi-final, low-key but a fifth successive Leinster in their pocket and having put a full stop to both of Clare’s most recent seasons.
Similar punctuation looked imminent in the first half of the semi-final. Only the saves of Éibhear Quilligan and the recharged precision of the restored Aidan McCarthy’s frees kept Clare afloat, but they fought themselves back into it. By the end, they had outplayed their opponents and reached a first All-Ireland final in 11 years.
This was Lohan’s Rubicon. It had to be crossed or a third successive semi-final defeat by Kilkenny would have finished him.
“There was a bit of that but it wasn’t just two big matches; it was five at that stage. Three Munster finals and two All-Ireland semi-finals. We couldn’t keep losing these big matches. It was a case of ‘enough is enough’.
“In the development of every team, that point is reached. Everything was on the line from the All-Ireland quarter-final on, everything for the group and for me and the management.”
Shane has got tremendous ability. Before I got involved, I would have said he’s a good hurler but he’s no Tony Kelly. Then you see him in training and just appreciate the level of ability he has, and such a strong mind
— Brian Lohan
Final reflection
It is now well known that Shane O’Donnell sustained a hamstring injury during All-Ireland week. The prospect of losing the player who was already a shoo-in for HOTY nearly registered on the Richter scale in Clare.
Sufficiently early in the week for diagnosis and a slowly dawning but unexpectedly positive prognosis to emerge, the injury threw preparations into turmoil.
“We had a good bit of work planned on the Tuesday for after the training session,” Lohan recalls, “sports psychology work and that sort of thing. That just fell flat. Nobody wanted to be there! The whole group was disappointed that Shane was out for the final because when you do a hamstring a few days before a big match, it typically doesn’t respond.”
Of course, it did, and O’Donnell duly led the revival that transformed the match from a glittering Cork procession into a riveting duel. Clare got three goals and kept their opponents to one but still it ebbed and flowed: level at half-time, full time and at the break in extra time.
The manager was happy with how his team were playing even during that alarming first quarter.
“I thought our structure was good from the start. We were happy with it and how we were defending the puck-outs as well as happy with our own puck-outs. There were a couple of errors (by Clare) and I think it was 18 or 19 minutes before Cork had a wide.
“Sometimes you just have to stand back and ask, what more could we have done there? For the goal they got, it was a brilliant piece of attacking play and some of the other scores they got early on were just exceptional. At those moments you have to say they are exceptional scores and it will be hard to keep getting them and our time will come.”
And so, it did.
The season’s odd dynamic had played out. Cork revived their season and ended Limerick’s over the course of two extraordinary matches. Limerick again ruined Clare’s Munster campaign and raised fundamental doubts about the team, beating them twice for the first time in the round-robin era.
We’ve won an awful lot of games over the last three years, but we didn’t win the big games and you get criticised for that and have to deal with it. There were obviously calls we made this year that didn’t go right but we won the matches
— Brian Lohan
Clare, though, overcame Cork on two occasions – once to revive their year and then to crown it.
“We probably played our best hurling on the biggest day and that wasn’t confined to the starting 15. That’s a tribute to everyone.”
For all the collective vindication, Lohan acknowledges the role of leading individuals, starting with his Hurler of the Year.
“Shane has got tremendous ability. Before I got involved, I would have said he’s a good hurler but he’s no Tony Kelly. Then you see him in training and just appreciate the level of ability he has, and such a strong mind.
“He puts everything into a training session mentally and pushes to get the best out of himself. I’m delighted for him and the way he played but he always plays for us like that. He’s one of those guys you can rely on.”
He also reflects on the immense performance of Tony Kelly, who after a hard year of grappling with injury and recovery, delivered on the biggest day of all.
“Sometimes we might be looking for Shane to do more but with Tony, you’re often trying to get him to do less. Two different personalities.
“There was such satisfaction in that Tony has carried the county on his back for a couple of years. Just phenomenal. Scoring 17 points in matches and up against really good players and they not being able to handle him. For him to do what he did on the biggest day when captain of the team – basically decide that he would win the game regardless.
“Even as a Clare supporter, you’d be delighted to see it. It’s a proper legacy for him after being the player he’s been over the past 10 years, that he produced the performance he did on the biggest day and under that pressure. It was brilliant for everyone.”
And vindication for a management that has been criticised for tactical missteps and failure to respond on the line?
“We’ve won an awful lot of games over the last three years, but we didn’t win the big games and you get criticised for that and have to deal with it. There were obviously calls we made this year that didn’t go right but we won the matches.”
Brilliant
Celebrations after All-Irelands bring chaos and protocol. Mayhem on the field, exultation at lifting the cup, regathering for the hotel set-piece and the arrival of cameras.
For Brian Lohan, the endorphin hit was delayed until he woke on Monday and then continued during an unusual escape.
“I went out to France a couple of days later, to a town called Cassis on the coast of the south of France. We got there Tuesday morning and had a lovely couple of days with the family. You wake up on the Wednesday and you just feel brilliant.
“You go for a walk and it’s the nicest walk you’ve ever taken in your whole life. Get a bite to eat and it’s the nicest meal you’ve ever had! Just the senses of satisfaction and achievement in getting it done were absolutely brilliant.”
The year it all worked out.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to the Counter Ruck podcast for the best rugby chat and analysis
