Clare's league progress: Seán Moran listens to Anthony Daly evaluate the success of Frank Lohan's frontline move.

Anthony Daly, his first season as Clare manager still stretching before him, points out one important aspect of Frank Lohan the hurler. "People wouldn't know from seeing him play corner back over the years that Frank is very talented. He's a great soccer player, plays football, golf and he's even a brilliant swimmer."

Back when Clare holidayed in Thailand in the mid-1990s Daly remembers them organising a soccer match against a local team. "I'd never seen him play before and didn't know how good he was. We stuck him up centre forward and he got a hat-trick. We won 3-2."

Whether this was a subliminal prompt, Lohan has switched functions since his former captain took up managerial duties at the end of last year. An All Star and twice All-Ireland winner at corner back, he has moved up front with startling results.

Clare have started the National Hurling League season well and if their three-out-of-three record includes the two least taxing fixtures, against Laois and Dublin, they are still in the driving seat for Sunday's critical match against multiple-champions Kilkenny.

Including two pre-season outings, Lohan's tally for the season is six goals from five matches, including the weekend's impressive win in Galway. But as the graph of the challenges rises for the team, so also does it for Lohan.

"I wouldn't have played too often in the forwards - the odd match for the last 10 or 15 minutes but never a full season," he says. "It's still early days and I've got a few goals but I don't know where I'll end up. The jury's still out."

Daly uses the same phrase except he hears the foreman returning. "I'm increasingly of the opinion we should stick with him up front." He admits it's an easy call while things are going well but is determined not to jettison the whole concept at the first sign of adversity.

He is aware others - "supporters and media" - won't be as restrained. On Sunday he remembers a ball played through, as agreed, at head height to Lohan but the full forward had decided to experiment himself with a darting run to the corner. Possession flew straight to an unmarked

Diarmuid Cloonan.

"You could hear them in the stand," says Daly, "going: 'would you ever get him out of there and back down to the corner'. Then he gets another ball turns Cloonan and roofs it."

The thought processes that led to this promising departure were simple enough for the new manager.

"It's something that was knocked around for years in the county - 'throw Frank up at centre forward' - and from my point of view I felt we had great, young backs coming through, lads that look the part. So we decided to have a look at him."

Lohan was interested for a different reason. "I was more looking at it from the point of view my hurling tends to be slow to take off and in the forwards you can get more involved, you see more ball and get yourself hurling to a higher level."

Clare played Colin Lynch at centre forward last weekend and Daly finds himself in the unusual position of having competition for forward places. Lynch may not be a long-term option but the manager sees plenty to be positive about in Lohan's aptitude.

"In the first match against UL we were looking at him in at centre forward and he was very good. He'd six points from play and later in the game we switched him into full forward where he gathered two high balls and stuck them.

"He didn't get that sort of return against Cork in another challenge but he was marking Diarmuid O'Sullivan who didn't spend the day bouncing out and beating the ball 90 yards. Frank shackled him well. He has a natural battling ability, is a good hurler both sides and very athletic."

Unusually for a hurler, Daly believes that Lohan's football prowess is a major asset with the small ball.

"There's a lot more linking up in football and you can see that about him when he gets the ball. Every time he's in possession he looks up and sees what's on. A lot of hurlers almost have to think 'will I pass it or shoot?' It's natural to him."