GAELIC GAMES/MUNSTER SHC:CLARE MANAGER Michael McNamara believes the rules on foul play need to be reviewed, as they are causing unfair situations to develop in individual cases.
His comments came in the light of Clare defender Brendan Bugler being red-carded for flicking his hurl at Limerick's Niall Moran in the last minute of Sunday's Munster hurling semi-final in Thurles - which is virtually certain to result in the player missing next month's Munster final.
"We need to look at the rules," he said yesterday. "The mandatory stuff plainly isn't fair when looked at in the context of the Clare-Limerick match. It was only a little tip and no one was hurt but the consequences for the player are disproportionate.
"In the League against Galway one of our new players, David Barrett, was caught up in a similar incident and missed the whole League as a result of these mandatory suspensions for particular types of dismissal."
But aren't the GAA authorities in the position that unless they lay down firm markers on the subject of foul play, what is already a bad situation would spin farther out of control?
"I'm not condoning dirty play," he replied, "and I'm not criticising the referee for what the rules obliged him to do. All I'm saying is that for a relatively harmless offence a player is paying a huge price. Who knows how many more Munster finals, if any, that he'll be able to play in? Surely these incidents could be looked at more closely before deciding on a suspension?"
Bugler's difficulties weren't the only ones bothering Clare after Sunday's win but the overall feeling was tremendously upbeat, with the county celebrating a first Munster final appearance in nine years in McNamara's debut season in charge.
Already Clare have won twice as many championship matches this season as they had managed in the entire decade to date and in doing so have eliminated Munster champions Waterford and last year's All-Ireland finalists Limerick.
The mood contrasted dramatically with the aftermath of the NHL meeting between the teams at the Gaelic Grounds in March.
Then McNamara had been lamenting the loose shooting that had led to 16 wides, as well as the need to play Tony Carmody shortly after an operation to ensure he would be fully fit for the coming championship.
That weary anxiety has long lifted from the Clare manager. "I don't know - we played quite well at times in that match," he recalled. "Limerick probably put a little more into that than we did at the time.
"We had Tipp the following week and that's the way to get back on track, which we did."
Among the storm clouds are the injuries that forced both Mark Flaherty, top scorer this season, and former All Star Tony Griffin to withdraw on Sunday.
"Mark's hand injury was always a problem," said McNamara. "Young players have to be nursed through those sorts of injuries and he had daily physio sessions but things started to go wrong.
"Remember he was on one of the better corner backs in the country, Damien Reale, and all of that took its toll.
"The prognosis on Tony wouldn't be great. We're hopeful that the hamstring damage isn't extensive. He got a twinge during the week before the game and we would have felt we were in trouble because his game is based on good running and diagonal movement. The only positive thing is we took him off as soon as we could and he'll get every chance to recover - but the final is only three weeks away."
Clare are now in the happy position of going into the Munster final with the pressure negligible, given Tipperary's unbeaten season to date and their historic win down in Cork at the beginning of the month.
The pairing revisits the high point of the county's most successful era a decade ago when under the management of Ger Loughnane and his selectors McNamara and Tony Considine, two All-Irelands were won.
In 1997 Clare got to beat neighbours Tipperary in both the Munster and All-Ireland finals.
"A Munster final against Tipperary would ignite the passions of any Clare person," according to McNamara.
