Cool-headed Lohan quietly priming Clare for big summer

Clare were almost the forgotten team of the Munster quintet before their emphatic dismissal of their old foes in Thurles last Sunday.

The odds-makers had them pegged as the fifth team in Munster, aka last, the least likely to progress to the All-Ireland series.

As in 2021, their league form had served to dampen enthusiasm though it's increasingly clear that treating the hurling league, in its present guise, as a reliable guide to anything is your first mistake.

The low rating couldn't have been based on their 2021 championship. They beat Waterford in Munster, were done in by a highly contentious decision against Tipperary, knocked out Wexford and were pipped in agonising fashion by Cork, Patrick Collins making a stunning save from Tony Kelly to deny them victory at the death.

As Michael Foley observed on the RTÉ GAA podcast this week, had the ball broken another way last summer, Clare could easily have found themselves in an All-Ireland final. Dublin and Kilkenny, neither especially intimidating in their 2021 guise, would have been the only ones blocking the path to the decider.

Brian Lohan's determinedly low-key, waffle-free approach to managing Clare doesn't serve to generate publicity.

He is not inclined towards displays of giddy triumphalism in victory. He felt no impulse to give the media the boo-yah "ye wrote us off" treatment, acknowledging that it was logical that Clare would come in under the radar given their bye in week one.

For two years, every attempt at profiling Lohan quickly got side-tracked down a Davy Fitz rabbit-hole. (We're stepping perilously close to that territory again, here...)

From the media's perspective, his first two seasons as Clare manager were dominated by his terrible relationship with his former