The Clare hurling managerial saga looks set to drag on for at least another couple of weeks after no appointment was made tonight.
Following outgoing joint-manager Donal Moloney’s withdrawal from the process last weekend, there were only two remaining candidates - Louis Mulqueen and Brian Lohan - and county board chairman Joe Cooney told tonight’s county board meeting that he had a name to put forward for ratification.
However, amid growing frustration at how the process has been handled by the board, delegates stated that they had no mandate from the clubs to back any appointment at this point in time and so the name of the preferred candidate was withheld.
It was then decided to seek further expressions of interest from potential candidates to the county secretary Pat Fitzgerald up to October 21, after which a range of interviews will be conducted.
A selection committee of chaired by Cooney and also including Niall Romer (Kilmaley), Michael O’Connor (Crusheen), Colm Honan (Clonlara) and Michael O’Neill (Ballyea) will run the rule over the next batch of candidates, which will presumably still include Mulqueen and Lohan.
The pair were already interviewed for the post last Monday and it emerged over the course of the meeting that neither of them had been asked about the make-up of their backroom team with Romer, speaking in his capacity as his club’s delegate, saying how he believed that former Clare captain and manager Anthony Daly was on Lohan’s ticket.
A delegation of Clare players called a meeting with Cooney earlier this week where they outlined their frustration at not being consulted at any stage during what has been a drawn-out four-month process following the end of Clare’s Championship campaign in June.
They also expressed disappointment at the “lack of clarity” afforded to Moloney and denied a report that they were keen for a change in management.
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