Michael McNamara, the senior trainer for Clare, says that a report for this weekend's county convention which criticises the behaviour of the press during last summer's championship simply reflects the feelings of the players.

The county secretary, Pat Fitzgerald, will tell Saturday's convention in Ennis that the senior hurling squad had been subjected to intense and blatantly unfair media scrutiny, and that they were harshly dealt with by the GAA authorities.

Fitzgerald's report is scathing towards what is described as a series of "scurrilous and unbalanced articles" in the aftermath of the Munster final replay which, he will assert, forced the Munster Council to deal severely with midfielder Colin Lynch.

McNamara, recalling the detailed analyses and polemic comment on the (now well-documented) incidents which flared in the Munster Final replay between Clare and Waterford, said that most of the players could not believe how they were portrayed.

"I think it's fair to say they were shocked," McNamara said. "This was a team who had been held up as the new breed of hurlers, with strength and discipline. And then suddenly they were facing a barrage of criticism, and I think that they couldn't understand the nature of it."

While McNamara accepted that the incidents which marred the replay possibly merited some form of rebuke, he argued that those actions seemed to be held up for comment in isolation while similar occurrences were ignored.

"This was an aspect that the players took a very strong view about. I think there was one particular incident in a championship football match which was extremely dangerous yet was afforded just one line in the newspapers, while some of our players underwent virtual trial by media.

"It was disappointing that almost all the newspapers - with two notable exceptions - seemed to judge what happened without ever really standing back for a moment to take a considered or objective stance."

In his convention report, Fitzgerald suggests the adverse publicity was a backlash against Ger Loughnane's habit of releasing team sheets which tended to vary from teams which actually played.

"That seemed to be the case," McNamara said. "I mean, the Clare management team did that not to thwart the media, that was the last of their concerns, but because they felt it was the best way to deal with internal concerns at the time.

"Now, some of the media appeared to take exception to this - I remember one radio commentator saying that he had never experienced it in 30 years. That may be so, but this is a new era, and, as far as Clare is concerned, we will deal with players as we see fit," he continued. He said that the players' bewilderment over their treatment by the press was made more acute because of the approachable and open way in which they had conducted themselves in the preceding years.

"I remember being in Kilkenny and someone said to me, `What's wrong with ye down there?', and all I could tell him was to come down and see the way we operate. I have never refused a phone call and I think the same is true for the rest of the lads, we have always tried to be open. "To be honest, I think they are a wonderful bunch of lads who have given their time to every damn thing when required. I remember we attended a function in the North after we were beaten in the 1996 championship, and Jack Boothman implied that Clare would still be in the competition if they were less giving with their time."

McNamara finished by saying that while the media fall-out had not left the players permanently bitter, it will have changed their perceptions of it a little.

"It's probable that the players might be more selective and introduce an element of shrewdness to their openness."

Meanwhile, Clare county chairman Robert Frost has indicated that he will also be touching on the issues raised by Fitzgerald during his address this weekend.

Frost, who is standing for re-election against out-going vice chairman Fr Michael McNamara, said that all associated with Clare hurling hoped for "closure" on the controversies which followed the hurlers throughout the summer after Saturday's convention in Ennis.