Category: Sport

CLARE GAA have been called upon to make their new Michael Cusack Archive that’s now housed at its Áras Chiosóg headquarters in Clareabbey available to members of the public to view for research purposes.

In making the call, Br Sean McNamara, who donated the material to Clare GAA earlier in the year, said that granting public access to Michael Cusack papers he had collected over three decades was crucial to keeping the legacy of the GAA’s founding father to the fore.

“As you all know, nobody would be here tonight with Michael Cusack,” said Br McNamara. “During the past 30 years, I have been collecting materials dealing with the life and times of Michael Cusack.

“All the information I collected over the years – and being of an age that I may not be much longer on this planet – I have decided to make it available.

“Des Crowe suggested to me that the proper thing to do with it would be to give it to the county board. During the month of May, we spent many hours putting together the material.

“It consists of 14 folders of material – in other words there is in excess of 200 items. For those of you who may not know, all the material belonging to Michael Cusack is in the university of Galway.

“That is not much use to people, because it is almost impossible to get a look at it. I’m one of few to have seen the material, because last May I gave the university 12 items.

“By giving the material to the county board it means that people wanting to get information relating to Michael Cusack will be readily available. That’s readily available and I hope that this will happen,” added Br McNamara.

The Kilmurry McMahon man used the platform of Thursday’s Convention to launch a volley in the direction of Ennis Town Council, over what he called the local authority’s misrepresentation of Cusack’s proper place in GAA history.

“There are still people who think that the GAA was not the brainchild of Michael Cusack,” said Br McNamara rounding on detractors of the Carron man.

“It was Michael and Michael alone who thought up the founding of the Gaelic Athletic Association,” continued Br McNamara.

“There are a number of information boards in Ennis. It is located on Francis Street, close to where Clare FM was and it says ‘The GAA was the brainchild of PW Nally, 1857-91. He suggested his idea to his friend, Michael Cusack and active Fenian’.

“On both counts it’s wrong. It wasn’t PW Nally’s brainchild. It was Michael Cusack’s brainchild,” added Br McNamara.

THE game of football is not as we once knew it – that’s according to former Clare football selector of 25 years Noel Walsh who has said that if the number of consecutive handpasses is not curbed the game will have to be name changed to Gaelic Hand and Football.

The former chairman of the Munster Council, who was a Clare selector in the county’s Munster championship winning year of 1992, took his crusade to bring more foot passes back into the game to the floor of the annual Convention by way of a motion that’s now set to go forward to next year’s GAA Congress.

Walsh’s motion said: “When a team has completed three consecutive movements of the ball by hand or fist, the next move must be to kick the ball by foot”.

A similar motion from Ruan read: “The number of consecutive hand passes in Gaelic Football to be confined to a maximum of three. Penalty: – Free to the opposing side””

“There has been a considerable amount of discussion and negative talk about the amount of times in which the ball is being kicked – the lack of kicking,” said Walsh in putting forward his motion.

“We don’t want the handpass to be excluded at all, but we are allowing for three handpasses and then the ball has to be kicked.

“If it continues the way it’s going, as we saw in the All-Ireland semi-final (Dublin v Donegal) last year, there will have to be a proposal at some Convention asking for the game of Gaelic Football to be changed to Gaelic Hand and Football.

“This is because of the way it’s going – for every five deliveries of the ball by hand there is only one delivery by foot. We would hope that this motion will be on the Clár for Congress,” he added.

ANY proposal to reduce the number of senior teams in the county as part of a radical overhaul of club structures in the county that’s being considered by a new county board committee would be a retrograde step.

That was the warning sounded out by former Clare County Board vicechairman, Michael Lee, with the Tubber delegate railing against any move to cull senior teams that might be put before clubs at a Special Convention that’s been earmarked for January 15 next.

“I hear a lot of talk of reducing the number of teams,” Lee told the annual Convention, “but over the past five years we have seen four new teams win the senior championship. That has to be good. For the next two or three years we will see two more clubs win the senior championship.

“There is no fear that the traditional clubs will come back and win senior championships again. They just have to raise their games and I don’t think that reducing the number of clubs at this particular time is the appropriate way forward,” added Lee.

“That will be raised at the special convention in relation the finding of the committee that has been established to look into fixtures,” said county board chairman, Michael O’Neill. “I don’t think we should pre-empt the findings of that committee.

“Pat (Fitzgerald’s) report is very honest in relation to the situation that we find ourselves in at the moment. I don’t wish to comment on it any further than that,” the chairman added.

“I notice the spin that is being put on things,” retorted Lee. “There is no spin,” said O’Neill. “I’m putting no spin on it. I put it quite clearly to the November meeting that I put a committee in place at the request and after motion from Michael Curtin from O’Curry’s.

“It’s not coming from Michael O’Neill or any other individual. It’s the entire body of Clare GAA who are looking into structures and competitions in Clare. Let nobody else put a different slant or opinion on it. Certainly not,” said O’Neill in hitting back.

“I’m not saying that,” said Lee.

“It sounded like that,” answered O’Neill. “I have said that hard deci- sions will have to be made in the new year. I don’t to pre-empt anything. That committee has an autonomy and it will come back with its findings and its report,” he added.

All motions on games and structures for championships, which number 19 in all weren’t discussed at Thursday’s Convention, with motions 13 to 31 held over to the Special Convention when the findings of the county board chaired by Padraic Boland from Broadford will present their findings.

However, a debate on structures was sparked by Tulla delegate, Michael O’Halloran, who made a radical proposal for a four and a half month closed season for club affairs.

“The subject of club fixtures has to be broadened out and cannot be re- solved without the involvement and understanding and co-operation of both the provincial council and Central Council,” O’Halloran said.

“This is a three dimensional problem that needs input from the board, the Munster Council and Central Council.

“We want to play the club championship in the summer season, we want to maintain the integrity of the provincial championships, we want the All-Ireland series.

“I propose we run the club championship between the 1st of April and the 15th of August and that there would be a closed season for club competition and that the inter-county competition would take place subsequent to the 15th of August,” he added.

CLARE GAA is in the black, but will only remain so if costs are cut further in 2012, delegates to last Thursday’s Convention were warned as they were challenged to come up with new initiatives to boost the county board’s coffers.

County board treasurer, Bernard Keane and auditor Tony Fitzpatrick laid bare the financial facts behind the 2011 figures – the latter calling for belts to be tightened, while the former urging a “collective effort” between the top table of the board and the clubs to “keep Clare GAA above water” in 2012.

“It’s nice to finish above the line rather than below the line,” said Mr Keane, “but we had a very difficult year, but we are very happy to be above the line with a small surplus.

“Going forward we are not in a comfortable place financially in this county board. We all realise that. Over the last number of years our margins have been getting smaller, smaller and smaller.

“The fact that our income is down € 160,000 is a very worrying aspect. We can’t run away from that. We can and we will do our best to try and trim our expenditure. Expenditure are bricks in the wall the whole time and there are only so many bricks you can take off the wall before the wall crumbles on you,” he added.

The treasurer revealed that the biggest blow to the board’s financial situation, which saw the surplus for the year’s activities reduce from € 64,366 in 2010 to € 17,796 within the space of 12 months was brought about by a big drop in monies from gate receipts, locally and nationally.

“The biggest disappointment on our income side was our home games. There were various reasons for that,” Keane revealed. “During the course of year we introduced vari- ous schemes – 25 tickets, 15 tickets to help the cause.

“We got very few financially attractive replays. The biggest problem was that the patrons weren’t coming out to support the games. That’s the biggest worry.

“We noticed that in the second half of the year there was a drop off. Our county final was particularly disappointing. Our hurling final realised € 44, 580, our football final € 45,754.

“We were very disappointed with the hurling final, because we had a very attractive programme on the day, but the weather caught us and TG4 killed us. The National League was in the same vein, because patrons weren’t coming out either,” he added.

Now, in response to what county board secretary, Pat Fitzgerald has called “a bleak financial position”, Keane has called on the county club’s to become the brains behind a range of new fundraising ideas to create much-needed cash flow for the year ahead.

“Don’t anyone be under any illusions that a fundraising draw won’t happen in 2012 – it will happen because it has to happen,” said Keane. “The shape of the project, we are not sure of yet. We are waiting for submissions to come from the clubs and are waiting until the 20th of January.

“What we’re asking is that any club out there that has an idea for a fundraising scheme that would work for the county board – we would be hoping that the board would come on board with that.

“We are going to have to come up with new schemes of making money as well as enhancing the schemes that we have there. Every club will have to come on board with the fundraising project and work with that. We have to have new ideas and new brainwaves that will bring in finance.

“We’re all in this together. No one individual or no one club can save this situation. It will be all of us working positively together,” he added.

In closing the debate, auditor Tony Fitzpatrick warned that “if expenditure isn’t watched and if costs aren’t cut, we will go into the red.

“Tighten the belts and perform on the field and we will be fine,” he added.

CLARE GAA has been told to face up to the reality that “there is a problem” with the promotion of Gaelic Games in Ennis.

This alarm was sounded out by the Banner club that has called on Clare GAA to establish a committee to oversee GAA affairs in the county capital, while ensuring that Ennis Urban Board has responsibility for all players under the age of 12 – a situation that has been directly challenged by the Éire Óg decision to establish an Academy to cater for children between the ages of six and 12.

“The urban committee should control the Urban Board – the Urban Board looks after the age group from 12 down,” Banner chairman, OwenRynne told Convention.

He made his call after tabling a mo- tion that called on the Clare County Board to abide by its own rules, by implement By-Law 19 which decrees that an urban committee be established in Ennis to oversee the promotion of games within the town.

“The Banner have proposed this motion to highlight to the board that urban areas are quite complex and need specific focus put on them,” Rynne told the Convention.

“Fundamentally there are numerous distractions in an urban area that the GAA player will encounter in their playing career.

“It is the duty of the club to highlight the fact that extra emphasis must be put on promoting the GAA in urban areas such as Ennis and making sure that the GAA marketed to compete against other sports.

“The club believes that with the implementation of the By-Law 19 that this urban committee can look at issues arising with urban areas and are ready to tackle problems as they may present themselves.

“It is imperative that we get the maximum participation of youth and adults playing our national games and raising the standard of games within Ennis.

“Coiste Contae an Chláir must ensure that we maximise our efforts to promote the GAA within the Ennis urban area and the club believes that by implementing By-Law 19 the board can deal with this issue,” added the Banner delegate.

After a number of questions from Éire Óg delegate Simon Moroney and county board chairman, Michael O’Neill, who asked “what is the intention of the motion”, the Banner delegate reiterated his club’s desire for the board to implement its own bylaws.

“The urban committee should look after urban issues. The urban committee deals with urbanisation and urban issues,” he said. “It needs to be identified that there is a problem.

“The intention of the motion is simple. There are problems within urban areas and we need to tackle that within Clare and within Ennis. It’s fairly clear, we are trying to promote the GAA within an urban area,” he added. “We appointed PJ Fitzpatrick recently to look into the overall Ennis situation in relation to The Banner, Éire Óg and Urban Board,” said chairman, Michael O’Neill.

“Until such time as PJ, and I know that he is close to coming up with his findings on that, we will hold off. Whenever that happens, we’ll leave it until those findings are available to us,” added the chairman.

THERE should be as many as four adult clubs in Ennis – Clare’s county capital that has been described as “a luxury the GAA can’t afford anymore”.

Stinging criticism of the current state of health of Gaelic games in the capital was sounded out by Ruan delegate, Ger Lyons, who called for the Clare County Board to spearhead a new direction for promotion of GAA affairs in the centre of population.

“This is a subject for a whole meeting in itself,” said Lyons. “The whole town of Ennis is a luxury that the GAA can’t afford anymore.

“If you look at Killarney and Tralee – they all have two or three functioning clubs at senior level. I acknowledge the effort that’s being done by Éire Óg, but with the population – Ennis has gone so big and that we have to grasp the nettle, sooner rather than later and stop pussy footing around. There should be three or four clubs in the town of Ennis that can survive and function,” he added.

And, in calling for change, Lyons highlighted the fact that many attempts at tackling the promotion of GAA in Ennis have failed.

“There has been a lot of resources put into in Ennis and initiatives have gone so far but then all of a sudden they fall apart. They go so far that then it stops,” he said.

“We (Ruan) have been associated with The Banner and there have been some fantastic hurlers there but a lot of them have fallen by the wayside. That’s sad and I think the GAA in Clare cannot afford the luxury of Ennis the way it is.

“There has been too much standing aside and it needs a lot of leadership and a longer discussion. My main point is that there should be a lot more units in the town of Ennis. Ennis is not a small place anymore,” he added.

Lifford 4 – EnnisTown/Rock 2 at Cassidy Park, Ennis

A STORMING second half performance saw Lifford make light work of Ennis Town/Rock on Sunday.

The teams were level at half time with the home side drawing level shortly after Town had taken the lead. It was shaping up to be a close and tightly contested affair after the break but two quick goals accelerated Lifford into a winning position.

First Ruairi Norrby’s clever free kick deceived Town goalkeeper Stephen Loftus to find the bottom corner. Clearly re-energised after taking the lead, Donal Magee’s side sought to press home their advantage.

They did so by ruthlessly capitalis- ing on a couple of careless moments of Town defending. Scott Hennessy breached the rearguard to slam home a half volley to make it 3-1.

The points were in the bag when Lunga Balman seized on a half chance to bury a shot that cannoned in off the crossbar. Town upped their performance and were rewarded through Stephen Hickey’s power- fully struck consolation goal.

After defeating Avenue United in the league cup final, Sunday’s convincing victory shows Lifford, in their 50th year, are genuine title contenders.

That said they had a bit of work to do before taking control of a game played out on a surface in remarkably good condition considering the amount of rainfall in recent weeks.

The visitors took the lead when Town’s most impressive performer Marty McLoughlin toe poked home from close range.

The lead didn’t last too long as Pat Darcy drilled home from outside the area to equalise minutes later.

Chances were few and far between before the floodgates and the skies opened in the second half.

Norrby’s clipped free kick was swiftly followed by Hennessy’s half volley.

With Hamed Kuku having a fine game at centre back, Balman made it 4-1 late one before Hickey blasted home in the closing moments. A great goal but not enough to deny Lifford a third league victory.

Lifford
Jean DeSilva, Eoin Murphy, Hamed Kuku, Mickey Joe Sullivan, Dylan Blake, Ruairi Norrby, Pat Darcy, Pa Mannion, Lunga Balman, Ryan Boyle, Scott Hennessy

Subs
Darren O’Neill for Boyle

Ennis Town/ Rock
Stephen Loftus, Barry Woods, JasonWhite, Shane Daniels, Ronan Judge, Richie Neylon,AdrianWalsh, Daryl Eade, Marty McLoughlin, Stephen Hickey, Niall McNevin

Subs
GaryWalsh for McNevin, Michael Dinan for Woods, Ethan Considine for A Walsh

Referee
Padraig Sutton

CALLS for Clare GAA administrators to come down hard on clubs and individuals who abuse referees will be sounded out at this Thursday night’s Clare GAA Convention, with the Clare Referees Administration Committee leading the charge against the perpetrators of abuse.

The report submitted to the Convention by the referee’s body says that “the abuse of referees has to be severely dealt with at all times and all our referees have to be protected and get the support they deserve”.

In returning to a theme that has been familiar to Convention in recent times, the report says that the scourge of abuse comes between the committee and the recruitment of new referees.

“This is an area I have great concern over, because when we manage to get a group of candidates in a room to do the foundation course and have completed it, on every occasion we find that all our efforts count for naught as a result of abuse,” it says.

“Everyone wants a referee for their game, but no one gives the beginner a chance to develop. The referee is expected to know all the rules from the very first game he does, and there is very little tolerance for mistakes.

“The abuse factor has an even deeper knock-on effect because as referees administrator for the county and charged with responsibility of recruitment of new referees, it has become increasingly more difficult to convince someone to become a knight of the whistle.

“The amount of abuse being di rected at new referees in games is seriously damaging our effectiveness in recruiting referees and is turning them away from refereeing. We have some very competent referees in Clare and they can hold their own with the best in the country.

“We also have some referees in our ranks at the moment, who are showing good potential and everything should be done to allow these to develop and progress to the stage where we will be able to avail of their services right across the whole spectrum of refereeing in Clare.”

Continuing, the report says, “The promotion of refereeing and recruitment throughout the county has come a long way over the past number of years. This needs to be broadened and developed more and the members of the County Executive have a major role to play in this.

“I firmly believe that there are lots more potential referees in the county if they were given the right signals and encouragement.

“It is most important that the perpetrators of the abuse of referees are dealt with in a manner, which will clearly show that this will not be tolerated at any level and I appeal to all clubs, team coaches and supporters to give the ref a chance.”

In 2011 the Clare Referees Administration Committee consisted of five members – County Administrator and chairman Ger Hoey, Michael O’Regan, Michael McGann, Ger Lyons and Seanie McMahon.

Limerick FC 5 – Cobh Ramblers 0 at Jackman Park, limerick

MANAGER Declan Farmer moved his Limerick U19s team further clear at the top of the Under 19 National League Southern Division with a comprehensive 5-0 victory over their closest rivals, Cobh Ramblers. Their presence at the top of the table has been bolstered greatly by the presence of Clare players including Steven McGann, Sean O’Callaghan, Rob Shier and Fatmadh Dunisha.

Cobh started brightly and could have scored early in the game, but for fleeting periods Limerick FC totally dominated this match. The home side opened the scoring after good play up the left by Limerick’s left back Anthony O’Donnell, who passed inside to centre forward Colin Daly and his perfect through-ball played to his fellow centre forward Cian Collins in who scored from a tight angle. After 20 minutes Limerick were two up: the impressive Colin Daly again put Cian Collins through and he put the ball across goal for wide-right centre forward Darragh Rainsford to tap in at the far post. Steven McGann dominated centre midfield closing down and not allowing any space for both of Cobh Ramblers centre midfielders David Curran, Dillon McNamara.

Five minutes into the second half Limerick FC took full control of the game with the third goal. A ball over the top appeared to be running through to Cobh Ramblers Goalkeeper Shane Hallahan, but as the keeper hesitated and Darragh Rainsford stole the ball to square to Col- lins who had the simple task of stroking the ball into the empty net. The visitors had a chance to get back in the game but Cobh’s centre forward Dan Santry’s header was taken off the line by Barry Sheedy.

After 20 minutes Cian Collins rounded off a ‘man of the match’ performance as he scored two in the space of a minute. On both occasions he beat the offside trap to go one-on-one with Cohb Ramblers goalkeeper Shane Hallahan and on both occasions he finished with great composure. Cobh Ramblers pushed for a consolation but came up against an outstanding defence of Stephen Walsh in goal protected by a back four of Alex Scully, Andrew Cowpar, Sean O’Callaghan and Anthony O’Donnell, who fully deserved their clean sheet.

Declan Farmer’s Limerick FC U19’s team, has developed into the form team in this division with an average of three goals per game and now four points clear of Cobh Ramblers at the top of the table.

Limerick FC

THE current state of Cusack Park is set to come up for debate at Thursday night’s gathering of the county’s Gaels, with the St Joseph’s Miltown and Sixmilebridge clubs leading the charge for the seat of Clare GAA.

These two clubs have tabled motions relating to Cusack Park, which this year celebrates 75 years as the home of Clare GAA – a landmark anniversary that was also marked by a decision by Croke Park authorities to downgrade its status by reducing the ground capacity to an all-time low of 14,864.

The first general motion on the Convention Clár comes from St Joseph’s Miltown, with their longtime county board delegate and Cusack Park loyalist, Noel Walsh set to speak on behalf of the club.

St Joseph’s want Clare County Board chairman, Michael O’Neill to “appoint a sub-committee at the first County Committee meeting in 2012 to deal with the report that has re- duced the capacity of Cusack Park”.

In addition to this, the motion calls this new sub-committee of the board “to take in all aspects” of the report which was commissioned by Croke Park and carried out Slattery & Company and make “particular reference to the re-construction of the main stand”. St Joseph’s also want any new Cusack Park sub-committee to “report to the County Committee in three months” with it’s findings and recommendations.

Meanwhile, motion number 38 on the Convention Clár from Sixmilebridge says that “when finances allow, Cusack Park be given a facelift beginning with dressing rooms, showers, toilet facilities etc.”.

The motion could be inspired from Sixmilebridge’s own experience from their county senior hurling final against Crusheen in October when there were no hot showers available after the game.

Inagh/Kilnamona will table a motion calling for an electronic scoreboard to be installed at Cusack Park.