Category: Sport

CLARE All-Ireland winner Jim McInerney used the platform of last Thursday’s special county board meeting to lower his blade into the workings of the Central Council.

In a hard-hitting statement, McInerney, a Munster and All-Ireland winner with Clare in 1995 and who led Tulla to their historic county championship success in 2007, lambasted the Central Council for the way its management of inter-county fixtures is impacting on the club scene.

“I think it’s a scandal as Munster champions we don’t know when we’re playing our All-Ireland semifinal,” said McInerney in reference to the fact that Clare won the Munster final on July 10, but had to wait until two weeks later to know when they would be playing their All-Ireland semi-final.

“It’s not good enough. It is typical of Central Council and how they’re running their show and what they’re doing to club hurling and football. I think as a county we should go national on this. We should highlight this.

“We are Munster minor champions and we should be the curtainraiser to Tipperary who are Munster senior champions. We should be the curtainraiser to Tipp, irrespective of who we are playing. It would solve a lot of problems,” McInerney added.

It was only decided after last Monday All-Ireland quarter-finals – Kilkenny v Waterford and Galway v Antrim respectively that Clare would be in All-Ireland semi-final action on Sunday, August 7.

The decision was annoucned by Central Council after a meeting of the CCCC on Monday morning.

Miltown 1-10 – Crusheen 0-07 at Kilnamona

CRUSHEEN had every chance to take the points in the Ladies Senior Football Championship meeting with Miltown Malbay last Thursday in Kilnamona but didn’t grasp the opportunity despite Miltown being down to 14 players for 20 minutes of the game.

Crusheen, who played into the wind and towards the new training alley, were on the board quickly with a Norah Murphy point but referee Michael Talty awarded a penalty at the other end and Sinead Sexton knocked it past Noelle McGuane to put Miltown up by two points followed by another Miltown point shortly after that. A great spell of pressure from Crusheen saw them score two points from frees by Michelle O’Donnell and Emma Kearney and their own Tina Meaney scored a well taken point from play to level the game. Karen Galvin set up Sexton who pushed Miltown ahead with a nice point but referee Talty played the advantage when Crusheen’s Elaine O’Mahony was fouled in the process of taking a very strong point to level again. Miltown’s Niamh Coyne edged them ahead again after twenty minutes and in a period of play that saw Miltown Malbay lose two of the full back line to the sin-bin, Sinead Griffin for ten minutes before the break and then Helen Burke until eight minutes after the break, Crusheen failed to respond. A Miltown show of defiance led mainly by the impressive Fiona Lafferty but with great defensive cover by Kate Curtin, Tara Rynne, Bernie McGuire and Shauna Crowley saw Sinead Sexton fire over four points, three from frees and one from a lovely combination with Niamh Coyne.

Emma Kearney pointed a free for Crusheen to keep them in it at 1-7 to 0-6 but Sexton was back for her fifth successive Miltown point. Fiona Laf- ferty decided to finish out some of her own attacks launched from midfield, adding two points to Miltown’s tally despite Crusheen applying a bit more pressure. In what could have been a remarkable resurgence, Crusheen’s Elaine O’Mahony’s dead-cert goal was nudged over the bar by keeper Siobhain Talty and when three scorable frees in the closing ten minutes failed to find their target, Miltown held on to take the valuable win.

Miltown Malbay
SiobhainTalty, Helen Burke, Sinead Griffin, Jennifer Barker, Shauna Crowley, Bernie McGuire,Tara Rynne, Kate Curtin, Fiona Lafferty, Edel Hynes, Niamh Coyne,Aisling McCaw, Karen Galvin, Niamh Pender, Sinead Sexton

Crusheen
Noelle McGuane, Claire O’Grady, Marie O’Grady, Niamh McCoy,Ann Fitzgibbon, Mary Roseingrave, Edel McGuane, Emma Kearney, Regina Fennessy, Michelle O’Donnell,Tina Meaney, Norah Murphy, Elaine O’Mahony, Jacinta O’Grady

Referee
Michael Talty (Kilmurry Ibrickane)

CLARE GO in search of their fourth successive final appearance but won’t be even thinking of facing Cork ahead of what promises to be arguably their toughest start to the championship since manager John Minogue, Cyril Lyons and Alan Dunne took over in 2008. Limerick, backed by a senior attacking unit of Declan Hannon, Graeme Mulcahy and Kevin Downes, will travel to Ennis without fear, having beaten the home side twice in the National League meetings this year. Clare will also be mindful of last year’s championship opener when having to dig very deep in order to see off their near neighbours in The Gaelic Grounds and manager John Minogue is wary of Limerick’s prowess ahead of the knock-out tie.

“I think going by reports, Limerick are stronger this year. They had four or five of their senior team playing in an All-Ireland quarter-final at the weekend and have talented players such as [Kevin] Downes, Declan [Hannon] and [Graeme] Mulcahy and there is also a lot of goodwill for Limerick hurling at the moment.

“Limerick hurling is on the up and they are buzzing this year but we have to go out and play them. We have an advantage in that we are playing in Cusack Park, even though they have been quite successful in Ennis this year until the intermediates beat them in the final.”

One major disadvantage for Clare is that they will have to play without the services of arguably their most influential player, Darach Honan whom Minogue feels might not play any part in the Under 21 campaign, regardless of how far the county manage to advance.

“Darach [Honan] won’t be featuring as he has a long term injury. I suppose it’s an injury that he should have looked after earlier in the year and it looks as if his hurling season is over for club and county, for most of this year anyway. Other than that there is just a couple of niggling injuries but we should have a full squad to pick from aside from Darach.”

The loss of Honan have been offset somewhat by the fact that many of this Clare team have invaluable championship winning experience behind them in the last few years between the recent provisional success of the intermediates, back-to-back Munster crowns for the minors and of course those memorable 2009 Munster and All-Ireland Under 21 titles. Whether that knowhow will benefit Clare in a tight game will only be known on Tuesday night.

“You hope that it would but I would think that our team is physically not as strong as other years. If you take 2008, 2009 and 2010, guys were probably further up to the age. A lot of the guys on this year’s team will be around again next year. OK Honan and a few others will be overage but a lot of them are in the 19 or 20 age bracket and guys like Patrick O’Connor, Conor McGrath, Shane Golden and these lads are all underage next year. So I think the age profile and the physical profile of our players would not be as strong as it was in the previous two or three years.

So bearing in mind that the Under 21 championship has no second chances or backdoor system, what can prove the difference for the home side this evening?

“You would be hoping that there would be a good turnout of Clare supporters on the night. Certainly there was good support there the night of the Munster Intermediate final, it was a good result and I think it has maybe brought a bit of interest back with the hurling public. With also the fact that the minors are Munster cham- pions after an excellent performance in Cork, I think those wins have put a bit of buzz back into supporters, the weather is picking up as well so hopefully we get a good Clare support out because definitely Limerick will be travelling in numbers.”

Having a 16th man on the ter- race could well be a key ingredient in what promises to be a riproaring Munster derby.

Newmarket-on-Fergus 2-16 – Crusheen 3-10 at Clarecastle

NEWMARKET-ON-FERGUS finally booked their place in the last four of the Clare Cup but certainly didn’t make it a comfortable journey for themselves after a late Crusheen rally. Last year’s finalists dominated the tie for the opening 40 minutes, building up a 13 point lead in the process but took their foot off the pedal enough for Crusheen to hit three goals in what was to prove a nervy finish.

It was an encounter that the Blues were always expected to win once it was confirmed that Crusheen would be without eight of the starting lineup that clinched a first ever county senior title back in October including county seniors Pat Vaughan and Cian Dillon, former panelists Alan Brigdale and Cathal Dillon, county Under 21’s Fergus Kennedy and Conor O’Donnell as well as Gearoid O’Donnell and Joe Meaney.

Newmarket themselves were without the services of Shane O’Brien who was lining out for Doonbeg in the Cusack Cup final, Sean O’Connor and Martin O’Hanlon but the county senior experience of Colin Ryan and David Barrett in particular saw them open up a 1-7 to 0-3 lead by the 24th minute while also seeing a Ryan 20 metre free stopped by Shaun Dillon. The goal itself came through the strength of Anthony Kilmartin who rounded his man and despite being fouled on his way to goal, the fullforward still managed to bat the ball past goalkeeper Donal Tuohy.

Three further Ryan points saw the Blues take a 1-10 to 0-05 advantage into the break with Crusheen’s only real scoring threat coming from placed balls. It would get worse for the county champions immediately on the restart when David Barrett soloed through for a second goal within two minutes followed by points from Ryan. Kilmartin and James Liddy to open up a commanding 2-13 to 0-06 lead by the 40th minute.

It seemed merely a damage limitation exercise for Crusheen as Newmarket emptied the bench but a defensive error handed the Blood and Bandages a much needed lifeline as Jamie Fitzgibbon dispossessed his marker before striking to the net. A minute later, Patrick O’Grady’s handpass across the square to older brother Gerry yielded a second goal while points for Ciaran O’Doherty and David Forde cut the deficit to just five with 12 minutes remaining.

Colin Ryan eventually stopped the rot with a free in the 50th minute but when Donal Tuohy rifled a 20 metre free to the net in the next passage of play to leave only a goal between the sides, Newmarket began to feel the pinch. However, Crusheen were unable to grab the goal that would regain full parity and Newmarket held on to advance to the last four against Kilmaley while the county champions will have another chance against Inagh/Kilnamona this weekend to decide the other semi-final qualifier from Division 1.

Clarecastle 4-11 – Sixmilebridge 1-11 at O’Garney Park, Sixmilebridge

AT THE beginning of this year’s championship, one would have predicted that these two teams would be in the shake-up come the knockout stages given the fact that both contested last year’s Under 16 final (which the ‘Bridge won in a replay) and both have the shared the corresponding U14 and U15 championships at this age. This prediction was given further credence upon viewing this Sunday morning clash as both teams contributed to an entertaining game of hurling in which the visitors ran out impressive nine point winners.

A nervous start from both sides was illustrated when a Robby Corry effort from out the field was spilled by the Clarecastle goalkeeper and fullforward Gavin Whyte was on hand to finish the rebound straight to the back of the net to give the ‘Bridge the best possible start inside two minutes. Merely a minute later, Clarecastle midfielder Bobby Duggan settled the visitors by landing a 65’ between the posts. Duggan was to go on to have a huge say on this game as his ability to influence the game at the most critical of times was of great benefit to his team’s overall performance. Duggan added another free in the eighth minute from 20 metres as Clarecastle started to come more in to the game and this was highlighted by another superb Duggan score from play as he left the ‘Bridge defence in his wake. Conor Deasy and Alex Morey traded successful frees for the home side midway through the first half before Clarecastle really established their foothold on this game and gained a lead that they would never relinquish. Firstly, a fine move involving influential centre-back Mark McGuane resulted in a fine score from play from centre-forward Pajoe Dolan before good work from the Magpie’s inside line resulted in a penalty which Duggan duly obliged in blasting straight down the middle to give his side a two point lead.

From here on, the visitors were in total control as Duggan supplied an excellent score over his right shoulder in the 19th minute before cornerforward, Seánie Lynch, pulled first time to the back of the net a minute later after the initial effort had been expertly saved by Jason Loughnane in the ‘Bridge goal. Conor Deasy and Stephen Mulready did manage to add two further scores for the home side in the closing minutes of the half with the latter providing a sublime effort from the sideline. However, this was all in vain as Pajoe Dolan’s seemingly tame effort skidded along the surface and into the net to give the visitors a seven point cushion at the break.

Conor Deasy led a mini revival for the ‘Bridge in the opening ten minutes of the second half with three unanswered points while Barry Fit- zpatrick was also doing very well at full-back. However, Duggan was to the fore again with a free from halfway to restore the Maggie’s cushion. Gavin Whyte was beginning to exert a big influence upon his switch to midfield as he scored two fine points on the trot at the three quarter stage of the game to leave just three points between the sides once again. Duggan stepped up to the mark again with another excellent score from play in the 47th minute before adding another free four minutes later. The game was effectively killed off with nine minutes to go as Clarecastle full-forward, Derek Casey, provided a devastating finish to the bottom left corner. With Clarecastle now in full control, Duggan treated the crowd to probably the score of the day with a flawless effort off the hurley from the sideline. Deasy and Eóin Flynn provided late consolation points for the home side before Duggan rounded off a superb individual performance with another score from play in injury time. On evidence from this game, Clarecastle appear to be a team in form while the ‘Bridge have a lot of work to do if they intend on holding on their crown as Under 16 champions.

Clarecastle
Jake Kearney, Cian Crimmins, Dylan Broderick, Brian Gilroy, Pat Tuohy, Mark McGuane, Joe Barry, Bobby Duggan (1-9 3f, 1-0 Pen, 1’65), Paul Dolan, StephenWard (0-1), Pajoe Dolan (1-1), Jake Barnes, Seanie Lynch (1-0), Derek Casey (1-0), Ben Moloney (0-1)

Subs
AdamCrowe

Sixmilebridge
Jason Loughnane, Shane McInerney, Barry Fitzpatrick, Cathaoir Agnew, Kevin Fennessy,Alex Morey (0-1, 65’), Stephen Mulready (0-1), Robby Corry, Conor Deasy (0-6, 5f),Tony Fitzpatrick, Brian Corry, Eóin McMahon,Tomás Sheehan, GavinWhyte (1-2), Eóin Flynn (0-1)

Subs
Cathal Lynch, Pa Mulready, Conor Cahill

Referee
Neil O’Brien (O’Callaghan’s Mills)

Ballyea 2-23 – Newmarket-on-Fergus 4-04 at Ballyea

A REAL statement of intent from Ballyea in humbling the defending champions and maintaining their perfect start to the championship. The home side simply had the better balance throughout and had far too much strength for an understrength Newmarket who were on the backfoot for the majority.

Still, as impressive as the 2-23 scoreline is and the fact that they had 46 shots at the posts over the hour, there is still plenty of room for improvement ahead of tougher challenges ahead. The home side hit 21 wides in total and conceded four preventable goals that might have cost them in a tighter game.

In saying that, they had more than enough fires for Newmarket to extinguish, with county minor captain Tony Kelly in unstoppable form, particularly in the second half when Newmarket tried their best to rally. There was also impressive displays from Jack Browne, Gearoid O’Connell, Joe Neylon, Martin O’Leary, Niall Deasy, Darragh Crowe and Tadgh Lynch that more than kept the Blues on their toes throughout.

However, it was the visitors who struck the first blow after only 90 seconds when a James Warren delivery was anticipated by Ryan Corry to volley to the net. It didn’t take long for Ballyea to recover from that setback however as points from Kelly and Tadgh Lynch were followed in the seventh minute by a clincial Kelly goal after receiving a handpass on the run from Niall Deasy.

It was the start of a Ballyea flurry of points that saw Kelly, Deasy and O’Leary outscore their opponents by 0-10 to 0-01 over the next 15 minutes to open up an 11 point advantage. However, just as they started the half. Newmarket finished with a Corry goal, with another Warren delivery this time evading goalkeeper Shane Harkin, leaving Corry with the simple job of flicking to an empty net at 1-13 to 2-03.

Two further goals within ten minutes of the restart through substutute Eoin Frawley and Oisin Pender cut the deficit to just four but far from panicking, Ballyea took those sucker-punches on the chin and hit back in devastating fashion with an unanswered 1-6 in the final quarter including Michael Nagle 45th minute goal.

Ballyea
Shane Harkin, Diarmuid Lorigan, Eoin Donnellan, Darragh Crowe, Jack Browne, Gearoid O’Connell, Joe Neylon, Stan Lineen,Tony Kelly (113 5f, 2’65’s),Tadgh Lynch (0-1), Niall Deasy (0-5), Martin O’Leary (0-4), Lee Brady, David Brassil, Michael Nagle (1-0)

Subs
Lee Sherlock for Lorrigan, Martin Quigley for Nagle

Newmarket- on- Fergus
Ronan McCauley, Ronan McCarthy, Evan Keogh, Jamie Cronin, Sean Quinlivan, Niall O’Connor, Paudie Conway, Shane Kelleher, Paul Gleeson, James Warren, Oisin Pender (1-0), LiamHarkin, David Burke, Frank Melody (0-4 3f), Ryan Corry (2-0)

Subs
Eoin Frawley (1-0) for Harkin, Colin Dugan for Burke, Gearoid McMahon for Melody (inj)

Man of the Match
Tony Kelly (Ballyea) Referee

LAST THURSDAY night saw the finals night of the ITRA Tag Rugby season is Ennis RFC.

Division 2 kicked off with fifth place Munstergroup and sixth place DBOCS taking to the pitch. What ensued was a closely matched game however DBOCS just clinched the game by 18 points to Munstergroup’s 15, giving DBOCS the Bowl Trophy later that night.

TTM Tryers, who finished the league in third place took on fourth place Ennis Randomers. Both teams had found their form in recent weeks and again it was another fiercely contested match. In the last minutes TTM managed to stretch their lead to two points meaning the Randomers had to secure a female try to take the game. Unfortunately the Randomers couldn’t deliver and TTM took the game winning the Plate Trophy.

On Wing With Prayer topped the Division 2 league and faced second place the Shades in the play-off for the Cup. There was nothing between the two teams throughout the game and after the final whistle, the teams were all square on 8 points apiece. After a short break, the game went to five minutes play of Golden Try. On Wing With Prayer didn’t need much time and got the first try winning the game and the Cup with a final score of 9 points to The Shades 8.

Division 1 saw fifth place MurtysMen taking on sixth place The Try Hards. MurtysMen started the game with a five point deficit due to the tardiness of one player, however they played some excellent rugby and never looked like they would lose to the Try Hards, The game finished with MurtysMen taking the Bowl by 15 points to The Try Hards 12.

In the play-off for the Division 1 Plate, third placed Scrum N Coke took on Lucas’ Legends. The game was evenly matched up to the last four minutes when Lucas’ Legends got both a female try worth three points and a male try extending their lead beyond the reach of Scrum N Coke. The game finished with Lucas’ Legends winning 10 points to Scrum N Coke’s 5.

The headliner game of the night saw Division 1 winners Tag Her & Try Her looking to secure the Cup, taking on their long term rivals and current Champions, Deep Heat. The reigning champions showed their class throughout the game and despite the first half being closely matched, Deep Heat ran away with the game in the second half. Deep Heat won the game 13 points to 7 and were crowned champions for the third time in a row.

The season concluded with the presentation in Ennis RFC, followed by a barbecue in Lucas’ Bar. Despite the conclusion of the league, there is more tag rugby to be played with the various beach festivals taking place over the next month.

In particular, there is a large representation from Ennis expected at the Kilkee festival on August 20. Full details are available on www.tagrugby.ie

CLARE referee Padraig Sutton will be the man in charge when a tournament involving some of the biggest teams in world football kicks off in Dublin at the weekend.

The Ennis man will referee a game between an Airtricity league XI and Manchester City in the Dublin Super Cup on Saturday.

The two-day tournament, which also involves Inter Milan and Glasgow Celtic, takes place at the Aviva Stadium.

For Sutton the glamour friendly represents a welcome break from the hectic schedule of league games.

Sutton, who started refereeing 13 years ago, has been afforded the opportunity to officiate the game due to a break in the Airtricity league season.

He said, “Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Its (the league season) fairly full tilt at the moment. It’s a friendly, a good day out for the family. So yeah, hopefully it goes well”.

It won’t be the first time Sutton has rubbed shoulders with some of the star names in European football.

Last August, he was selected in a group of four Irish referees eligible to take part in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League and Europa League games.

In September, Sutton served as fourth official as one of the match officials for the Champions League meeting between Romanian side CFR Cluj and Swiss outfit FC Basel. Two years ago, the Limerick based Guard was among the match officials for the Europa League meeting be- tween Tottenham Hotspur and Turkish club Famagusta.

An experienced league of Ireland referee, Sutton has also officiated at underage Irish international games.

His involvement in the Dublin Super Cup strengthens the connections between Clare and the high profile pre-season tournament.

Along with sports media firm, Endemol Sports, Ennis man Damien O’Brien is one of the principal organizers of the event through his company Iconic.

Five years ago O’Brien, a former Turnpike Rovers player whose father used to manage Lifford, devised the format for Football Icon – a reality TV show that offers young footballers the chance to earn a professional contract with some of Europe’s biggest clubs.

THE Clare District Soccer League will mark its 50th anniversary next year by holding an end of season awards night.

Honours for the best player, best team and manager of the season could be up for grabs at the event, which was announced yesterday by CDSL secretary Oliver Fitzpatrick. The announcement coincides with a call by Shannon Olympic football club for an end of season awards ceremony.

In a motion submitted to last night’s league AGM, the Premier league side stated, “at the end of each season the League holds a social event to celebrate the season just past and present awards for outstanding achievement of various forms such as; player of the year for each league, manager of the year for each league, team of the year, top scorers in each league etc”

Depending on the success of next year’s awards, Fitzpatrick explained, the ceremony might become an annual event.

The announcement forms part of Fitzpatrick’s end of year report, which also outlines the league’s priorities for next season. This includes the further development of the County Grounds in Doora.

Fitzpatrick explains, “As mentioned at previous meetings we have planning permission for lights at the County Grounds and its one of my priorities for next season to ensure that we press ahead with this project”.

The report continues, “However we will need to get a loan for this project and as most people are aware its harder and harder these days to get money off the banks so the League cannot afford any drop in our income for the next few years or we will not be able to complete this work or any other further development work at our County Grounds.

“Our aim is to have our grounds up to League of Ireland standard in the future but this will require continuous investment to complete”.

Fitzpatrick also highlighted Clare’s success in reaching the semi-final of the Inter League Youths Cup for the first time since 1971.

The report states, “A management team of Mike Moloney, Gary Seery and Eoin McNulty were put in place at the start of the season and they set about putting together our best squad of players for many years. In the semi-final we were drawn away to Kilkenny and despite a great comeback from being 2 goals down to level the match we lost out on a 3-2 score line. On behalf of the League again I thank the players and management for their efforts throughout the season”.

Fitzpatrick also paid tribute to league officials including outgoing Chairman Paul Tuohy, coaches, FAI development officer Denis Hynes and all clubs who contributed to the success of the recent FAI festival of football.

Kilmurry Ibrickane 0-13 – Doonbeg 1-8 at Cooraclare

IT could be a dress rehearsal for a county final later in the year, but that doesn’t mean this was more shadow boxing and sparring than the real thing. Only the league final and something that will be forgotten about once the chase for Jack Daly resumes, but the cash prize of € 2500 from The Clare Champion sponsors and old rivalry also ensured this was going to be as full-blooded as any championship game. So it was that Kilmurry Ibrickane and Doonbeg tore into each other with the same intent they showed in the last two county semi-finals here in Cooraclare as Kilmurry’s classy forwards and much better combination play edged them home to a twopoint win and their third Cusack Cup success. It went to the wire like those two previous championship jousts, but it could have been different, very different because such was Kilmurry Ibrickane’s superiority at times that they looked a class apart, with only Doonbeg’s earthy qualities of never giving up on a cause keeping them competitive to the last. They looked like being swamped on a number of occasions – in the first half when Kilmurry moved three points clear when the two best forwards on view, Noel Downes and Mark McCarthy scored three points between them in six-minute burst from the 20th minute to put their side 0-5 to 0-2 clear; at the start of the second when another three-point burst had three points between the sides again. It was the first real daylight between the sides after they had shared four points in the first 15 minutes – Ian McInerney and Enda Coughlan frees sandwiching a Shane Ryan point from play and a David Tubridy free in that time. Doonbeg should have had a goal though when after nine minutes Shane Killeen was clean through on goal only for a brilliant lunging block from John Willie Sexton to deny him a certain goal. A Doonbeg goal did come in the 27th minute and it gave them an early lifeline such was the growing menace of a Kilmurry team as the interval approached. Colm Dillon pilfered the ball in the right corner on the dressing room side of the field, fed Shane Ryan whose shot for a point from 30 yards was brilliantly flicked to the net by David Tubridy.

The sides were level and remained so at the break after a flurry of four scores in the last three minutes of the half – Ian McInerney launched two exocets from placed balls over the bar, while Colm Dillon from distance from play and Enda Doyle’s fisted effort had the sides deadlocked at 1-4 to 0-7.

Ultimately it was Kilmurry’s greater combination play that told, something that allied to their fast start to the second half with points from a Enda Coughlan free and efforts from play by Niall Hickey and Mark McCarthy moved them 0-10 to 1-4 clear inside eight minutes.

Doonbeg did hit back with a Shane Ryan point and a David Tubridy free by the 41st minute but the chasm between the sides was really shown up when three more unanswered points via Ian McInerney (2) and Noel Downes put four between them for the first time.

That crucial Downes score came with four minutes remaining, giving Kilmurry the cushion to withstand the inevitable Doonbeg onslaught near the end that yielded two David Tubridy points to bring it back to two points.

The Magpies couldn’t get any closer – they didn’t really deserve to be either, such was Kilmurry’s superiority over the hour.

They’re the classiest team of this generation, probably any Clare football generation, something they proved in winning seventh major title in Clare over the past four seasons.

They’re the best and the benchmark for everyone else.

Kilmurry Ibrickane
Peter O’Dwyer Jnr (7), JohnWillie Sexton (7), Darren Hickey (7) Martin McMahon (8), Shane Hickey (7), EvanTalty (7),Thomas Lernihan (7), Seamus Murrihy (8), Peter O’Dwyer (7), Mark McCarthy (8) (0-2), Enda Coughlan (8) (0-2f), Ian McInerney (7) (0-5, 3f, one 45), Noel Downes (8) (0-3), Michael Hogan (7), Niall Hickey (7) (0-1).

Subs
Paul O’Connor (7) for Lernihan [Half-Time], Stephen Moloney (6) for Hogan [48 Mins], Johnnie Daly (6) for Niall Hickey [60 Mins].

Doonbeg
Nigel Dillon (7), Joe Blake (7), Padraig Gallagher (7) Conor Whelan (7), Brian Dillon (7), Paraic Aherne (7), RichieVaughan (7), ColmDillon (7) (0-1), Enda Doyle (7) (0-1), Shane Killeen (6), Shane Ryan (7) (0-2), EamonTubridy (6), Paul Dillon (6), Kevin Nugent (7), DavidTubridy (7) (1-4, 4f).

Subs
Frank O’Dea (6) for Killeen [21 Mins], Conor Downes (6) for Paul Dillon [47 Mins], Shane O’Brien (6) for EamonTubridy [51 Mins].

Referee
Michael Rock (Ennistymon)