Category: Sport

CLARE’S new under 21 hurling management team will have “a blank sheet” when selected their squad to challenge for provincial and AllIreland honours in 2012, incoming joint-manager Donal Moloney has revealed.

Speaking to The Clare People ahead of the 2011 Munster minor hurling medal presenation, outgoing joint-manager Moloney, has pledged “a back to basics” approach to the management team’s new role with the county under 21 side.

“It’s a very, very different campaign at under 21 level,” says Moloney, “and we’re delighted that the majority of the management team are continuing on with the under 21s.

“It’s a very difficult grade because the access we would have had to players at minor level is not going to be the same. We will have to work very, very closely with the senior set- up, with Davie (Fitzgerald) and with the colleges, because 95 per cent of these players are in college. It’s a challenge and how we deal with that will determine whether we’re going to be successful or not,” he adds.

With the scale of this challenge in mind, Moloney, admits that success can’t be taken as a given, despite the stirring successes at minor level in 2010 and ’11 when the county achieved back-to-back provincial minor titles for the first time ever.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion,” he says. “Players develop in different ways. Look at the likes of Limerick this year. They won the Munster under 21, whereas they were really nowhere at minor level.

“Players develop differently. You can have a lot of late developers who come through at under 21 level, while some guys who were there at minor level might not progress as fast.

“We would be hopeful of success, but we don’t have a good record. Clare have never taken a minor side – any of the previous minor sides that have won something – and transferred it into a Munster under 21 title.

“That’s something we’re going to have to monitor very closely because in terms of picking our panel we have gone back to basics. We have a blank sheet to make sure we assess people properly in terms of where they’re at now, rather that what they did a year ago, two or three years ago at minor level,” he adds.

THE COMPLETE turnover of officials last year made way for a united front this time around as all seven officers were returned to the top table of Bord na nÓg Iomaint at their annual convention on Thursday in The Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis.

That continuity was reflected in Chairman Martin Reynolds address when paying tribute to his fellow committee for their hard work over the past twelve months and in particular secretary Sandra Reynolds for being a ‘powerhouse and a wonderful find for Bord na nÓg.’

“Last year was an unusual year in Bord na nÓg Iomaint in the sense that all the officers changed hands and we had a new committee and I would like to particularly thank all the clubs for being so lenient and not giving such a hard time at the beginning of the year when we were all getting used to the job. We made some errors earlier in the year but without the clubs, the year could not have been a success.

And in outlining his plans for 2012, the Clarecastle delegate called on clubs to further support the development squads and put forward more referees in order to get Clare underage hurling to the next level.

“We would certainly like to see more clubs getting in behind the development squads and supporting them. I feel that the work the development squads at Under 14, 15, 16 and 17 have done over the past number of years have been 90% responsible for the county winning back-to-back Munster minor championships and I think clubs should get behind the development squads and send their players to them because they are our future. “I would also like to thank the ref- erees. We can’t have games without referees and that’s a given. I would urge clubs to forward new names so we can increase the panel of referees and reduce the age profile. “At the start of the year, we as a committee asked the referees to in- troduce a new system in Clare. We felt it was wrong for mentors to be running around the pitch, certainly at underage with hurleys in their hands and we spoke to the clubs and got great cooperation from the clubs and the referees and now thankfully we don’t see that happening anymore.

“As regards referees, we held 20 finals in Bord na nÓg Iomaint this year and had 20 different referees for those finals. We started at Under 14’s and tried to bring on some of the new referees and younger referees and use referees who officiated at the Féile last year and we intend to continue on that trend this year.”

CLUBS playing in C and D grade competitions in 2012 will be able to field with at few as 11 players, it was agreed at the Bord na nÓg Iomaint Convention on Thursday. Teams at C and D grade that haven’t the full complement of players can now play with either 11 or 13 players with the opposition side allowed unlimited substitutions.

The motion, originally forwarded by the top table but taken up by Wolfe Tones after it was revealled that the board are unable to propose motions, to alleviate the player number problem that is increasingly affecting rural clubs was eventually unanimously passed by the delegates after a lengthy debate.

Reservations by Broadford over the ‘lack of structure’ of the motion were counteracted by Chairman Martin Reynolds who admitted that the board would be ‘dependent on the honesty of clubs’ in order for the motion not to be abused and that it was designed to stop walkovers and allow all sides to have ‘meaningful matches’ regardless of their numbers. Treasurer Joe O’Donnell backed up his fellow officer by stating that the motion was ‘a genuine effort to keep clubs going at every level.’

Clooney/Quin’s proposal to bring forward their Under 13 Hurling tournament and incorporate the fixtures in the Master Fixtures booklet was granted by the convention.

The competition, which is in its 13th year in 2012, has taken on a new lease of life since the Under 12 grade was changed to a non competitive format and now hosts over 30 teams who play a total of 55 matches in five weeks.

Finally, Newmarket-on-Fergus’ motion to allow all quarter-finals be played on a home or away basis was defeated by 19 to 16 in the only vote of the evening. The Blues took on the motion after Bord na nÓg were not allowed to propose their own motion to the floor.

CHRISTMAS came early for the clubs of Clare on Friday evening as the Munster GAA Physical Development Project grants were dispersed in Clare Headquarters in Clareabbey. In all, € 109,892 was contributed to 12 clubs as well two schools (Kilishen National School and St Anne’s School, Killaloe) for development done, with clubs applying in 2011 receiving a mimimum of 10.98% of their total spend in grant assistance.

Munster GAA Vice Chairman and O’Callaghan’s Mills clubman Robert Frost was in attendance on Friday to present the cheques to the various clubs and reward them for their continued development, despite the harsh ecomonic climate.

“As a Clare man, Vice Chairman of the Munster Council and incoming Chairman in 2013, I am delighted to be here in Clare to present the cheques. It’s always nice to come back to your own. I’m a former Chairman of the County Board and I fully appreciate the great work that the clubs are doing within the county.

“I’ve been to all the six counties in Munster this year and the clubs in Clare have facilities as good as any other county. The amount of work that has been done in clubs like Doora/Barefield, Miltown Malbay, Broadford, Wolfe Tones and Lissycasey has been excellent this year and indeed the amount of work that has been done for several years has been immense in places like Sixmilebridge, The Mills, Clarecastle and Cooraclare so it’s very gratifying for me to be back and see all those excellent facilities.

“As a Clare man, I attend a good few matches in the county as well as a normal supporter so I’m very much up to date with everything that is happening within the county.”

In addition to the expenditure in relation to physical development, Munster GAA has also provided other financial support in 2011 across the province.

“If you look at this year alone, you are talking of a figure of € 351,346 coming back to Clare and this has been our smallest figure in recent years because our development grants were cut down. In the last five years previous to this, we have over € 2 million euro given back to Clare clubs and the county and there is a lot of money going into coaching too.

“A lot of the funding comes from the Sports Council, and the government and the Sports Council have cut their funding so we in the Munster Council appreciate the great work that is being done in coaching and we have to keep that great work going. So we will be spending between € 460,000 and € 500,000 this year to prop up the coaching and keep it on par with the way it has been.”

The Munster GAA Chairman elect for 2013 is also keen to maintain that physical development project assistance for clubs into the future.

“We find that within clubs, there is a lot more voluntary work being done that ever before and if you are doing some development, it’s the right time because labour costs and overall building costs are down. On the other hand, it’s also harder for clubs to fundraise because to be fair, the people just haven’t got the money.

“The number of applications we received this year was down by 100 throughout the province so that is a sign of the times but we in the Munster Council will help clubs as much as we can.”

THE development of state of the art training facilities at Caherlohan on the outskirts of Tulla comes before the upgrading of the county flagship facility of Cusack Park to the standards required by Croke Park authorities.

That’s the verdict of Clare County Board secretary Pat Fitzgerald this week, with the de facto chief executive of Gaelic Games in the county warning delegates that Caherlohan – which has already had € 3m pumped into its development over the past five years – will not be opened unless “substantial” further investment at the facility.

That investment, says Fitzgerald, should be prioritized ahead of an upgrade of Cusack Park, which the county board has been required to by GAA headquarters if the capacity of the premier ground in the county is to be restored to a level where it could host top-flight inter-county games.

Against a backdrop of what has been described as the “bleak financial position” of Clare County Board finances, Fitzgerald will tell delegates to this Thursday’s annual Convention in the Auburn Lodge Hotel that the “cash-strapped” board “will have to prioritise our expenditure during the coming year”.

In his annual report, Fitzgerald says that the Caherlohan v Cusack Park debate over where to invest funds will ultimately come down to the decision of county board delegates.

However, his report makes it clear that putting Caherlohan at the head of the queue is his recommendation, because of the benefits that will accrue to county teams, development squads and clubs going forward.

“Let me make it crystal clear, it will be decision time,” says Fitzgerald.

“Do we invest in continued improvement work at Cusack Park at the expense of our centre of training excellence at Caherlohan where we’ve already invested over € 3million?

“It is also important for clubs to be aware that if there isn’t continued substantial investment in Caherlohan then the facility, which is urgently required, will remain a work in progress and will remain closed.

“Against that background, clubs will have to decide where we invest our money – in Cusack Park where we won’t get high profile games or in Caherlohan which will be to the benefit of every single county team, development squads and even clubs.

“Personally speaking, I think we have to prioritise Caherlohan while at the same time not ignoring the situation in Cusack Park.

“That’s my opinion but ultimately it’s you the clubs of Clare who will be the final arbitrators,” adds Fitzgerald.

IN the same week that the county senior football team has been rated as the second worst team in Ireland, the Clare County Board has come out and defended its record of promoting the game in the county.

Clare’s deeply embarrassing rating was contained in a league table compiled by

THIS coming Saturday morning the seeds of hurling revolutions past, present and probably future will be on display at Na Piarsaigh’s patch that could safely be said to have stood in the shadow of nearby Thomond Park until Sunday last.

There, they’ll be having a special visitor as club stalwart and Kilkee man Mike O’Neill reminds us in the first flush of this Munster final victory. “It’s our last morning of the year with the kids in the underage academy,” he revealed, “and we’ll be having Santa Claus come to see the kids who play in the street leagues.

“That’s why this has happened. The work that has gone in. The work that’s going in. As captain Kieran Bermingham said this was for everyone with Na Piarsaigh through the years and the work that’s been put in.”

So much so that Christmas came very early with this 1-13 to 0-9 win, a victory that completed a remarkable transformation for a team and a club that was down in the dumps only two years ago when they were pummelled by Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin’s Adare in the county final.

“We were beaten by Adare by 17 points,” recalls O’Neill, who was secretary of Bord na nÓg Iomáint in Clare in 1981 when Munster minor honours came to the county for the first time.

“It was a real downer and it was a joke around the city, ‘we’ll have Na Piarsaigh round of drinks now, three pints’. But, they stuck at it and they’ve come back. Sean Stack stuck with them and we’ve had this day. I felt very confident going into the first game, but it was kind of a damp squib for it to finish up in a draw.

“It’s terrible with your son (Shane O’Neill) playing. You can’t relax because you’re wishing every ball will go his way. I don’t know how he missed that goal, but these things happen. It doesn’t matter now.

“I thought we were in a spot of bother at one stage. We missed 1-2 and then a few balls came off the upright. I thought it was just going to be one of those days, but the lads kept working away and we got the points and then the goal. It’s a huge thing for this club. Huge. It’s hard to describe and put into words.

“This club is only around for 40 odd years, which is nothing. Now we’re in an All-Ireland semi-final and it’s all down to the hard work that’s being done, week in, week out. It’s unbelievable.”

Time to party and celebrate Christmas. It’s started already, after all.

Na Piarsaigh 1-13 – Crusheen 0-09 at Semple Stadium, Thurles

IN THE END, it just proved a step too far for gallant Crusheen. The toil and tissue damage of a demanding second successive run through Clare and an unchartered march on Munster eventually caught up with the Blood and Bandages on Sunday as Na Piarsaigh’s fresher legs unearthed a remarkable last quarter turnaround.

There was just nothing left in the tank to fend off a rampaging Na Piarsaigh side who hit 1-7 without reply after being shackled by Crusheen for the majority of this tie. However, when needed most, Na Piarsaigh’s young guns came to the fore with David Breen (26), Kieran Kennedy (20), Kevin Downes (20), Shane Dowling (18) and substitute Adrian Breen (19) hammering the final nails to Crusheen’s coffin in a majestic final blitzkrieg.

It was harsh on a Crusheen side who once more had given their all in the pursuit of the Munster dream, only a year on from achieving historic county glory for the first time. And it appeared that fortune was indeed favouring the brave as Crusheen led by 0-9 to 0-6 with less than 15 minutes remaining.

The Clare champions had done their homework from the drawn game and by expertly curtailing Na Pairsaigh’s big guns up front up to that point, they could almost see the finish line in sight.

Teenage sensation Shane Dowling, who scored 1-7 in the drawn game, was practically anonymous under the watchful eye of Cathal Dillon who kept him scoreless for the opening 44 minutes of the game until finally converting a free.

Fellow Limerick county seniors David Breen and Kevin Downes were also well marshalled by brothers Cian and Cronan Dillon respectively and after missing uncharacteristic frees, a glorious goal chance for Shane O’Neill and totting up nine wides at that stage, the Limerick champions didn’t seem capable of unlocking Crusheen’s watertight safe.

However, in the crucial final quarter when Na Piarsaigh inevitably rallied, upped the ante and began to ask tough questions, Crusheen found the answers increasingly difficult to come by.

Their much heralded defence was stubbornly working overtime as usual but with little assistance from their forward unit, Crusheen eventually had to yield to a momentum filled Na Piarsaigh who only gathered confidence with every passing score.

By the time substitute Adrian Breen struck for the decisive 58th minute goal, Crusheen not only could not locate answers but were even finding the questions difficult to decipher in what was a ruthless, undeserved finish to an unprecedented year.

However, in the cold light of day, the real crux of where Crusheen faltered cannot be solely attributed to a faltering final quarter.

In the drawn game, more than any other performance, Crusheen were bolstered by a plethora of eight different scorers, with five of their six forwards getting on the scoreboard while Na Piarsaigh were over-reliant on Shane Dowling who grabbed 1-7 out of 1-11.

This time around however, Crusheen depended largely on their own hugely impressive teenager, Jamie Fitzgibbon (0-4) for scores, with only three other teammates contributing, and only one of those, David Forde, being a fellow forward.

Instead, it was Na Piarsaigh’s forwards who blossomed with six different attackers making their mark on the scoreboard and substitute Adrian Breen in particular soaring with 1-3.

More than that though, Crusheen got little reward or even ball rentention from a muted full-forward line

Cola ist e Mhuir e 3-4 Scoil Mhuir e & Ide, Newca st lewest 0-4 at Knockader r y, Limer ick COLAISTE Mhuire ensured that a Munster Cup would be heading back to Ennis at the weekend after a convincing win over SMI. Newcastlewest. Played on Saturday in near perfect conditions, the first half was largely dominated by both defences and scores were at a premium.

The first score of the game was a pointed free from Jane Flanagan in the tenth minute which was soon followed by a goal from impressive midfielder Leigh-Anne McMahon after a goalmouth scramble. Colaiste Mhuire had the majority of the possession in this first half but scores were hard to come by. SMI defended well with Karen O Leary and Julia Kennedy excelling and were rewarded with a point from play by Sarah Corbett leaving the half time score at 1-1 to 0-1 to Colaiste Mhuire. For the leaders, captain Leigh-Anne McMahon played well in midfield with Jane Flanagan supporting well throughout for the Ennis side.

SMI had a better start to the second half with another point from play however the Colaiste girls were soon into their stride. Jane Flanagan scored their second goal directly from a 45 and followed this with a cracking point after breaking from the halfway line. SMI fought back and were rewarded with two points without reply. However, Caoimhe Hoey put the result beyond doubt when she scored a brilliant goal. Fitness and determination were key requirements in this Munster final. This was displayed by the entire Clare team including all five subs who came on in the second half. SMI continued to attack with Laura Walshe and Aisleigh Normoyle but Colaiste defenders Siobhan McCarthy, Sarah Redmond and Aisling McMahon kept the score to one further point. Aoife O’Connor, the Colaiste goalie had a solid performance while Ria Flanagan kept the SMI defender Siobhan McMahon busy. Colaiste finished the game with two more pointed frees to seal the merited victory and deliver Munster glory for the county.

Colaiste Mhuire
Aoife O’Connor, Ria Flanagan, Niamh O’Donnell , Siobhan McCarthy ,Aisling McMahon ,Aoife Sheehan , Jane Flanagan (1-3, 2f), Leigh-Anne McMahon (1-0) (capt.), Lauren O’Donoghue, Sarah Redmond (0-1), Rebecca Windall, Eimear Neilan, Caoimhe Hoey (1-0)

Scoil Mhuire agus Ide
Mary Quilligan,Yvonne Lee, Siobhan McMahon,Aisleigh Normoyle, Jenny Hannon,Aoife O’Sullivan,Karen O’Leary, Sarah Corbett, Laura Walshe, Julia Kennedy,Abbey Butler, Liz Carmody, Emily Upton

Referee
Ger O’Dowd (Limerick)

LAST week it Ennisman Luke O’Dea who was the toast of Munster rugby on his debut when he crashed over for a try in the province’s victory for Edinburgh in the Rabo Direct Pro 12 league.

This week it was the turn of the father figure of Clare rugby, Marcus Horan, as he reached the landmark of 200 appearances for the province in Saturday’s clash with the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium.

It may have ended in 19-13 defeat for Munster ahead of their crunch back-to-back Heineken Cup games against Scarlets in Thomond Park, but it was still Horan’s day as the legendary front row from Clonlara joined a select club of players in the province.

“Having played and worked with Marcus, I’ve seen the work ethic and application he brings to the game,” said another 200-club member Anthony Foley in tribute to his fellow Clareman.

“He’s been doing that week in week out over the past 13 seasons. Remember too he’s had his share of time out with illness and injury. We recognise the test of endurance he’s had to face,” added Foley.