Category: Sport

THERE’S LITTLE time for Wolfe Tones to reflect on last weekend’s Féile as they prepare for the football equivalent this weekend. Central to that plan is to put their Galway experience to good use and as part of both backroom teams, football manager Matt O’Connor has learned a thing or two from last weekend.

“It was a great experience and hopefully a learning curve for these players, that’s the way I felt about it afterwards. The one things we learned is that we will have to win our first game against Bride Rovers in Rathcormac on Thursday at 2pm. We have to win that if we want to have any realistic chance of doing well in the competition. It’s builds up confidence then as well and on the other side, if you lose the first game or draw, it’s kind of an uphill battle like we had on Saturday. So it’s important on Thursday that we win.”

Having remained unbeaten in the group stages, Wolfe Tones were eventually outdone in a play-off but the key is for O’Connor and his back- room team of John O’Gorman, David Reidy and Tommy Lynch to quickly pick up the players ahead of Thursday’s throw-in.

“We were disappointed to go out like that because I thought we played well on the Saturday but at the end of the day, that’s just the way sport is.

“Yesterday evening we had a chat and the players are up for it, but a lot are carrying injuries and are tired, and a lot will depend on how they recover in the next few days. If they are fully fit, I think we have a good chance. We have a good team and if they perform to what we expect, I think we’ll have a good chance.

“We are down in Division 5 which is surprising but might suit us. These lads had put in a huge amount of work since January in both hurling and football and between the two codes, we have been managing them as best we can. It would be fantastic for them to win a Féile and hopefully if they could do it next weekend, it would be fantastic for them. It would finish off the year and maybe then they could go on and do well in the local championship.”

TO BEAT Tipperary at any time provides a sizeable sense of achievement so to beat them for the second year in succession and in their home ground of Thurles was more than satisfying for the Clare minors on Friday evening.

However, beneath that veneer of contentment also lay a sense of relief for joint-manager Gerry O’Connor that after the disruption of exams and the long lay-off since their previous competitive outing, his side had showed enough character to prevail.

“We came down here and we had huge hopes for this team but with minors, you don’t know what you’ve got until you turn up on the night. The first half was very funny and I’ll be honest, we got a lucky goal from the penalty to go three points up.

“But they came back and we just couldn’t shake them off.

“Then Shane O’Donnell got a ball and popped a pass to Galvin and wow what a finish. The accusation that was levelled at us last year was that we couldn’t score goals and honestly, we couldn’t argue with that case but in fairness, the ability of our full-forward line when they got the ball to be able to turn them into scores was key to the match this evening.”

And so the Clare minor rollercoaster rolls on for at least two more games after reaching a second consecutive provincial decider, with last year’s experience certain to aid the cause as it did on Friday evening.

“Really and truly, we didn’t know what we were going to be like until we turned up today and that’s the real pressure that was on the team. But in fairness, the experienced guys from last year, that diamond of Shanahan, Galvin Kelly and Tots [Cathal O’Connell], and Seadna Morey, they were unbelievable tonight to be fair to them.”

“Everything is a bonus from now on because the year opens up for us now. Tonight was do-or-die and was a real championship match because there is no backdoor. I know we are in a Munster final now and that was our goal from the outset to get back there again but ultimately the next day it’s not the end of the world whatever happens.

“Don’t get me wrong, we will do out damnedness the next day to defend our title but the pressure eases now and hopefully we can play with some freedom in the final.”

FERGUS ROVERS have a difficult opening game in the Senior B championship on Friday evening when they take on an improving Crusheen side in Lissycasey at 7p.m.

The Ballynacally/Lissycasey outfit have a very young team and are managed this year by Newmarket man Joe Carrigg. His selectors are Martin Kelly who was part of last year’s management and Doonbeg native Pakie Keane.

Encounters between these two sides have been very close in recent years with little separating them. They met twice in last year’s championship with both sides recording a win each. Six weeks ago they met in the league in Crusheen where the locals had five points to spare.

For this year’s championship Fergus Rovers are without Paula Donnelly, Mairead Hayes , Roisin Killeen and Catriona Murphy from last year’s panel. Aine Kelly who has missed out on a year’s football is back in training and will definitely play some part in Friday’s game. Cliona Cleary, Theresa Meaney, Lorraine Kelly, Clodagh McNeilis, Clare Hester, Orla and Grainne Griffin will have to step up to the mark if Fergus Rovers are to cause a surprise.

Liscannor also have their first outing in the championship this weekend when they face West Clare Gaels. Reigning Senior B Champions they will really put it up to the girls from the west. Liscannor have been improving steadily at underage level.

Carmel and Marie Considine are stalwarts of Clare Ladies Football while their brother Joe is joint team manager with Barry O’Grady. They are captained by Yvonne Flaherty while Emma Slattery, Aine Greene, Olivia Lucas, Aine Burke and Suzanne Cagney are all fine footballers.

While West Clare Gaels did win their opening round Majella Griffin, the Kelly twins and Katie Geoghegan were sorely missed. This is a huge game for Liscannor, one they are capable of winning.

THIS was more than just a football game for Clare – it was a game when the county’s unheralded senior team finally threw off the shackles of indifference and mediocrity and struck a blow for the prestige of the game in the county.

That was the feeling of the few Clare supporters in Cusack Park on Saturday afternoon, something manager Micheál McDermott could sense in the feelgood factor and smiles on the stragglers left behind.

He didn’t want any of it though – and his players were of a like mind as he referenced the words of new captain Gary Brennan immediately after the game as they huddled together, for comfort maybe, down at the scoreboard end of the field.

“Gary showed the way,” said McDermott. “He said it clearly ‘no matter who applauds you off the field and no matter who slaps you on the back, today we lost and remember the pain the hurt of losing’.

“We emptied our tank on the field and the effort, the courage, the drive and desire from everyone of those players has to be held up as a great display for Clare, but it’s all about winning.

“People will say moral victories are good for a team like Clare, but I would say different. We have to learn from defeats like this and the hurt of today. We can’t say we were nearly there – we should have won that match today, we could have won it. That’s the bottom line. Our summer is over and Down move on.”

That’s the line any management team has to take, but at the same time there was much to take from the 70- plus minutes when Clare confounded their critics to produce their best performance of the year.

“We were brave today as a team,” said McDermott. “That’s the way we decided to go out and play. We said if we were going to win this game, we were going to win it playing football, by showing courage and bravery and going for the game, not being negative, not being here to contain.

“We set out our plan to go at them toe-to-toe. If we were to win, we had to take the game to them, man for man, with no sweeper system. Forget about blanket defences and things like that – we had to play football and take our game to them, rather than worry about their game or their key players. That’s what we did.

“The bodies are tired in there. They’re hurting from the effort they put in over the 70 minutes. Every one of the players emptied the tank out there today. It was all about hard work, intensity and trying to play good open football. We did that at times today.

“When you see Down holding onto the ball just to keep possession, you know they were in a battle. They weren’t going to showboat at the end. Listen it could have been a repeat of Louth against Meath – it would have been a hard call on the umpire with that last ball that went in, but that’s how close we were to winning the game and that’s how disappointed I feel for the players. We were on our home pitch and we wanted to go out and play football and win it playing football. We very nearly did that.”

UNPRECEDENTED numbers turned out for Clarecastle’s Lá na gClub celebrations on Sunday. The action packed family fun day had something for everyone from live music and dancing to novelty and exhibition games culminating in the much awaited ‘El Magpie Classico’ between the 1986/87 team who were honoured for their 25th anniversary and the 1997 county and Munster winning side including Clare manager Ger O’Loughlin who played a half for each side, Dublin manager Anthony Daly, former All-Star John Callinan and evergreen Paschal Rus- sell (pictured below in a not so Superman t-shirt). The day will also be remembered for the launch of the club’s GAA Social Initiative, the brainchild of President Mary McAleese, that provides social events to older members of the community through the GAA. Clarecastle are the first club in the county to launch the initiative which is expected to be extended to all clubs in the coming years.

“IT was one, but it could have been 16,” quips James McCartan to one reporter from the fourth green field before the dictaphones were rolling, officially that is.

Hence the two-time All-Ireland winner and All Star’s verdict that “it was a strange kind of game”. Down starting as if they meant to run riot around Cusack Park, finishing with the near meltdown of only scoring two points in the last 25 minutes and being driven back over the wall into Stamer Park, the home of Daly’s Undertakers.

And, it would probably have been a funeral for Down’s management team had they been on the wrong side of that one-point margin. No wonder it makes for a reflective McCartan afterwards.

“There’s no doubt about the fact that what we’ll take away from this game is the result – nothing else,” he admits. “It was a strange, very strange. Our lads decided they were going to go for goals at one stage and we were nearly left to rue that.

“Fair play to Clare, they dug deep for last 15 minutes of the first half and the last 15 minutes of the second half. We started both halves pretty brightly. That’s what you set out to do in the dressing room and whenever it starts to unravel a wee bit, you’re scratching your head. You send the same guys out at the start of the second half and they start off like a house on fire again,” he adds.

But from there, McCartan is at a loss to explain where it all went wrong and nearly horribly so.

“When we took Kalum (King) off it wasn’t us thinking we had the game won. We felt we needed fresh legs in there. The guy we brought in probably had missed a bit of training and was a wee bit off the boil, so we put Calum back in to try and finish the game out.

“I was disappointed the way we went out of the game for long periods of both halves – it’s something we’ll have to take a look at. You have to give credit to Clare, but we have to look at ourselves very closely over the next few days.

“I do think over the course of the game we probably deserved to win the game, but if Clare had stuck a goal in and won the match, we would have had to hands up and say that they deserved it, the way they got in at us and came back,” he adds.

That comeback was only denied by Conor Laverty’s last gasp goal-line clearance at the death.

“I was just delighted Conor (Laverty) was there,” admits McCartan. “He might have been lucky to stay on the field because he took a wild swipe at somebody earlier, but obviously we were lucky to get the break.

“In the past Down have lost in places like this. The team talk this morning in the hotel was that if we can get out of here with a one-point win, it will be a positive. That’s what we did. It was a mission accomplished.”

Only just.

CBS Ennis 3-2 – Clarecastle NS 2-2 at Cusack Park, Ennis

A DRESS rehearsal for the main event and an opportunity for future stars to play in Clare headquarters as the CBS and Clarecastle locked horns for the first of two deciders on Wednesday afternoon. And in the end, it was the Ennis school that edged the contest in the proverbial game of two halves.

Clarecastle had the conditions at their backs for the opening half and used it to build up a 2-2 to 0-0 lead, with Darragh Healy scoring 1-1, Kelan Browne grabbing the second goal while Stephen Gilroy also got in on the scoring action. Others to impress included Liam Halpin, Oisin Casey, Mark O’Loughlin and Ronan Donnelly.

However, eight wides from the Magpies and a goal in reply by CBS’ Johny Ryan just before the break would prove to be crucial as the game became more congested in the second period.

Another 1-1 from Ryan and a further strike from Paul Tuohy put the CBS into the driving seat and with Colm McGrath pulling the strings, they held on for victory.

CBS Ennis
RobbieWoods, Conor Whelan, Eldon Nolan, Conor Hehir,Tomás Mulpeter, Gary Stack, Pierce Kenneally, Gavin Carr,TomMcDonald, Paul Tuohy (1-0), David Kirwan, ColmMcGrath (0-1), Khalid Ladigbolu, Eoghan Foudy, Johny Ryan (2-1)

Subs
Salah Abedelrazig, James Casey, Christopher Whelan, Luke Molloy,AndrewShannon,Alan Abraham,Aaron Ryan,Tony Odubote, Jack Crowley, Luke Hillary, Ian Butler, Jack Flynn, Cormac Killilea, Stephen Dolan, Neil Molloy

Clarecastle National School
Eoghan Wallace, LiamHalpin, Cian McNamara, Ricky Mulcaire, Oisin Casey, Mark O’Loughlin, Ruaírí Power, Kelan Browne (1-0), Stephen Gilroy (0-1), Joey Lynch, Ronan Donnelly, Lee Brigdale, Stephen Hogan, Stephen Birney, Darragh Healy (1-1)

Subs
Josh Brack, Harry Ward, DavidTuohy, Eoin Dinan, Dylan Brown, Mark Coughlan, Cormac Moloney, Eanna O’Donoghue, Cillian Casey, Gareth Guinnane,Aidan Ryan, Michael Kelly, Ben Sullivan, Dillon Pearson, Robyn Doyle, DavidWalshe, Jamie Lewis Cullinan, Conor Halpin, Brandon Healy, Sean Heaney,Alec Cassley, Evan Dolan

Referee
KevinWalsh (WolfeTones)

IT was 15 minutes from time – Clare were still trailing by three points, but it was the point when Clare coach Liam McHale was like a seasoned salmon fisher on River Moy outside his native Ballina.

The prize catch of the day, a real heavyweight catch, was hooked – just to win the battle of reeling it in to shore.

“I thought we had them,” says McHale. “It was when the Down defender came out and kicked it over the sideline with no one near him.

“I said to myself ‘these guys are under real pressure, we can take them’. Coming into the game, they were under pressure because they’re considered one of the best teams in the country and they were coming to play a Division 4 team.

“They weren’t supposed to be in the position they found themselves in when we were roaring back at them and dominating this game, but it wasn’t enough…….”

It wasn’t enough, say McHale, because the Clare performance over the 70 minutes wasn’t what it should have been. Rather than reflect in the strange kind of glory that comes with any near-miss by an underdog, McHale parses why the result didn’t go his team’s way.

“We had a lot of unforced errors – at the end of the first half and the start of the second half,” he says. “We were turning the ball over, not bringing the ball back and switching the play.

“We had some nightmare plays, especially at the start of the second half. That gave them a six-point lead that ultimately we couldn’t overhaul. It’s disappointing because we had been working on situations where there are two or three defenders around you, but then looking around and working it back, switching the play and attacking again.

“Yes we were excellent at times and played the best football we’ve played this year, but at other times we were very, very poor. We have to try and stop those basic errors. Every time you commit a basic error against a team like this, they’ll punish you. That’s what Down did. “We showed a lot of heart and we were the team playing all the football with about 12 minutes to go – but we wanted to do that for the whole game and unfortunately we didn’t do it. It’s a learning curve.

“If we were a litte bit smarter and took care of the ball a little bit more at certain stages of the game, especially at the end of the first and the start of the second, we could have won that game,” adds McHale.

Instead, just another defeat – Clare’s sixth defeat out of ten competitive games between league and championship – the only returns from the year coming in the league with wins of Kilkenny, London and Longford and a draw with Wicklow.

Wicklow, Longford and London all advanced in the first round Qualifiers – Clare didn’t, which even in their strange kind of glory moment, put a very disappointing year in perspective.

“We have to try and improve,” says McHale. “The ambition for this team at the moment is to get out of Division 4 – with the likes of Wicklow, Fermanagh, Limerick and Waterford, it’s not an easy task, but that’s the team’s ambition and that’s the right way to got about it.

“Get out of Divison 4, stay in that and then have an assault on Division 3. When you’re at that level and in Division 2, maybe then Clare can compete with the big boys in Munster. That’s what Clare football has to do first. Getting the best team out and getting out of Division 4 is a big must.”

CBS Ennis 2-6 – Clarecastle NS 2-5 at Cusack Park, Ennis

A THRILLING Division 1 final that had supporters guessing right up to the final whistle before CBS completed a memorable double with the narrowest of victories. Essentially, with a strong gale blowing towards the Clon Road, it came down to which side could cope best when playing into the conditions and in the end, CBS’ two first half goals from Cathal Ruane and Conor Devitt went a long way to shaping the outcome of the game.

Clarecastle will equally feel hard done by, having held the lead for the first 36 of the 40 minute encounter, starting with an early flourish that yielded a goal for Cian Donnelly and points for Owen O’Hara and David Barry by the seventh minute.

Those settling scores were wiped out by man-of-the-match Cathal Ruane’s solo goal while he also set up the second for Conor Devitt to find the net in the 13th minute and gain parity.

Clarecastle did bounce back before the break however when brothers Stephen and David Barry combined for the latter to find the left corner of the net, with Owen O’Hara completing the first half scoring at 2-4 to 2-0.

It never seemed enough with the conditions to come for the CBS and it was back to a one point game by the turn of the final quarter through points from Ruane (2) and the impressive Matthew Davenport.

A Conor Ryan free did momentarily shrug off the CBS challenge but a brace of points from Colm Walsh O’Loughlin and a Ruane free gave the CBS the lead for the first and indeed final time to take the top prize off the defending champions.

CBS Ennis
Eamon Foudy, Cathal O’Brien, Darren

Meehan, LiamMcMahon, Danny O’Halloran,Tadhg Connellan, Paul Martin, Nzube Okoye, Mikey Whelan, ColmWalsh O’Loughlin (0-2),Tomás Hehir, MatthewDavenport (0-1), Conor Devitt (1-0), Cathal Ruane (1-3 2f),Adrian Forde

Subs
RobbieWoods for Forde (30 mins)

Clarecastle National School
Daragh Dolan, Max Hillery, Lee Brack, Lorcan Clancy, Jack Fleming, Conor Ryan (0-1f), Luke McDermott, Marc McAuliffe, Kevin Hartigan, Colin Bridale, Stephen Barry, Owen O’Hara (0-3 2f), Stephen Kelleher, Cian Donnelly (1-0), David Barry (1-1)

Subs
Daragh Healy for Kelleher (18 mins), Eoin Collins for Fleming (24 mins)

Referee
Fergie McDonagh (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)

Down 1-13 – Clare 1-12 at Cusack Park, Ennis

NO moral victories screamed Micheál McDermott afterwards; so too did team coach Liam McHale, while new captain Gary Brennan sang the same hymn in the huddle on the field minutes after the end.

But just a few feet away James McCartan had a different take on things when saying “all the plaudits go to Clare on this one”. Yes, he would say that wouldn’t he, after Down escaped with the championship lives intact, but there was substance to his words at the same time.

Clare had whipped up a storm in the closing 25 minutes – coming from six adrift of the bluebloods in red and black and being a few more revolutions of an O’Neills away to a standout moment in the county’s less than distinguished football story.

They produced something special – true grit married to never-say-die that exposed the soft underbelly of a Down side that, save last year’s exploits, has a history of fragility in the Qualifier series.

And, when David Tubridy stroked over a 66th minute free to bring the sides level at 1-12 apiece, they were barging at the door of history, within touching distance of Clare’s greatest football day since Martin Daly put the ball in the Cork net at the Stamer Park end in the last second in 1997.

The chance came when Laurence Healy’s fist connected with his clubmate Joe Dowling’s up and under in the 70th minute, beat keeper Brendan McVeigh and was on its way into the same Stamer Park end net until Brendan Lavery got back to save the day.

That close for Clare, that close for Down, who lived to fight another day in 2011 thanks to Paul McComiskey’s 68th minute winner that he fisted over the bar, when they could so easily have died.

All this after Clare had looked dead themselves inside five minutes of this helter-skelter afternoon that eventually re-affirmed a notion – long since lost – that Clare had any kind of future in football.

Clare were at sea from as early as the first minute when a sweeping move Brendan McComiskey, Benny Coulter and was flashed inches wide of Joe Hayes’ left hand post by Martin Clarke.

Four minutes later they were looking for life rafts after points by Lavery and Clarke was followed by a goal after a burst from Kevin Duffin was taken on by Coulter and Sean Poland before Lavery fisted to the net past Joe Hayes from eight yards.

Amazingly, that was effectively as good as it got for Down in the half as Clare gradually got accustomed to the pace of the game after settling points from Mark Tubridy and Alan Clohessy by the tenth minute, while their recovery was complete when Ger Quinlan’s 16th minute point was followed by a Timmy Ryan goal a minute later.

Ryan got the better of both Dan Gordon and Brendan McVeigh, toepoking the ball to the net when a long ball from Cathal O’Connor from the right wing broke on the edge of the square.

Down recovered some of their poise before the break thanks to frees by Paul McComiskey and Martin Clarke and two fisted efforts from Paul Laverty, but Clare’s determination was rewarded with fine points from play by Gary Brennan and Ger Quinlan to leave them only 1-6 to 1-5 adrift at the break.

However, Down’s rapid fire response on the turnover that saw them hit five points inside 12 minutes seemed to restore order.

Their county minor captain Caolan Mooney got them going while Liam Poland, Paul McComiskey, Benny Coulter and corner-back Brendan McArdle also pointed as Down moved 1-11 to 1-5 clear.

Remarkably though, Down only managed two points in the final 25 minutes as Clare’s tour de force brought them to within inches of a fairytale success.

They roused themselves once more thanks to a David Tubridy point from play in the 48th minute. From there it was all Clare as two more Tubridy points from frees, either side of two from play by sub Joe Dowling brought the gap back to 1-12 to 1-10 by the 57th minute.

Then John Hayes raided up the right wing and stroked over a point in the 63rd minute, while David Tubridy’s 66th minute equaliser had an air of inevitability about it.

So did the winner – but it had come down the other end from McComiskey’s fisted effort, not Laurence Healy’s one in the final minute of normal time.