Category: Sport

Ga lway v Cla r e @ Pea r se St adium, Sa lt hill, Sat ur day 7pm (Dia r muid Kir wa n, Cor k) Ext r a-t ime playable if necessa r y CALL IT Déjà vu if you will but the truth remains that we have been here before. Only 12 months ago in fact, off the back of an encouraging yet losing start to the championship, Clare entered the qualifiers with renewed hope before disappointingly failing to perform when it mattered most.

How much Clare have learned since then is still up in the air but their propensity to leak ‘soft’ goals is something that has haunted the Banner for the past three years and going on the Tipperary game, is still quite prevalent. Clare have now conceded 14 goals in their last seven games while only scoring six themsevles.

As Anthony Daly stressed before the league final, that tendency to flit in and out of the game is something that just needs to be ironed out over time and comes with young and inex- perienced players and looking at his Dublin side, it certainly gives Clare hope for the future.

For that to happen, Clare need to make the breakthrough and take a big scalp. After all, it’s over three years since Clare’s last championship victory and having lost their last seven games, beating Galway is now of paramount importance.

However, Clare’s neighbours have been eerily quiet since being humbled by the Dubs which is worrying for the Banner. Had they come out and pointed fingers, the morale in the camp would have diminished further but by staying quiet, you can sense a back lash from the Tribesmen. After all, before Tipperary emerged from the pack last year, it was felt that Galway were the team most likely to knock Kilkenny off their perch and they haven’t become a bad team overnight, regardless of what is being said about them outside of the camp.

So this is essentially a clash of two wounded animals who may have to eat up the other in order to survive. It’s survival of the fittest at this stage.

YOU believe James McCartan when he says that Down can’t afford to take victory as being a matter of course when land in Ennis this Saturday and try to chart another journey through the All-Ireland Qualifiers.

McCartan speaks from his and Down’s own experiences. Down and their uneasy relationship with the Qualifiers; McCartan and his last experience in Cusack Park when he came as a player.

“There is no guarantee that we’re going to pick it up in the Qualifiers,” he says. “Our records in the Qualifiers, apart from last year, hasn’t been very good. We’ve come a cropper in places like Longford and Wicklow and Sligo. Our away form has been poor. Even last year we had a fairly chastening experience in Offaly and we only got out by the skin of our teeth,” he adds.

McCartan wasn’t so lucky as a player on the biggest meeting between the sides, with the two-time All-Ireland winner having instant recall of the famous meeting between the sides back in 1993.

“I think it was the last time I played in Ennis,” he says. “We were beaten. Back then Clare were strong. They were Munster champions in ‘92 and would have been strong enough that day. Clare beating Down back then perceived as an upset.

“The one thing about the Down team of the 1990s was that we were able to lose anywhere in Ireland. We won All-Ireland but we could lose anywhere and did that regularly.”

Avoiding a similar fate is all that matters. This Down team with such prodigious talents as Martin Clarke and Benny Coulter may have lit up the last year’s championship with wins over Kerry and Kildare to reach the All-Ireland final, but the lessons of history mean that McCartan refuses to look beyond Saturday at 3pm.

“We should know what to expect and not take anything for granted,” he says. “There will be nothing easy given to us. On any given day any team can turn it on, it doesn’t matter what division they’re in.

“Obviously we won’t know the Clare players as much as we would like and they’ll know all about us, which will give them an advantage in the knowledge stakes. We’re scouting around to get as much information as we can to try and prepare,” the twotime All-Ireland winner adds.

“Any team on their own patch never wants to give up anything easy and Clare are going to fight tooth and nail to turn us over. We have to fight against that,” he adds.

“Is it the biggest field in Ireland?,” he enquires. “It will be a new experience for us and certainly we’ll get our fitness tested.”

Clare, no doubt, hope to test them in other areas too. WITH Liam McHale the pain of losing the 1996 All-Ireland final to Meath is always lurking just underneath the surface, coming up for air every so often. Most times it’s the Ballina man’s reflections from a couple of afternoons that changed the course of Mayo football. This time it’s different though – it’s not about Mayo, but Clare ahead of Saturday’s encounter with Down in Cusack Park. Not the John Maughan angle, but Down and hope that their hangover from last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Cork might just carry on a little longer. “In our chosen sport,” says McHale, “the most difficult thing to deal with is losing an All-Ireland final. They had to do that last year. I experienced what they’re going through in 1996 and it’s not easy. “They anticipated that they would beat Armagh and that they would get the show on the road and win an Ulster title. When that doesn’t happen, it’s a major setback for them. “They have to deal with that. While they are a very good team, in some respects Down are a little bit fragile at the moment and need two or three wins to get back to where they were.” Stopping them in their tracks is Clare’s task – a monumental one yes, especially on the back of a 15point defeat to Cork in the Munster quarter-final, losing captain Gordon Kelly to Boston, his brother Graham to suspension and Darren O’Neill to

injury.

“You’d have to say getting the two best teams in Ireland last year, one after the other is unfortunate,” says a philosophical McHale. “For a young Division 4 side that’s trying to improve and crawl our way up the ladder, it’s a very difficult task.

“But we took something from that Cork game. We were shy and in awe of Cork in the first half. I talked to the players about that. They didn’t know that, but it’s a very difficult psychological thing to put your finger on, but we certainly didn’t play well and didn’t get stuck in.

“In the second half I thought we were superb and we scored eight points to their four and we were only six points down with 15 minutes to go. I don’t think that for any minute you’d say we were going to win the game, but having said that I was disappointed that we didn’t score 1-13 or 1-14. We had a couple of half goal chances – if one of those went in we could have made it very, very tight.”

That’s the goal for Saturday afternoon – racking up a higher score, keeping it tight for as long as possible in the hope that doubts creep into Down’s play. After all, only two years ago Down were humbled by Wicklow in an All-Ireland Qualifier down in Aughrim.

“While we have a very difficult task ahead of us, a massive task and while nobody will give us a chance, James McCartan and the Down team also have a difficult task to get themselves motivated and get back to where they were,” says McHale.

“That Down team is a young team and is not playing well this year. There’s no question about that. Maybe they’ll find it difficult to get their heads around a tough back door schedule to get back to where they were last year.

“They will be looking on Clare as a good draw, but if our mindset is right and if we have learned from the Cork game, you’d imagine that we’ll give them a right good run.

“We don’t know what mentality they’ll have for the game. We don’t know what fire they’ll have in their belly. They might be expecting to come south and win a game easily by seven or eight points, get home and get show back on the road.”

If so, McHale hopes that Clare can pounce and produce something similar to their last All-Ireland Qualifier victory in Cusack Park – six years ago against 2004 Leinster champions Westmeath.

“We have to get stuck into them right from the throw-in, play with a lot of heart, a lot of passion, but also with a lot of intelligence. I want lads to use their brains, adhere to the gameplan and do the right things at the right time.

“It’s great to have determination and competing for every ball, but a lot of it comes down to decision making. I hope all things we worked on will come to fruition and we put in a massive performance. Then we’ll see what happens.”

KILDARE’S juniors came to Ennis last Friday to take on Clare in a challenge – winning 0-11 to 0-9. Taking that as a guide, Clare’s chances of beating a side that beat the Kildare seniors in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final seems remote.

However, it’s worth noting that the Kildare juniors are part of Kieran McGeeney’s big picture for football in the county – it’s a feeder squad for the senior team. They’re ambitious and were keen to take down a senior side, as they did on Friday.

For Clare it was only a work-out – the real business is this Saturday when they will try and throw the kitchen sink at Down. It’s the only way. And, it’s a great chance for Clare – they’re being given no chance and on the surface it’s a mission impossible, made harder by Gordon Kelly’s defection to Boston.

But, Down can be flakey in the Qualifiers and have plenty of previous. Put the shackles on Martin Clarke early on, build a lead and it might be interesting.

Down should still win though. Verdict: Down

Clare 2-19 – Cork 0-15 at The Gaelic Grounds, Limerick

A THUMPING ten-point win in the end and one that in no way flattered a Clare team that forced the pace of this game from start to finish as they reached a Munster final in the intermediate grade for the first ever time.

They did so on the back of a spirited display throughout, while the blend of youth and experience brought together by manager Kevin Kennedy was also key in helping Clare drive for home in the second half when they bagged two all-important goals within six minutes of each other.

Grizzled veteran of over 50 championship battles at senior level Niall Gilligan marked his second coming as an inter-county player when bursting through the Cork rearguard in the 44th minute and driving low to the net.

The youthful Daire Keane then slalomed his way through in the 50th minute and blasted home to put Clare ahead by 2-15 to 0-14. These were the damn-busters that finally broke Cork’s resolve and allowed Clare cruise to victory.

And they were what Clare deserved, because it was they who married enthusiasm, endeavour and adventure from the earliest exchanges, putting it up to the favourites Cork until they eventually managed to put them down with those goals.

A hugely impressive start that saw Padraigh Hickey, Ronan Keane (2), Tony Carmody (2) and Daire Keane hit fine points from play had them 06 to 0-2 ahead after 11 minutes.

Cork slowly got into the game, hitting three on the trot from Brian Canny, Michael O’Sullivan and David Drake by the 13th, while the were level by the 16th minute when Maurice Sexton bagged a brace after Padraig Hickey had his second for Clare.

However, crucially from Clare’s point of view was that they were never headed and edged 0-10 to 0-9 ahead by half-time thanks to points by Shane Golden and two Niall Gilligan frees before Kevin Hartnett and Brian Corry responded for the Rebels.

It was an initiative Clare never surrendered and never looked like surrendering either from the moment Kevin Moynihan landed the point of the day from the open stand sideline into the Cratloe end goal in the 38th minute.

Two Niall Gilligan points and a third from play by Ronan Keane helped them move 0-14 to 0-11 clear and in position to go for the jugular against a Cork team that was struggling all over the field.

Ironically it came from Gilligan just after Cork had picked themselves up with points form Eamon Brosnan and Kevin Hartnett to reduce the margin to the minimum after 42 minutes.

The 35-year-old punished hesitancy in the Cork defence, emerged from a scrum, srpinted clear and gleefully slammed to the net to put Clare four ahead – a lead that became seven when Keane kept the youth wing’s end up with his goal.

Clare were almost out of sight, while Cork’s game was up when Maurice O’Sullivan’s 52nd minute goal was disallowed for a square ball.

All that was left was the procession of the final minutes as subs Declan O’Rourke and Aidan Lynch marked scores to their names, while matchwinners Daire Keane and Niall Gilligan did the same.

DURING the week Kevin Kennedy memorably likened himself to Giovanni Trappatoni when talking about players who declined an offer to throw their lot in with his county intermediate side.

But just as Trappatoni’s travails with the likes Anthony Stokes, James McCarthy and enfant terrible Stephen Ireland never got him down, so it was with Kevin Kennedy in his stewardship of what he called “the unglamorous team of Clare hurling”.

And just as some reward came to Trappatoni recently, so it did to Kennedy in this Munster semi-final as those who answered his call have brought the county to within 60 minutes of an historic first ever provincial title at intermediate level.

“The fellas that were playing today are the fellas I want for the final,” said Kennedy in the first flush of victory, hinting that there won’t be too many more invitations handed out to the stay-away bunch.

“I can tell you that much, because when we were playing challenge matches on wet evenings in Gort, Clareabbey and places like that, these are the players who wanted to come out to play for Clare as this level. We had one chance at this, one chance to get to a Munster final.”

That they did it in such decsisive fashion wasn’t beyond Kennedy’s wildest expectations, but he expected it to be closer against a Cork team that had beaten Tipperary in the semi-final by 2-16 to 2-12 in the quarter-final.

“I knew if we got our defence right for this game we’d have a great chance,” he reflected. “We had the defence right and things followed from there. We knew we had the forwards to get scores and they did that by putting up 2-19. That’s a good score, a very good score.

“We’re learning all the time. We learned today that the defence we picked was up to it. Patrick Kelly was absolutely outstanding at full-back – time and time again the came out of defence with the ball, especially in the second half and it lifted the team. He has a presence at full-back and that’s what we needed. He was brilliant.

“We concentrated on getting right for this game in the last three weeks, when the club championship com mitments were over. People say we should have done more – an analyst on Clare FM the other night said we should have 25 or 26 sessions done.

“It’s impossible to do that. There was no point doing anything until the first two rounds of the championship were over. We worked hard for three weeks and the result is there in that win.”

Now for the Munster final in July 13 next against Limerick.

“This is the unglamorous team of Clare hurling,” says Kennedy. “There’s no high profile, but winning a Munster final would be great. Clare needs to win something at adult level. When Clare won Munster and All-Ireland junior titles in 1993 we got things rolling. We need to get rolling again.

“With the team we have and the way we’ve got it right, I’m confident now.”

THE All-Ireland Broodmare Championship at the Clare Agricultural Show has been recognised as one of the premier showing classes in Ireland by being included in the new Horse Sport Ireland National Showing Championship Series, in association with the Irish Shows Association. Only ten Championships around Ireland have been included in the Series, which will see € 20,000 being injected into showing in 2011

The series will consist of ten championship finals taking place at ten of Ireland’s top rural shows, including three venues in County Clare – the others apart from Ennis are the Scariff and Kildysart Shows. There will be a total of 206 qualifying classes run around the country in the lead up to the finals.

Speaking at the launch, Horse Sport Ireland Chief Executive, Damian Mc Donald, said that as well as providing funding for the Series, Horse Sport Ireland were keen to increase the profile of the showing championships around the country.

“Qualifiers for these championships take place in every corner of Ireland at rural shows and are accessible to breeders. The shows are run on a voluntary basis with all the funding going directly to the exhibitors. Our vision is for these championships to become the Champions’ League of showing,” he said.

TOMMY Dunne knows all about Clare ambushes on the Ennis Road – he made his senior championship debut in the Munster quarter-final clash in 1994 when the clap of thunder that greeted Tommy Guilfoyle’s match-winning goals could be heard as far away as Slievenamon.

That’s why experience had taught the Toomevara man to expect a big Clare performance – he knew it wouldn’t be any other way and knew it would be a battle.

That was his gospel after this ballgame was over, thankful that the AllIreland champions were up for battled, because, if they weren’t….

“We prepared very well for the game. We were very conscious that people were completely writing Clare off and we were very much on our guard for that,” the 2001 All-Ireland winning captain admitted.

“I think had we underestimated Clare to any degree, we would have came second today, because I thought Clare really meant business out there today.”

This fact was hammered home with Clare’s blitzkrieg start that saw them race into a 1-3 to no score lead inside eight minutes.

“We were hoping to make a strong start. We knew Clare would be trying to do the same and it was they who got the better start.

“It took us a long time to get to grips with them. In fairness to Clare I thought they gave a very good account of themselves and they were unlucky not to get a couple of more goals.

“From our point of view we got a couple of goals, probably against the run of play. We were under severe pressure and those goals got us into the game and kept us in the game in the first half.

“Clare were well on top, but those goals made a huge difference. The first two goals cut the deficit and the third one put us ahead, even though we didn’t deserve it on the balance of play.

“They had a lot of quality and you could see that in their play. We were happy with our preparation, but obviously we weren’t happy with the way we performed on the back of that preparation, but that’s sport. It’s not a straight-line graph. I think our lads were well-tuned for the game the fact that we were eventually stood to them.

“It comes from experience. We’ve been around the block a few times and in fairness the lads dug out some great scores when we really needed them.

“In the second half we probably upped our game all over the field, even though we hit a few bad wides towards the end, but we got the scores to open up a six or seven point gap and that was the big difference,” added Dunne.

CLARE PEOPLE have been asked to send messages of support to the counties two athletes who are bidding for glory at this years Special Olympics World Summer Games in Greece.

Seventeen year old Ciara O’Loughlin, who comes from Ballyea just outside Inagh, will compete in athletics while Sixmilebridge’s Michael Neville is part of the Irish Soccer Team. The pair flew off yesterday as part of the 124 strong Irish team who will hope to bring glory to the Banner County over the next two weeks.

Ciara’s parents and four other family members all flew out to Athens yesterday to show their support to the Irish team. Speaking from Heathrow Airport yesterday, Ciara mother Collette urged Clare people to sent messages of support to the Irish athletes who will compete at the games.

“They will have a wall for all the athletes out at the games and as people send on messages these message will be left up for all the athletes to read. It would be great if people would leave messages for the Clare athletes and all the Irish athletes,” said Collette.

“Ciara is a member of the Shannon Flyers Club and she has worked very hard for this. She has been training four days a week down in Clare and once a month she has been going to Dublin to take part in training with the Irish team.

“Ciara goes to St Anne’s School in Ennis and everyone gave her a great send off there last week. She also got a great send off from the club who have done so much to help her qualify for the Olympics.”

Ciara, who just turned 17 last week, will compete in the 100 metre sprint and the shot putt while she may also compete in the 100 metre relay race.

Sixmilebridge man Michael was introduced to the Special Olympics through his involvement in a training centre in Limerick four years ago.

Michael has an impressive record in scoring goals, having scored 36 for his club. He competed in the 2010 Special Olympics Ireland Games in Limerick.

His involvement in Special Olympics has greatly improved Michael’s confidence. He now loves going out meeting new people and playing his favourite sport. Michael is a sports fanatic. He loves watching sport such as rugby and hurling and enjoys reading books about sport. His sporting hero is Robbie Keane.

Team Ireland will join 7,500 athletes from 185 nations at the Games which will be the biggest sporting event in the world this summer.

Messages of support for Michael and Ciara can be emailed to eteam@specialolympics.ie while people can also follow their progress live on www.specialolympics.ie.

THERE WAS obvious disappointment etched on Clare selector Liam Doyle’s face as he shuffled down the players tunnel at the final whistle. However, beneath the understandable resignation lay an immense pride in his players that they left everything on the field in a bid to topple the AllIreland champions.

“To lose is disappointing from our point of view but you just couldn’t fault the lads. We asked them before the game and we asked them again at half-time to work their socks off and run themselves into the ground and in fairness that is exactly what they did today.”

“You always dream of getting off to a great start and in fairness, Conor [McGrath] had a brilliant game today. He’s a natural forward and took his goal very well so the start was brilliant but I suppose for our lads, we couldn’t let Tipp dictate the game. We had to take the game to them so you couldn’t have asked for any more.

“On the balance of possession, we probably deserved to go in half-time in front but a bit of naivety and Tipp got a couple of soft goals suppose you’d call them. But that’s Tipp, give them a sniff of a chance and you will be punished. They have the experience of All-Ireland finals and they are ruthless.”

Indeed, big game experience and the fact that the teams are plying their trade in different tiers of the National League was the crucial difference in the end for Doyle.

“Tipp got to the All-Ireland final last year and are playing in Division 1. We are playing in Division 2 and our best game was in the Division 2 final when the pace was much higher than the group games. The pace of the game today was even higher again and maybe our fellas just weren’t used to it. The likes of Clare, Limerick, Wexford and Offaly need to be playing against the top teams, even if it means a couple of defeats along the way. You need to be playing the top teams to improve your hurling and to get used to the pace of the game.”

And what of the qualifiers?

“We will take it one game at a time. For the last five weeks since the league final, we just totally concentrated on June 19 and now we have to take lock, stock and barrell today and review the situation again. We will get nothing easy in the qualifiers, as Galway is a local derby and really when it comes down to it, there is nothing between all four teams in our round of the qualifiers.”

FRIENDS AND former teammates will gather in the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis on Saturday night to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Ennis club Turnpike Rovers.

Founded in 1981 the first meeting of Turnpike Rovers took place in a room over Murphy’s shoe shop on O’Connell Street, Ennis.

The club’s first committee was made up of Tony Gilmartin (chairman), Brian McCarthy (secretary), George Guilfoyle (treasurer) with John Pyne and Michael Frawley serving as PRO and managers.

Other committee members included Donie Pyne, Martin Guerin and Francie Roche. Over the years many people have contributed to the success of the ‘Pike, as either players, managers or committee members. Some of the well-known names to have been associated with Turnpike include James Gormley, Michael Nugent, Michael Sheridan (RIP), John Lavery, Donal Pyne, Michael Guilfoyle, Ronnie Pyne and Frank Gormley. The club initially drew the majority of players from the Turnpike area, McNamara Park and Dalcassian Park. The club’s first ever set of goalposts were made by Paddy McHugh and Peter Fitzgerald in the Walnut House

The early days showed Rovers meant business. The team finished runners up in the division two shield in 1981 before going on to take the first division shield in 1983. In 1990, Turnpike were crowned Munster Junior Clare area champions and the following season lost out to Newmarket Celtic in the final of the Haughey Cup. The next season, Rovers reclaimed the Munster Junior Clare area cup with founding member Francie Roche netting the winner in the final.

The start of the decade also heralded another period of success with Turnpike winning the first division league and FAI Clare Area cup. Further honours followed in 2007 before Turnpike claimed the first division league cup in 2009.

Turnpike also enjoyed a period of sustained success in youth soccer throughout the 1980s and 90s. Under the stewardship of manager John Pyne, the club was crowned youths shield winners in 1983. That season also saw the club lose out to eventual winners Athlone in the quarterfinals of the FAI Youths Cup. A league titled followed in 1985 before Turnpike swept the boards in 1987, winning the youths shield, FAI Clare area youths cup, Munster Clare area youths cup, youths league and youths cup.

Further youth’s cup titles were snapped up in 1990 and 1991 while in 1993 Turnpike lost to Clonmel side Oldbridge in the final of the Munster youth’s cup.

In the 1984/85 season, Turnpike Rovers had the distinction of having two players named ‘players of the year’ in Clare soccer. They were Colm Fitzgerald and Derek McGann who was named ‘youths player of the year’. Over the years Turnpike were well represented on the Clare Oscar Traynor team. In that same season, talented midfielder Brian Pyne was a starter in all of Clare’s games.

Turnpike also enjoyed a period of success in schoolboy’s soccer taking league titles at under 12 (1985), under 14 (1986), under 16 (1991) and under 11 (1996). The club were under 11 cup runners up in 1998 while there were further titles at under 11 (2001/02), under 16 (2004) and under 17 (2005/07).