Category: Sport

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.”

KILMIHIL will be the venue on Saturday for the opening round of the Senior B championship in which Miltown play Newmarket at 7.30p.m. This will be a very interesting game. Surprisingly Miltown did not field in last years senior championship. This year they have new management in James Murrihy (manager), Jim. Marrinan and Thomas Garrihy. Miltown have a big panel of young talented players with a number of U 16 A and Minor A titles to their credit.

Michelle McCaw is the team captain. Niamh Pender, Ciara Burke, Sinead Burke and Shauna Crowley were on the Clare Minor panel this year.

Newmarket also have a young team and will be hoping that the expierence gained by winning the Intermediate Championship and getting to the Munster Junior Club Final will stand to them.

Roisin McMahon is in her first year on the Clare senior panel and played at centre back when Clare defeated Fermanagh in the Div. 3 league final. Joining her on the Co. Panel is the club captain Carol O’Leary. Up and coming youny stars such as Niki Kaiser, Chloe Morey, Anne Marie Hayes, Bríd Enright and Zelika Browne are all on the Blues panel who are managed by Neil Ryan and his mentors Johnny Ryan, Kevin Corbett, Kevin Greene and Co. Camogie Secretary, Marie Louise Kaiser whose four daughters were on the panel last year.

Crusheen will start as favourites to overcome Coolmeen in the opening Round of the Senior B on Sunday at Lissycasey at 2p.m. There has been little between these two sides in recent years but this year Coolmeen who are managed by Aaron Kelly and Marie Haugh are down eleven of last years panel and will have a number of young players on duty such as Sarah Meaney, Aisling Reidy, Aisling McGann. Co. Senior players Sinead Eustace and Eimear O’Connor are key players as is team captain Lisa Farrell. Grace Lynch (injured) and Niamh Greene (away for the summer) are a huge loss.

Both were on the Clare panel. Crusheen are managed by Patrick Meaney with Martin Ogie Murphy and Damien Murphy as selectors. Maria O’Grady is the team captain, Crusheen will be looking to Emma Kearney, Rachel Lenihan, Nora Murphyand Noelle McGuane.

Fergus Rovers have a bye in the opening round.

Doonbeg 1-8 – St Joseph’s Miltown 1-7 at Doonbeg

DOONBEG’S work was done ahead of this encounter on Saturday evening – with five wins out of six they’d long since qualified for their fifth successive league semi-final.

Champions St Joseph’s Miltown didn’t have such a luxury, but in the end a one-point defeat was enough to keep the defence of their league title alive and tee up a semi-final clash with near neighbours Kilmurry Ibrickane.

Doonbeg took the points thanks to a strong second half display when they recovered from a 1-5 to 0-4 half-time deficit to get home by the minimum margin thanks to David Tubridy’s last minute point.

A goal by captain Kevin Nugent 15 minutes into the second half was the catalyst for this comeback, as it cancelled out Micheál Malone’s 20th minute effort for Miltown that was the big difference between the sides in the first half.

Miltown had opened the scoring through Dessie Molohan but three on the trot from David Tubridy (2) and Paul Dillon gave Doonbeg the initiative. Malone’s goal was followed by points from Eoin Curtin, Joe Curtin and Dessie Molohan as Miltown moved four clear.

However, Doonbeg weren’t to be denied once Nugent blasted to the net beyond Niall Quinn in the 45th minute, with David Tubridy steering them home to their sixth win from seven outings.

Doonbeg
Nigel Dillon, Joe Blake, Padraig Gallagher, Richie Vaughan, Brian Dillon (0-1), Padraig Ahern, Enda Doyle, ColmDillon (0-1), Brian Egan, Frank O’Dea, Kevin Nugent (1-0), Conor Downes (0-1), Paul Dillon, DavidTubridy (0-5), JamieWhelan.

Subs
EamonTubridy for Whelan.

St Joseph’s Miltown
Niall Quinn, David Cleary, Kevin Burke, Enda Malone, Michael Hehir (0-1), GrahamKelly, Gearóid Curtin, John Meade, Gary Egan (0-1), Eoin Curtin (0-1), Micheál Malone (1-0), Darragh McDonagh, DavidTalty, Dessie Molohan (0-3), Joe Curtin (0-1).

Subs
Gearóid Malone for Joe Curtin, Michael Barry for McDonagh

Man of the Match
David Tubridy (Doonbeg) Referee TomStackpoole (Ennistymon)

St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield 1-10 – Clondegad 0-5 at Gurteen

ST JOSEPHS’ championship opener against their namesakes from Miltown may have been a bitter disappointment but they’ve circled the wagons impressively within eight days – picking up a point against Kilrush Shamrocks and the two here to mark their historic first ever year in Cusack Cup competition by reaching the semi-final.

This was every bit as easy as the scoreline suggests as intermediate side Clondegad were out-classed from the earliest stages when St Joseph’s hit them for three points inside as many minutes and from there cruised to a comprehensive ninepoint win.

It was a bitter pill to swallow for Clondegad – their fifth successive defeat in a league season that has gone into freefall after victories in the opening rounds over Liscannor and Kilrush Shamrocks, all of which means relegation back to Garry Cup competition for 2012 after two seasons in the top flight.

They were never really in this game once a pumped up St Joseph’s laid down an early marker points by David O’Brien, Colm Mullen and Enda Lyons. Cathal O’Sullivan thundered through from midfield in the fifth minute and was unlucky not to goal when his shot crashed off the crossbar, but David O’Brien picked up the pieces to point.

Clondegad’s only score of the half came via a Paudge McMahon free six minutes in as St Joseph’s pressed home their superiority with two pointed frees from Colm Mullen by the 15th minute while a barren spell of action then ended in the 30th minute when full-back Kevin Dilleen stormed up the field to land a great point to give his side a 0-7 to 0-1 interval lead.

Points from Eoin Griffin and a subdued Gary Brennan inside the first six minutes of the second half briefly raised the prospect of a Clondegad rally as they had the wind advantage, but by the 40th minute this game was over.

Enda Lyons, the most industrious player on view, hit two good points from play, while Johnny O’Brien blasted to the net to put St Joseph’s 1-9 to 0-3 clear.

The closing 20 were uneventful to say the very least as this game ground to its inevitable conclusion – Paudge McMahon grabbed a few consolation scores for the losers, while another Enda Lyons point just before the end completed his evening’s work and teed up a semi-final joust with county champions Doonbeg in two weeks time.

St Joseph’s Doora- Barefield
Declan O’Keeffe, Gavin O’Sullivan, Kevin Dilleen (0-1), Sean Flynn, Mark Rafferty, Damian Kennedy, Paul Dullaghan, Cathal O’Sullivan, Mark Halliinan, Aidan O’Connor, ColmMullen (0-3f), David O’Brien (0-2), Enda Lyons (0-4), Johnny O’Brien (1-0), Martin Duggan.

Subs
Mark Hanrahan for Duggan, Pa Mannion for O’Sullivan,Anthony Halpin for O’Connor.

Clondegad
Declan O’Loughlin, Brian Murphy, Paddy O’Connell, Conor Gavin, James Murphy, Kieran Browne, Francie Neylon, Eoin Griffin (0-1), Paddy Breen, Kenneth Kelly, Francis O’Reilly, Kevin Donnelly, Pat Coffey, Gary Brennan (0-1), Paudge McMahon (0-3, 2f).

Man of the Match
Enda Lyons (St Joseph’s D- B) Referee Michael Rock (Ennistymon)

Kilmurry Ibrickane 1-16 – Liscannor 0-9 at Quilty

LISCANNOR have a proud Cusack Cup record over the past dozen years, winning the league title three times since 2000, but for 2012 they’ll be playing Garry Cup football.

Relegation came calling in Quilty on Friday evening as a rampant Kilmurry Ibrickane maintained their unbeaten record this term with a comprehensive ten-point win.

Their work was done by half-time as they cruised into a 1-9 to 0-3 lead when playing with the wind that was blowing in from Mutton Island direction, the goal coming as early as the third minute when Michael Hogan slammed the ball beyond Noel Kilmartin.

Darragh Blake did peg a point back a minute later, but seven points in-arow put Kilmurry on the high road as Stephen Moloney, Mark McCarthy, Ian McInerney, Seamus Lynch, Seamus Murrihy and Enda Coughlan were all on the mark.

Only Alan Clohessy’s seven frees kept the scoreboard ticking for Lis cannor, but there was no stopping Kilmurry as they continued on their free-scoring way in the second half.

Points by Alan Clohessy (2) and Alan Flaherty hinted at a Liscannor comeback, but points by Seamus Lynch, Michael Hogan, Stephen Moloney and Ian McInerney steadied Kilmurry by the 50th minute as they moved 1-14 to 0-8 clear.

Kilmurry Ibrickane
Peter O’Dwyer, Declan Callinan, JohnWillie Sexton, Martin McMahon, Shane Hickey, EvanTalty,Thomas Lernihan, Ian McInerney (0-4, 3f), Seamus Murrihy (0-2), Seamus Lynch (0-2), Enda Coughlan (0-4), Mark McCarthy (0-1), Michael Hogan (1-1) Noel Downes, Stephen Moloney (0-2).

Subs
Odran O’Dwyer for Moloney,Thomas O’Connor for Callinan,VinnyTalty for McInerney, ColmDonnellan for Hogan

Liscannor
Noel Kilmartin, Michael Foley, Davy McDonagh, Shane Canavan,Alan McDonagh, Ronan Slattery, Denis Murphy, Brian Considine, Niall Considine, Joe Considine, Kieran Considine, Darragh Blake (0-1), Alan Flaherty (0-1),Alan Clohessy (0-7f), Paul Guerin.

Subs
Robbie Lucas for Slattery, Gerry Considine for Murphy

Man of the Match
Seamus Murrihy (Kilmurry Ibrickane) Referee Barry Kelly (St Joseph’s Miltown)

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.