Category: Sport

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

AN INTRIGUING game for more than one reason on Saturday evening. Firstly, due to their intense rivalry that peaked in the 2006 and ‘07 county finals; the fact that Lissycasey legend Martin Daly is the current manager of Éire Óg while the reverse was true of Barry Keating while there was also the small matter of Éire Óg needing the victory to secure their semi-final place while Lissycasey required the points just to stay alive in the division after a disappointing start.

True to form, it turned out to be an inch tight contest that see-sawed in both directions before Lissycasey snatched it with a late brace of points.

The Townies had the better of the opening half’s exchanges to hold a 0-7 to 0-5 advantage but the second half livened up considerably with Lissycasey mounting a full recovery through a Martin Moran penalty. Éire Óg’s reply was also through the penalty spot from captain Stephen Hickey and it looked to have been enough to take all the points when holding a 1-11 to 1-10 lead with time almost up.

There was enough time to mount one final rally though and a late brace completed by Francis Hayes’ winner could yet be a pivotal score in Lissycasey’s season.

Lissycasey
Joe Hayes, Cyril Sheehan, Gerry Moran, Martin O’Connor, Cathal Hill, Michael Melican (0-1) Martin Moran (1-0) Enda Finnucane (0-1), Daniel Clohessy, OisinTalty, Francis Hayes (0-2) Alan Nagle (0-1), Paul Nagle (0-1) Niall Kelly (0-3) Derek McMahon (0-2)

Subs
Sean Hayes (0-1) for Talty, Fergal Talty for P. Nagle

Éire Óg
Eoin Slattery, Robbie Malone, Conor Healy, Michael O’Regan, Paul Madden, Dean Ryan, Nicky Hogan, Shane Daniels, Donie Lyne, Niall Daly, Stephen Hickey, Brian McMahon, Gary Flynn, Sean Crotty, David Monaghan

Subs
Danny Russell for McMahon, DonaghWalsh for Daly

Referee
Michael Fitzgerald (Ballyea)

A LOT of people forget that way back when things were rotten, that it was a junior team that showed the way for Clare hurling, winning a Munster final three days after the seniors were pummelled by Tipperary in their final, then going on to win the All-Ireland in Croke Park.

Still, being intermediate manager is a tough station – the seniors are the flagship team, the minors and the under 21 have a higher profile; the juniors are left to pick up the crumbs.

That’s what manager Kevin Kennedy must have thought many times over the past few months as he tried to piece together a panel of players to try and win a first Munster title in grade for 16 years.

“It was frustrating,” he says. “Very frustrating. I’m like Trappatoni. I’m depending on clubs to release players. There are players who don’t want to play for their county. Isn’t that great?

“There were number of players that I asked and they just weren’t interested. Then there were the clubs. Club managers wouldn’t release players for training. It’s practically impossible to prepare a team. What we did was gathered a group of players who were interested and we really pushed it for the last few weeks after the first two rounds of the club championship were over,” adds.

It was the arrival of Niall Gilligan and Tony Carmody into the squad that gave things a huge lift. “It gave lads a huge lift,” says Kennedy, “and now the players we have now are interested and very committed. Whether we’re good enough remains to be seen, because Cork are supposed to be very good.

“There is no doubt about it but there is a team in Clare that could be got together to win a Munster and All-Ireland title in this grade. Two or three years ago we had a good team and we were in a semi-final against Limerick. Ciaran Carey played for Limerick and was the difference between the sides. That’s why I invited the two lads in.”

With Gilligan and Carmody up front, the blend between youth and experience is provided by the younger brigade of Martin Duggan, Ivor Whyte and the precociously talented Daire Keane.

“I would have liked to have got more young fellas,” says Kennendy. “A few under 21s but the problem is that the under 21 management are not interested in having young fellas moving from one panel to the next.

“There are two or three fellas who would on the team, who are under 21 but didn’t join me. I can do nothing about that.

“We played two challenge matches against Galway and Limerick and were impressive in putting up big scores, but unfortunately we were conceding goals.

“That’s a worry, but I think we have the forwards this year to make a difference,” adds the 1997 All-Ireland winning manager.

TWO Clare surfers have been selected for the Irish Surf team to represent the country when the European Surfing Championships “Eurosurf”, supported by Fáilte Ireland, happen in Bundoran, County Donegal, from September 23 until October 3 this year.

Oliver O’Flaherty, 24, and Stephen Kelleher, 24, both from Lahinch competed in a series of selection events in early 2011 in order to secure a place on the Irish national surf team.

O’Flaherty is a member of the West Coast Surf Club and will be competing in the open surfing division of Eurosurf. Kelleher has recently been elected vice-chairman of West Coast Surf Club and is no stranger to international competition and was ranked 17th whilst representing Ireland at Eurosurf 09 in Jersey. He is also WCSC Longboard Champion 2008, the even he will compete in at Eurosurf.

The European Surfing Championships alternate each year between the senior event “Eurosurf” (odd years) and the Junior event “Eurojunior” (even years). The separation into a junior event and senior event happened in 1992.

The Euros were first held in 1970 in Jersey. 2011 will be Irelands fourth time to host Eurosurf, and third time in Bundoran. The previous Eurosurf events held in Ireland were 1972 in Spanish Point, which was won by England, 1985 in Bundoran, won by France, 1997 in Bundoran, won by Portugal.

The other team members are Ronan Oertzen, Shauna Ward, Darragh McCarter & Richie Fitzgerald from Bundoran, Stephen Kilfeather & Ashleigh Smith from Sligo, Shane Meehan from Strandhill and Cain Kilcullen from Enniscrone.

One position remains to be filled on the team and the contest is between John Britton (JB) from Rossnowlagh and Keith O’Brien from Tramore. A “surf-off” will take place at the Sea Sessions surf and music festival in Bundoran at the end of June to decide the final member of the Irish Surf team to compete at Eurosurf 2011.

The team will be coached by Pascal Devine, a native of Newtownstewart in County Tyrone and managed by Stevie Burns from Portrush. With over 40 years of surfing between them, they are well qualified to bring the team through their paces to compete against the best of Europe in September.

IT WASN’T long ago that the An Post Rás worked its way through the roads of County Clare en route to the second stage finish in Kilrush and race organiser Dermot Dignam has delivered a message of “thanks” to the many fans that turned up along the route to cheers the riders along.

“The support the race received along the route was incredible and it really made the Rás a wonderful spectacle for everyone to see. The encouragement from the locals in Kilrush was fantastic and no doubt it was a great boost to the riders after such a long day in the saddle racing into a gale force wind. Thanks to all involved in making it such a great stage.”

After an action filled eight days of top class racing, An Post had cause for a double celebration as Lithuanian Gediminas Bagdonas took the yellow jersey home for the An Post Sean Kelly team. He was also first past the line in Kilrush, and from there on he never looked back, holding the yellow jersey from the fol- lowing day all the way to the finish line in Skerries, Dublin.

Bagdonas also had words of praise for the Clare crowds after roaring him on to his first stage victory, which he said helped him believe he could go on to take the overall title.

“It was such a difficult stage, with really strong winds. The cheers along the route helped me and the team a lot and I was so happy that I won the stage in Kilrush. It was a special day for me and the support pushed me on to get the victory. After that stage I really believed I could win the race and thankfully I did. It is the biggest win of my career so far and one I will never forget.”

KILRUSH Town Council is to spearhead the development of top-class sports facilities in the heart of the west Clare capital after months of negotiations at securing a key site in the town were brought to a successful conclusion in the past week.

Kilrush Town Manager, Nora Kaye, has revealed that facilities encompassing a flood-lit astro-turf pitch and a number of full size playing pitches are earmarked for the site on the Cooraclare Road.

And, FAI chief executive John Delaney is set to launch the project plan for the new sports facilities when he visits Kilrush on July 12 next when Clare plays host to the FAI annual general meeting first the first time.

The development will be driven by the Town Council in partnership with Clare County Council and sporting organisations in Kilrush and has been made possible after agreement on a lease has been secured with the owners.

“For over 12 months we have been in negotiations with the ESB and Department of Education,” revealed Ms Kaye, “and we have reached agreement on the lease of lands and now hope to have plans drawn up for an astro-turf pitch and a number of other pitches. It is a very positive move”.

“We had a lot of red-tape to get through and we have been working on this for a long time,” said Town Clerk John Corry, “as we needed to convince both owners of the land.

“Now with agreement reached we are in a position to draw up plans. There is no cost to drawing up plans and then when funding becomes available we have plans in place to avail of funding and go ahead with the project,” he added.

“Unless there is grant aid, it won’t be happening,” warned Mayor of Kilrush Liam Williams, “but by having plans in places we’re told that we’ll be in a position to avail of funding”.

“We have met with sporting bodies in Kilrush,” revealed John Corry “and spoke to them about what their priorities would be.

“Now we will draw up a draft plan and go through planning and hopefully that will take place soon. We will drive the project but when it’s completed it will be managed by a working group”.

“It’s the chance of a lifetime for sport in Kilrush,” said Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF).

Cork 3-16 – Clare 0-10 at Clooney

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Crusheen 4-23 – Broadford 2-08 at Crusheen

THE RACE for the top two qualification spots heated up further on Tuesday as Crusheen reclaimed pole position after a four day absence. And there was never any doubt about the county champions extending their unbeaten run after strolling to a facile victory against a Broadford side that failed to muster even the most token of challenges to the home side’s impressive scoring tally of all but six points from play.

The visitors were missing five of their starting line up but Crusheen for their part finished the game with half their second string either starting or entering the fray.

Missing their county contingent and aided by a stiff breeze, Crusheen gave a debut to David McMahon in goal and he had little to trouble him over the game.

Crusheen raced into an early commanding 1-6 to 0-0 lead before Padraig Hickey scored Broadford’s opening score. Conor O’Donnell had the first Crusheen goal with a long range effort that found the net.

Paddy Meaney (2), Fergus Kennedy, Shaun Dillon and Gearoid O’Doherty (2) were the point scorers. Craig Chaplin (2 frees) responded for Broadford before Crusheen went on a scoring spree in the second quarter adding (3-11) in 15 minutes.

Patrick Meaney was scorer in chief with (3-1) as Gearoid O’Doherty (3) Fergus Kennedy (3), Niall Fitzgib- bon (2), Alan Brigdale and Ciaran O’Doherty added points.

There was little Broadford could manage in the second half especially as the Crusheen defence was totally dominant with Alan Brigdale and Ciaran O’Doherty in sparkling form and Gerry O’Grady and Fergus Kennedy controlling midfield. Crusheen scored the first four points of the second half as Patrick Meaney finished the game with a personal tally of (3-6).

Padraig Hickey scored a great goal and added a brace of frees. Alan Kilcoyne (1-1) and Aonghus O Brien (2) in the final five minutes added consolation scores but there was no denying Crusheen their fifth Clare cup win out of six outings.

Best for the winners was the full back line of the Brigdale brothers and Cronan Dillon with Ciaran O’Doherty in fine form at centre back.

Midfield was dominated by Crusheen whilst up front Patrick Meaney produced a man of the match display aided well by Gearoid O’Donnell, Darragh O’Doherty and Gearoid O’Doherty in the first half.

Broadford are facing a relegation battle from division 1 despite the best efforts of Craig Chaplin, Dara Corcoran, Padraig Hickey, Mark Moloney and Peter O’Brien.

Crusheen

David McMahon, John Brigdale, Cronan Dillon,Alan Brigdale (0-1), Jason Greene, Ciaran O’Doherty (0-2), Brendan McMahon, Fergus Kennedy (0-4), Gerry O’Grady, Gearoid O’Donnell (0-1), Shaun Dillon (0-1), Niall Fitzgibbon (0-2), Conor O’Donnell (1-0), Patrick Meaney (3-6), Gearoid O’Doherty (0-6, 5f, 1 s/l)

Subs
Darragh O’Doherty for CO’Donnell, Patrick O’Grady for Meaney,AlanTouhy for S. Dillon

Broadford
Cian O’Brien, John Corcoran,Aidan O’Brien, Mark Moloney, Peter O’Brien, Craig Chaplin (0-2), Niall Moloney,Alan Kilcoyne (1-1), Dara Corcoran, DeclanTeefy,Aonghus O’Brien (0-2), PaurigTaylor, Padraig Hickey (1-3),Alan McMahon, Donal Whelan

Sub
Willie Hayes for Taylor

Man of the Match
Paddy Meaney (Crusheen) Referee Fergus McDonagh (St Josephs D/B)

Crusheen 3-14 – Clarecastle 2-15 at Clarecastle

CRUSHEEN strengthened their position at the top of the Division 1 table after a late injury-time brace that halted the home side’s dramatic fightback. Four points clear with two minutes of normal time remaining, having led since the 12th minute, Crusheen appeared to be cruising towards their fifth unbeaten game but had to endure a nervy finish after Clarecastle hit 1-1 to level the game up on the hour mark.

Crusheen replied immediately with a Darragh O’Doherty point while Clarecastle did have a glorious opportunity to share the spoils but didn’t avail of it and Crusheen punished them at the other end, again through O’Doherty to cement the points.

Considering the absence of so many first team regulars on both sides, this was a surprisingly entertaining and open game that either side could of won but Crusheen did thanks largely to three opportunistic strikes from Paddy O’Grady who scored his second successive hat-trick of goals against the Magpies this year.

Those strikes were the difference for the majority as they were aptly timed to keep the Magpies at bay. The first came after Clarecastle’s bright start that saw Patrick Kelly point after only 11 seconds and Kieran O’Dwyer add to that tally. There was also a goal chance for Niall Dunne at the back post but his shot was straight at goalkeeper David McMahon.

That save was given greater significance when Paddy O’Grady stole in for the opening goal of the game a minute later and despite three Adam Healy points in riposte, the momentum was now with Crusheen who held that goal advantage until the break at 1-5 to 0-5.

The second goal halted another Magpie fightback on the restart when points from Aaron Considine and Healy had dented Crusheen’s lead. It came after a Shaun Dillon delivery that broke to O’Grady to pull to the net in the 36th minute and open up a five point gap.

Once more, Clarecastle came back at the county champions, this time hitting four points without reply, three from the stick of Tyrone Kearse by the turn of the final quarter to cut the deficit to two.

However, O’Grady’s third major in the 48th minute appeared to have put paid to any hopes of a revival until that late Magpie burst which should have earned a much needed point for the home side but instead Crusheen ground out another trademark victory.

Crusheen
David McMahon, John Brigdale, Cronan Dillon, Alan Brigdale, Jason Greene, Shaun Dillon, Brendan McMahon,Tony Meaney, Gerry O’Grady (0-4 3f, 1’65), Gearoid O’Donnell (0-1), Niall Fitzgibbon (02), David Forde,AlanTuohy (0-1f), Paddy O’Grady (3-0), Darragh O’Doherty (0-5)

Subs
Fergus Kennedy (0-1) for Meaney (23 mins, inj), Padraic O’Malley for Forde (25 mins, inj)

Clarecastle
Donnagh Murphy, Seanie Moloney, Garry Farmer, Kevin Clohessy, Fearghus Ryan, Patrick Kelly (0-1), Eric Flynn,Tyrone Kearse (0-4 1f, 1’65),Andrew Page, Jamie O’Connor, Kieran O’Dwyer (0-2), AdamHealy (0-5 1f), Niall Dunne,Alan O’Loughlin, Aaron Considine (1-2 1f)

Subs
SeanTalty (1-0) for Dunne (HT), David Green (0-1) for O’Loughlin (48 mins)

Man of the Match
Paddy O’Grady (Crusheen) Referee Seanie McMahon (Newmarket-on-Fergus)