Clare GAA discussion thread

letowski

Clare team v Limerick.

Pa Kelly, Oisin O'Brien, Cian Dillon, Paul Flanagan, Brendan Bugler, David McInerney, Pat O'Connor, David Reidy, Conor Ryan, John Conlon, Bobby Duggan, Colm Galvin, Aaron Cunningham, Shane O'Donnell, Conor McGrath.

Worried about the cornerbacks, I'm not sure how Oisin O'Brien won his place off Cleary, maybe its the end of O'Connor at cornerback. Even still Cleary is in better form than Bulger or Ryan.

Not that confident really tomorrow. Galvin in the forwards means were playing 5 forwards again, with SOD and McGrath isolated again, with likely no goal threat again. Probably will be a similar game to last year where the game was so crowded and congested and we struggled to get scores. Hopefully players like Reidy, Cunningham and Duggan can have good games.

Fireball07

letowski wrote: »

Clare team v Limerick.

Pa Kelly, Oisin O'Brien, Cian Dillon, Paul Flanagan, Brendan Bugler, David McInerney, Pat O'Connor, David Reidy, Conor Ryan, John Conlon, Bobby Duggan, Colm Galvin, Aaron Cunningham, Shane O'Donnell, Conor McGrath.

Worried about the cornerbacks, I'm not sure how Oisin O'Brien won his place off Cleary, maybe its the end of O'Connor at cornerback. Even still Cleary is in better form than Bulger or Ryan.

Not that confident really tomorrow. Galvin in the forwards means were playing 5 forwards again, with SOD and McGrath isolated again, with likely no goal threat again. Probably will be a similar game to last year where the game was so crowded and congested and we struggled to get scores. Hopefully players like Reidy, Cunningham and Duggan can have good games.

The three players named inside have serious pace and if they can isolate our men, they will hurt us. You'd imagine Cunningham will probably come out the field? Does leave space inside but hopefully we can crowd them out. Conlon is still arguably your most important forward because he is a consistent ballwinner.

Conor Ryan has been out of form which has been good news and your backline in general isn't top class, although if we just lump aimless ball on top of ye, we'll turn them into heroes.

Galvin/Reidy will probably be expected to get the better of our midfield. Traditionally, a stronger player alongside Browne would allow us to get on top there but Fitzgibbon is lightweight.

letowski

Hammy will play on the 40 yeah like last week, I think your full backline is solid, Tom and Richie are well experienced, English is the best underage full back line player I think in Ireland now. I dont see us exposing ye here, we couldnt even do it against laois.

I think who ever can get on top at midfield like last year will probably win, but it hard to judge, there is a good few lads like Bugler, Ryan, Hickey out of form and there are newcomers in Reidy and Fitzgibbon. I think both sets of forwards would back themselves but both Clare and Limerick have struggled to get their attacks firing well for a while now.

Do you know who will play as the extra man, I dont see an ideal player in your side?

windy shepard henderson

letowski wrote: »

Clare team v Limerick.

Pa Kelly, Oisin O'Brien, Cian Dillon, Paul Flanagan, Brendan Bugler, David McInerney, Pat O'Connor, David Reidy, Conor Ryan, John Conlon, Bobby Duggan, Colm Galvin, Aaron Cunningham, Shane O'Donnell, Conor McGrath.

Worried about the cornerbacks, I'm not sure how Oisin O'Brien won his place off Cleary, maybe its the end of O'Connor at cornerback. Even still Cleary is in better form than Bulger or Ryan.

Not that confident really tomorrow. Galvin in the forwards means were playing 5 forwards again, with SOD and McGrath isolated again, with likely no goal threat again. Probably will be a similar game to last year where the game was so crowded and congested and we struggled to get scores. Hopefully players like Reidy, Cunningham and Duggan can have good games.

have to admit , i was'nt exactly jumping out of my seat when i read the line up earlier ,dont know what cleary did out of the way to get dropped ,but it will be a good test for oisin to get some proper game time , tactics wise it dos'nt really matter who are picked from 13 to 15 , they will be isolated and double marked as we will bring players back so a big game for the lads in the middle 3rd , i guess the dublin football mantra of finish the game with a stronger team then started with is the management's way of thinking with no podge, colin ryan , connor cleary , also been impressed with shanagher throughout the league , mikey o'malley would be another option to bring in but he has not got the game time for some reason. he had a superb game against limerick in the IHC last year i was hoping to see more of him at this stage of the campaign

i am not as pessimistic as the rest of ye on here .... but i do expect a close game tomorrow , discipline is going to be a huge factor especially in descent weather conditions, limerick missed a host of frees back in the munster league final in january i doubt they will have the same poor success rate again tomorrow

home field advantage counts for nothing but i would expect bigger pitch to work in our favor more so then the gaelic grounds would , i still see it as a bigger game for limerick then for us another division would be a killer for them , i dont fancy it either and hope a strong bench can see us over the line in a tight battle

Clareman

Home field advantage isn't worth a goal, that forward line isn't a goal threat, we'll need a serious amount of work in midfield/half forward for that, with Colin Ryan and Tony Kelly missing I can't see that happening, my head is saying Limerick by 5 points with a couple of Clare red cards.

I've heard the field is going to be seriously tight tomorrow, extremely compressed cause of the new stand.

windy shepard henderson

Clareman wrote: »

Home field advantage isn't worth a goal, that forward line isn't a goal threat, we'll need a serious amount of work in midfield/half forward for that, with Colin Ryan and Tony Kelly missing I can't see that happening, my head is saying Limerick by 5 points with a couple of Clare red cards.

I've heard the field is going to be seriously tight tomorrow, extremely compressed cause of the new stand.

didnt realize colin ryan is unavailable , limerick are not full strength either , if we want to progress we need to stop relaying on the same few players all the time , but yea the game plan is a major hindrance , our discipline has been fine all year up to now though i would be disappointing if we did get anyone sent off we will not win with 14 men

i would be disappointed if we didnt win this one , giving how many key players they are missing and giving how few we will be without

Clareman

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

didnt realize colin ryan is unavailable , limerick are not full strength either , if we want to progress we need to stop relaying on the same few players all the time , but yea the game plan is a major hindrance , our discipline has been fine all year up to now though i would be disappointing if we did get anyone sent off we will not win with 14 men

i would be disappointed if we didnt win this one , giving how many key players they are missing and giving how few we will be without

He got married last week so I don't think he'll be back.

Our discipline is never a problem until we are under pressure or when something goes wrong, I can see 2 stupid yellows by a back and something thick like a helmet pull or a stupid dig for the other.

The Na Piarsaig players are massive to Limerick but I see tomorrow being a narrow fight which we can't win, I think home advantage will be against us in a weird way

Fireball07

letowski wrote: »

Hammy will play on the 40 yeah like last week, I think your full backline is solid, Tom and Richie are well experienced, English is the best underage full back line player I think in Ireland now. I dont see us exposing ye here, we couldnt even do it against laois.

I think who ever can get on top at midfield like last year will probably win, but it hard to judge, there is a good few lads like Bugler, Ryan, Hickey out of form and there are newcomers in Reidy and Fitzgibbon. I think both sets of forwards would back themselves but both Clare and Limerick have struggled to get their attacks firing well for a while now.

Do you know who will play as the extra man, I dont see an ideal player in your side?

Extra man in the full-back line? Will probably be Condon, but I'd rather it was Richie, he's excellent in that role, reads thee game well.

Clareman

Fireball07 wrote: »

Extra man in the full-back line? Will probably be Condon, but I'd rather it was Richie, he's excellent in that role, reads thee game well.

That's assuming a normal "wide" pitch, it's going to be so narrow tomorrow that a 2 man full forward line won't make a big difference.

letowski

windy shepard henderson wrote:

i am not as pessimistic as the rest of ye on here .... but i do expect a close game tomorrow , discipline is going to be a huge factor especially in descent weather conditions, limerick missed a host of frees back in the munster league final in january i doubt they will have the same poor success rate again tomorrow

I think yeah disipline will be huge, big test for our backs to see have they made progress from last year because Limerick will be direct, and will target our full back line. In fairness were good with Bobby on our side.

I think its fairly 50-50 tomorrow as both teams dont really know where they are due to the level of games theyve played. I think our attack could find some teeth, but it still feels like were a few weeks away. I dont think our hurling is too bad for this time of year. But, last week we still had a load of occasions where players were unsure what to do with the ball, either taking the wrong option or getting caught. Hopefully, being Limerick tomorrow, the performance is more focused and accurate.

goldfinger4296

Clareman wrote: »

That's assuming a normal "wide" pitch, it's going to be so narrow tomorrow that a 2 man full forward line won't make a big difference.

The pitch will not be narrower due to the stand. The stand is the same size.

Clareman

goldfinger4296 wrote: »

The pitch will not be narrower due to the stand. The stand is the same size.

I've been told that the pitch has been damaged on the stand side so the whole pitch will need to be narrowed, I haven't seen it myself just going on what I've heard.

keeponhurling

Sad (but realistic) that people are almost expecting indiscipline and possible red cards to cost us the game.

15 v 15 and we have a great chance to get back where we belong

Clareman

keeponhurling wrote: »

Sad (but realistic) that people are almost expecting indiscipline and possible red cards to cost us the game.

15 v 15 and we have a great chance to get back where we belong

15 v 15 I'd fancy us to beat any other team in the country, we don't want to play that cause we are too busy trying to have different setups like 1 man full forward lines

Kristopherus

Clareman wrote: »

15 v 15 I'd fancy us to beat any other team in the country, we don't want to play that cause we are too busy trying to have different setups like 1 man full forward lines

Well its 15 v 14 for 40 mins today and a 4-point lead at half time. no excuse not to win it today.

keeponhurling

Yes! Back to Div 1A!

Next up Tipp in the quarter final

Clareman

I'm delighted I got it wrong and that we're back to the top division again, I didn't think Limerick would be so poor to be honest, they got a man sent off how we'd normally get someone sent off for. The ref didn't do us any harm today, the goal should not have stood but we were also denied a clear cut penalty, Conlon was lucky not to be booked in the first half for barging as well as a few more times.

Tipp next, it'll be interesting to see how we get on, Tony Kelly won't be back but it'll be great to have Colin Ryan back, Bobby isn't ready for the frees just yet.

LuckyGent88

Delighted to get promoted but that was a poor display really and it's fair to say we are miles off competing for the all Ireland again.

Davys Fits

Some positives...
Promotion
More direct hurling
Less short passing

Negatives
Still persisting with needless stupid fouling

Easca Peasca

Some good performances today that would leave you hopeful for a decent Championship run this summer. Going 'route one' up to Conlon gave the Limerick full back line trouble, might not work as well against a more assured side however.

Felt like there were too many wides today, anyone have the numbers for that? Maybe I'm wrong.

keeponhurling

First time seeing the hurlers this year for me.
We didn't give away as many easy fouls as before , so maybe they've been working on that a bit.

Leaking goals has always been a problem, so a clean sheet is always welcome.

Work rate was good.

Looks like there's a strong panel there, if Tony Kelly and Colin Ryan were missing from the forward line, with Honan and Podge as subs.

Limerick weren't great, and of course had 14 men for most of it, but still some positives

letowski

Yeah happy with the result despite the standard of the game being poor. I agree playing the ball more direct and using Conlon was good to see. I liked Galvin (particularly) and Reidy at midfield, they linked the play well. Conor Ryan was better at wing back after a bad 1st half and Bugler had his best game for a while. McInerney and McGrath were class.

Loads to work, on but a good test next against Tipperary. Honestly dont know what need to be done to stop us fouling.

Kristopherus

Easca Peasca wrote: »

Some good performances today that would leave you hopeful for a decent Championship run this summer. Going 'route one' up to Conlon gave the Limerick full back line trouble, might not work as well against a more assured side however.

Felt like there were too many wides today, anyone have the numbers for that? Maybe I'm wrong.

18 wides:mad:

I cannot understand why Davy insists on playing a 2-man full forward line against 14 men. SO'D was a passenger for most of the match. When Honan was brought on, he should have been planted at the edge of the small square. What was he doing 50yds from his own goal in the last 5 mins????

Davys Fits

letowski wrote: »

Yeah happy with the result despite the standard of the game being poor. I agree playing the ball more direct and using Conlon was good to see. I liked Galvin (particularly) and Reidy at midfield, they linked the play well. Conor Ryan was better at wing back after a bad 1st half and Bugler had his best game for a while. McInerney and McGrath were class.

Loads to work, on but a good test next against Tipperary. Honestly dont know what need to be done to stop us fouling.

Surely replaying the DVD to the players and showing them that fouling players around the middle third of the pitch should be avoided at all costs. Clare kept Limerick in the game today with frees from the midddle third where points were not likely from play. Clare players first instinct seems to be to foul when beaten. It cost them many games in the past few years.

letowski

Davys Fits wrote:

Surely replaying the DVD to the players and showing them that fouling players around the middle third of the pitch should be avoided at all costs. Clare kept Limerick in the game today with frees from the midddle third where points were not likely from play. Clare players first instinct seems to be to foul when beaten. It cost them many games in the past few years.

Yeah there's definitely something fundamentally wrong and has been for years. It has to be a coaching issue, even though we had like 7 coaches on the programme. I'm not sure Davy is properly addressing this, I remember hearing him answering a question from Mullane on the radio after the Wexford match again about poor discipline, Davys first response was to say that Clare should have had more frees themselves. His mouthing a the ref too indicates he is not acknowledging that these players need serious attention to there tackling, you have a player like Dillon who still hasnt learned properly how to stand his man up. I dont know, maybe ref the training games more stricter, make players do push ups for fouls.. something needs to change, we cant win c'ship games conceding double digit frees.

windy shepard henderson

Davys Fits wrote: »

Surely replaying the DVD to the players and showing them that fouling players around the middle third of the pitch should be avoided at all costs. Clare kept Limerick in the game today with frees from the midddle third where points were not likely from play. Clare players first instinct seems to be to foul when beaten. It cost them many games in the past few years.

dont think the disiplane was that much of a problem today , a number of frees given away in the heat of battle , if you ask players to ease of you will get hammered off the boards in any game , galvins yellow was pure stupid and no need for it there was maybe one or two more needless ones but nothing more then that

i have no problem with us playing a 2 man full forward line as long as we mix things up like we did today got plenty of scores out the field and caused havoc in around the house , again at the back we look solid , the only scare we got was late into injury time when we were 6 points up

i also agree that honan should be used as a full forward and not a center , both teams missing a number of key players today , the overall performance would suggest we are going in the right direction but an awfull lot of work is needed to kick on , tipperary up next , should we get over that kilkenny will be waiting for us in the semi final, the tipp game now comes a must win just for the sake of progression

the big minus today is the fact we didnt punish limerick at the start of the second half , the goal was a bit of a joke too ,probably a penalty would have been the fairest option , not sure if it was a game changer given how early in the game it occurred , limerick will not be happy with the level of mistakes made in the second half and number of wides hit , to me that was the making or breaking of the game in the end

keeponhurling

Kristopherus wrote: »

18 wides:mad:

I cannot understand why Davy insists on playing a 2-man full forward line against 14 men. SO'D was a passenger for most of the match. When Honan was brought on, he should have been planted at the edge of the small square. What was he doing 50yds from his own goal in the last 5 mins????

Though SOD was involved in quite a lot of our scores, either winning the free or laying off the pass. Sometimes winning the ball back.

Honan laid off a couple of scores so did ok when he came on.

BannerBarry

Great game. Great to see Conor McGrath get 5 points.
Top flight again for Clare next year.

HanaleiJ5N

Poor enough game I felt, with respect the goal should never have been allowed, an outrageous number of steps taken. Given how early it came though it can't be argued it had a decisive impact on the game, we had 70 minutes to recover from it. And we might have, had Nash not received a silly second yellow. Both his yellows were more so careless than malicious. Strictly speaking, we can have no complaints, but I wish he had received a stern talking to by the ref instead of a second yellow.

Going down to 14 men sealed the deal, we never looked like overhauling it from there on. We battled away but you always had that cushion and added to it when necessary, and you turned it on for a brief spell very early in the second half, put the gap out to 6 or 7 points, which basically ensured the game was safe unless we could get a goal or two, which we never looked like doing.

I liked McInerney, played well, was a right handful, surged forward on a few occasions, but the concern was the high wide count. It pretty much cost you the Cork game last July and it still hasn't gone away, this really should have been much more comfortable for Clare, you kept us at arms length but you never killed us off, sometimes that will backfire, you were reasonably safe today as we were down the man and posed no goal threat.

Still though, you got the all important win, I hate to say it was fully deserved too Congrats

dastardly00

keeponhurling wrote: »

Though SOD was involved in quite a lot of our scores, either winning the free or laying off the pass. Sometimes winning the ball back.

I thought O'Donnell was mostly a passenger to be honest. I'm not sure, but I don't think he even had possession of the ball once in the first half.

As far as a I can remember, he got fouled once in the 2nd half that resulted in a point from the free, and I think he assisted another point during play. I though he was very poor. He can feel fortunate that he was kept on when others around him were being subbed off.