Clare GAA discussion thread

Claregaafan18

St Josephs Doora Barefield and Eire Og Ennis are playing in both the minor A and U-21 A football championship semi-finals today. In both teams case they play each other at 12 today in the U-21 competition and 2 hours later they play in their respective minor football semi-finals. Here is the problem. Many of the players on both the Parish and Eire Og are part of both U-21 and minor panels meaning they have a choice to make. It is also very unfair on supporters, management and of course parents who would be under pressure to decide what is best for their sons. Clare GAA should be ashamed of themselves for a. playing matches in this time of year, b. showing a complete lack of regard of player welfare and c. putting enormous pressure on supporters, parents, players and management who have to make a very tough decision.

Clearly this debacle is further proof if needed that the powers that be in Clare GAA don't care about the promotion of football in the county. Personally the sooner we see the back of Pat Fitz and his fellow pro-hurling friends, who have not got the best interests of Clare football at heart the better.

Tell me how

Claregaafan18 wrote: »

St Josephs Doora Barefield and Eire Og Ennis are playing in both the minor A and U-21 A football championship semi-finals today. In both teams case they play each other at 12 today in the U-21 competition and 2 hours later they play in their respective minor football semi-finals. Here is the problem. Many of the players on both the Parish and Eire Og are part of both U-21 and minor panels meaning they have a choice to make. It is also very unfair on supporters, management and of course parents who would be under pressure to decide what is best for their sons. Clare GAA should be ashamed of themselves for a. playing matches in this time of year, b. showing a complete lack of regard of player welfare and c. putting enormous pressure on supporters, parents, players and management who have to make a very tough decision.

This seems like there should be no argument why this ended up in this way. The clubs representatives should be putting pressure on their delegates to flag this at county board meetings. Pat F will not cast it a thought unless it puts pressure on him publicly in some way.
Its counter intuitive as it means players will drift away from the game but this has been the problem of club players for several years.

Clareman

Claregaafan18 wrote: »

St Josephs Doora Barefield and Eire Og Ennis are playing in both the minor A and U-21 A football championship semi-finals today. In both teams case they play each other at 12 today in the U-21 competition and 2 hours later they play in their respective minor football semi-finals. Here is the problem. Many of the players on both the Parish and Eire Og are part of both U-21 and minor panels meaning they have a choice to make. It is also very unfair on supporters, management and of course parents who would be under pressure to decide what is best for their sons. Clare GAA should be ashamed of themselves for a. playing matches in this time of year, b. showing a complete lack of regard of player welfare and c. putting enormous pressure on supporters, parents, players and management who have to make a very tough decision.

Clearly this debacle is further proof if needed that the powers that be in Clare GAA don't care about the promotion of football in the county. Personally the sooner we see the back of Pat Fitz and his fellow pro-hurling friends, who have not got the best interests of Clare football at heart the better.

I'm not defending Pat Fitz here but what were the county board to do here? The minor footballers were still in the championship until the 7th of August which probably meant that no games could be played before then and then they had to play off the under 21 and minors together while also running off the football championships. Personally I think the biggest disgrace is playing championships in November, how is that going to encourage players?

Claregaafan18

Clareman wrote: »

I'm not defending Pat Fitz here but what were the county board to do here? The minor footballers were still in the championship until the 7th of August which probably meant that no games could be played before then and then they had to play off the under 21 and minors together while also running off the football championships. Personally I think the biggest disgrace is playing championships in November, how is that going to encourage players?

Your points are valid Clareman. However my own personal opinion is that the U-21 football championship should not be played at all. You could argue that it could be played in March or April of next year but that clashes with the U-21 hurling championship which is also played at that same time. The inter-county minor championships also get underway at that time so these dates are a non-runner.

Of course more matches for that 18-21 age bracket are important in order to encourage players to continue playing gaelic games which is why the U-21 championships are there is the first place. However if this results in any championship whether it is minor or U-21 struggling to finish before Christmas then that is clearly not acceptable. Therefore I suggested that the U-21 football championship which always seems to be some kind of fall guy in relation to fixture congestion in Clare GAA therefore not proceeding for the interests of player welfare. Player welfare is something that the Clare CB continue to disregard and Pat Fitz should be held accountable like the rest of the county board over this most important of issues.

There is a perception whether the Clare CB like it or not that football does not get the same treatment as hurling does in the top brass of Clare GAA. This debacle is further evidence of that.

Tell me how

Claregaafan18 wrote: »

Your points are valid Clareman. However my own personal opinion is that the U-21 football championship should not be played at all. You could argue that it could be played in March or April of next year but that clashes with the U-21 hurling championship which is also played at that same time. The inter-county minor championships also get underway at that time so these dates are a non-runner.

Of course more matches for that 18-21 age bracket are important in order to encourage players to continue playing gaelic games which is why the U-21 championships are there is the first place. However if this results in any championship whether it is minor or U-21 struggling to finish before Christmas then that is clearly not acceptable. Therefore I suggested that the U-21 football championship which always seems to be some kind of fall guy in relation to fixture congestion in Clare GAA therefore not proceeding for the interests of player welfare. Player welfare is something that the Clare CB continue to disregard and Pat Fitz should be held accountable like the rest of the county board over this most important of issues.

There is a perception whether the Clare CB like it or not that football does not get the same treatment as hurling does in the top brass of Clare GAA. This debacle is further evidence of that.

Surely that's very unfair to the 19, 20, 21 year old guys who only play football. If that decision was made now, how many of them would come back to any GAA next year?

I do agree that it is insulting to enforce the schedule as it is but it's not the fault of those players still preparing for their games.

Clareman

Claregaafan18 wrote: »

Your points are valid Clareman. However my own personal opinion is that the U-21 football championship should not be played at all. You could argue that it could be played in March or April of next year but that clashes with the U-21 hurling championship which is also played at that same time. The inter-county minor championships also get underway at that time so these dates are a non-runner.

Of course more matches for that 18-21 age bracket are important in order to encourage players to continue playing gaelic games which is why the U-21 championships are there is the first place. However if this results in any championship whether it is minor or U-21 struggling to finish before Christmas then that is clearly not acceptable. Therefore I suggested that the U-21 football championship which always seems to be some kind of fall guy in relation to fixture congestion in Clare GAA therefore not proceeding for the interests of player welfare. Player welfare is something that the Clare CB continue to disregard and Pat Fitz should be held accountable like the rest of the county board over this most important of issues.

There is a perception whether the Clare CB like it or not that football does not get the same treatment as hurling does in the top brass of Clare GAA. This debacle is further evidence of that.

You'd lose an awful lot of player if you stopped playing at 18. The players have exams to do so I don't think you can play these competitions before June, throw in objections from clubs to play when the intercounty teams are playing or when there's senior championship or whatever to play. My opinion is there should hard and fast weekends to play off every competition and unless there's an intercounty game at that grade in that sport that weekend it's played it's harsh on dual clubs but there's only so many weekends available and something has to be done.

Clareman

Barefield didn't turn up in Corofin for the game against the townies so that sorts that out I guess they are concentrating on the minor considering they won the hurling.

windy shepard henderson

Boom__Boom wrote: »

Someone has thrown some cash on Senans to win Munster outright, I'd imagine.

On a related note An Ghaeltacht are a very well-balanced team - lot of very decent footballers throughout the team. However they have a couple of injury doubts for the game against Mallow - Marc O'Se and Tomas "the dancer" O'Se are both carrying knocks, but should be able to start. Cathal O’ Fiannachta is a major doubt and Cian O'Murchu is definitely out.

kilmihil were 5/2 to win tommorrow last wednesday , they have been backed heavy since not sure where its coming from we have no game played in two months nearly

we have been performing well in the challenge games against some of the cusack cup semi finalists but not the same thing

if anyone is going to that game tomorrow , the venue has changed from newcastle west to now kilmallock , pitch in NCWest is waterlogged 2pm throw in

windy shepard henderson

3 clare teams in munster action , tomorrow , big day for bodyke as they enter the munster junior championship as clare champions rather then clare representatives would be a fantastic achivement if they won in ardmore tomorrow and qualified for a munster final

i really fancy kIB's chances in kilarney tomorow , they have sent down huge support today and more in the morning will follow , i just think out of all the close shaves they gave the crokes in the last few years this could be there chance to get one over crokes in what is becoming an annual event at this stage between the sides

kilmihil travel to kilmallock tomorrow to try and emulate neighbors kilmaley and qualify for munster intermediate final
if they do win tomorrow it will be a much tougher ask then the challenge faced by kilmaley last week , st sennans of limerick boosted by captain ian ryan , former all star and young player of the year nominee is still a serious talent . senans had a similar type of win in the limerick final wining comfortable win over galbally , last week they traveled to toomeyvara where they beat killadangan by 4 points

home advantage is huge in munster club competitions it would be huge just to have one team win tomorrow and join kilmaley in a munster club final

Boots234

windy shepard henderson wrote:

if anyone is going to that game tomorrow , the venue has changed from newcastle west to now kilmallock , pitch in NCWest is waterlogged 2pm throw in

Thanks for that, I'll be going to it but wasn't aware that the venue had changed

Boots234

Ardmore have had big wins in their county final and against the limerick champions so should be favourites for that I'd imagine. I think Crokes will be too strong for KIB, especially in Killarney. The kilmihil game is hard to call, they were fantastic against Kilrush on the county final but St Senans game against Kiladangan last weekend will really stand to them

Boots234

windy shepard henderson wrote:

if anyone is going to that game tomorrow , the venue has changed from newcastle west to now kilmallock , pitch in NCWest is waterlogged 2pm throw in

The game is now on at 2pm in the Gaelic grounds, kilmallock and Newcastle west pitches are unplayable

Boom__Boom

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

I really fancy kIB's chances in kilarney tomorow , they have sent down huge support today and more in the morning will follow , i just think out of all the close shaves they gave the crokes in the last few years this could be there chance to get one over crokes in what is becoming an annual event at this stage between the sides

Have to disagree - I think this year's Crokes team is the strongest they have ever been in terms of the overall quality of their panel.

One possible area of weakness is midfield, especially with Alan O'Sullivan suspended.

Something like 10 of the team that played Clonmel in the previous round have played with the Kerry seniors in either league or championship (and of the remaining lads there are likely a few more who will get a run with the seniors at some stage in the future) The big thing is that for the most part even the players coming off the bench are serious quality.

washman3

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

3 clare teams in munster action , tomorrow , big day for bodyke as they enter the munster junior championship as clare champions rather then clare representatives would be a fantastic achivement if they won in ardmore tomorrow and qualified for a munster final

i really fancy kIB's chances in kilarney tomorow , they have sent down huge support today and more in the morning will follow , i just think out of all the close shaves they gave the crokes in the last few years this could be there chance to get one over crokes in what is becoming an annual event at this stage between the sides

kilmihil travel to kilmallock tomorrow to try and emulate neighbors kilmaley and qualify for munster intermediate final
if they do win tomorrow it will be a much tougher ask then the challenge faced by kilmaley last week , st sennans of limerick boosted by captain ian ryan , former all star and young player of the year nominee is still a serious talent . senans had a similar type of win in the limerick final wining comfortable win over galbally , last week they traveled to toomeyvara where they beat killadangan by 4 points

home advantage is huge in munster club competitions it would be huge just to have one team win tomorrow and join kilmaley in a munster club final

Gaelic Grounds is hardly a home advantage to Senans. NCW would be. God help the clown that thought Kilmallock would be a good venue for this game. Its a dump.
Senans will be hard to beat. Big agile forwards. Ian Ryan plays centre back now. Did you mean he is a former All-Star or was just nominated.?
For the record, no Limerick player has ever won a football All-Star. Not even the great John Galvin. Laughable,when we look at some players that have, and its getting worse. This year we saw a forward winning his THIRD All-Star despite the fact he hasn't scored in FIVE All-Ireland finals.:P
Player to watch for Senans is former Limerick outstanding wing-back Conor Mullane. He will operate at centre or full forward and is a fair handful for any defender. All their forwards have the ability to score and are physically very strong.

windy shepard henderson

washman3 wrote: »

Gaelic Grounds is hardly a home advantage to Senans. NCW would be. God help the clown that thought Kilmallock would be a good venue for this game. Its a dump.
Senans will be hard to beat. Big agile forwards. Ian Ryan plays centre back now. Did you mean he is a former All-Star or was just nominated.?
For the record, no Limerick player has ever won a football All-Star. Not even the great John Galvin. Laughable,when we look at some players that have, and its getting worse. This year we saw a forward winning his THIRD All-Star despite the fact he hasn't scored in FIVE All-Ireland finals.:P
Player to watch for Senans is former Limerick outstanding wing-back Conor Mullane. He will operate at centre or full forward and is a fair handful for any defender. All their forwards have the ability to score and are physically very strong.

i meant nominated , i know he was shortlisted for young player of the year , was he not nominated for an all star also , superb player gave us some dark days espically 2013 in a winners take all league game in ennis which limerick won

kilmihil would be a small enough team in size , only thing going for them is a number of these lads were part of the ballyea ( 6 i think ) team last year and are eager to emulate that feat this year , we have not played a competitive game in 2 months so its anyons guess whats going to happen ,

reading a report you had up on the limerick page a few weeks back we are in a similar place to senans , just happy to be in going up next year after years of trying but would be delighted if we got over the line tomorrow

our main players would be

jack browne clare hurler
martin o'leary clare footballer
david egan clare footballer
stan lineen ballyea captain last year

but as you said i am expecting senans to be tidy , a 4 point away win in a club championship game is as good as a 6 or 7 point home win so expect a tough game ,

windy shepard henderson

best of luck to this man and the irish team , joining noel roche and odheran o'dwyer to get caped for his country , i have a funny fealing he would rather be lining out against crokes in kilarney tomorrow with clondegad though

windy shepard henderson

Boom__Boom wrote: »

Have to disagree - I think this year's Crokes team is the strongest they have ever been in terms of the overall quality of their panel.

One possible area of weakness is midfield, especially with Alan O'Sullivan suspended.

Something like 10 of the team that played Clonmel in the previous round have played with the Kerry seniors in either league or championship (and of the remaining lads there are likely a few more who will get a run with the seniors at some stage in the future) The big thing is that for the most part even the players coming off the bench are serious quality.

i just think there is a big game in kilmurry and we have not seen it this year they have grinded out wins all year , crokes are all ireland champions and probably the best club team in the country at the moment but are on the road since last year

Claregaafan18

Latest scores from all the Clare teams involvement in the respective Munster club championship games

Ardmore (Waterford) 4-13 Bodyke 0-3 HT Munster Junior Hurling semi-final
Dr Crokes (Kerry) 1-11 Kilmurry Ibrickane 0-4 HT Munster senior football semi-final
Kilmihil 1-7 St. Senans (Limerick) 1-3 HT Munster Intermediate Football Semi-Final

Claregaafan18

Claregaafan18 wrote: »

Latest scores from all the Clare teams involvement in the respective Munster club championship games

Ardmore (Waterford) 4-13 Bodyke 0-3 HT Munster Junior Hurling semi-final
Dr Crokes (Kerry) 1-11 Kilmurry Ibrickane 0-4 HT Munster senior football semi-final
Kilmihil 1-7 St. Senans (Limerick) 1-3 HT Munster Intermediate Football Semi-Final

FT Dr Crokes 2-19 KIB 0-10
FT Ardmore 5-22 Bodyke 1-8
FT St Senans 2-11 Kilimihil 2-8

A very disappointing day for Clare GAA. Best of luck to Kilmaley next week in the Munster club IHC final against Kanturk.

Boots234

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

kilmihil were 5/2 to win tommorrow last wednesday , they have been backed heavy since not sure where its coming from we have no game played in two months nearly

we have been performing well in the challenge games against some of the cusack cup semi finalists but not the same thing

if anyone is going to that game tomorrow , the venue has changed from newcastle west to now kilmallock , pitch in NCWest is waterlogged 2pm throw in

What did you think of the Kilmihil game yesterday?

thesultan

Ardmore where senior about 4 years ago and still have seamus pender playing

windy shepard henderson

Boots234 wrote: »

What did you think of the Kilmihil game yesterday?

good first half looked in controll 7 points up , then st sennans hit us with a goal on the break , the wind was probably worth 4 or 5 points so that was a massive turning point just before half time

the second half was all senans , we only managed to score 1-1 in the entire 30 minutes and lets face it the goal we got was poxy , we didnt play well in the second half but were wining by a point with 2 minutes remaining if we had held on it would have been daylight robbery

two or 3 of them senans lads look very good players especially stephan oconnell in midfield along with the two corner forwards richard hayes and james naughton
i wouldnt give any team a chance in this division against the gaeltecht in the final but they will be there and there abouts in the limerick senior championship next year a big strong team with good organization the best team won no doubt about it

windy shepard henderson

thesultan wrote: »

Ardmore where senior about 4 years ago and still have seamus pender playing

dont think anyone expected the margin to be as big though , waterford club hurling is in a fairly good place at the moment , especially if ye can win one or both club finals

Boots234

windy shepard henderson wrote:

the second half was all senans , we only managed to score 1-1 in the entire 30 minutes and lets face it the goal we got was poxy , we didnt play well in the second half but were wining by a point with 2 minutes remaining if we had held on it would have been daylight robbery

If that chance had been converted in the first half before they got their first goal it might have been a different story with a big half time lead. Was their first goal an own goal? St. Senans totally dominated the second though and their number 13 was excellent from the start.

Pity about the result but I can't see St senans getting close to an Gaeltacht who are 1/16 on to win Munster! They came to mallow yesterday and beat a team who looked impressive in the Cork championship by 10 or 11 points, they are a seriously good side

windy shepard henderson

Boots234 wrote: »

If that chance had been converted in the first half before they got their first goal it might have been a different story with a big half time lead. Was their first goal an own goal? St. Senans totally dominated the second though and their number 13 was excellent from the start.

Pity about the result but I can't see St senans getting close to an Gaeltacht who are 1/16 on to win Munster! They came to mallow yesterday and beat a team who looked impressive in the Cork championship by 10 or 11 points, they are a seriously good side

yeah i was shocked at how much the Gaeltacht won by especially in mallow , kerry intermediate championship would out do a number of senior club championships around the country , they will probably win the all ireland club

if we got that goal before half time then yeah we would have seen it out , it would have put us ten points up , instead of just 4 at half time , the other side of it is senans had goal chances in the second half too . no complaints from our side of things we got what we wanted 6 weeks ago , yesterday was bonus territory really

Claregaafan18

HT in the Munster Post Primary Schools Football U15 A Final

St Flannans 4-2 (14) St Brendans Killarney 1-3 (6)

Claregaafan18

FT Munster PP Schools Football U15A Final

St Flannans 8-7 (31) St Brendans Killarney 2-9 (15)

What a win for the Ennis school and a massive boost to the promotion of football in Clare. Congrats to one and all, players and management!!!

windy shepard henderson

Claregaafan18 wrote: »

FT Munster PP Schools Football U15A Final

St Flannans 8-7 (31) St Brendans Killarney 2-9 (15)

What a win for the Ennis school and a massive boost to the promotion of football in Clare. Congrats to one and all, players and management!!!

very impressive win especially a descent kerry school , looks like the development squads are working at this level for sure

windy shepard henderson

probably wont make it to the kilmaley game later today , word of warning would be the pitch at the gaelic grounds would resemble the old Landsdown road for irish football games the week after a bunch of rugby games were played there ,

last week kilmihil played there and the surface was poor , it was poor enough in the park for kilmaleys win over murroe/boher too but this is worse , the win over the limerick champions was impresive on paper but not on performance as several key players did not perform , kilmaley are a middle of the road senior team in clare at worst and with the current squad should never be entertaining the intermediate ranks in clare

only trouble is they are faced with a side full of cork inter county players that have backboned the rebel's revival in recent years . boueyd by the presences of Anthony nash , lorcan mcgloughlan and the walsh brothers espically dual star aidan this is going to be a huge task

ballyduff gave these guys a real challenge in tralee two weeks ago before they pulled away but the warning sign would be kanturks win over st marys of tipp in the first round which was seriously eye catching ,

just like ballyea last year kanturk are pretty much a football team but hurling new territory ...lets hope our lads have enough to get over the line but a huge ask

Claregaafan18

Kilmaley 0-25 Kanturk 1-23 AET

Brave from the Clare intermediate hurling champions but ultimately a last gasp missed free costed the West Clare men a replay. They were 6 points down 1-13 to 0-10 midway through the second half at one stage. However they never gave up and were unlucky not to win it in normal time with Paul Walsh from the Cork men scoring a massive equalizer to force the game in ET. Wasn't at the match and looking forward to hearing the thoughts of posters about the game. Best of luck though to Kanturk who now play in a All-Ireland semi-final in the new year. As for Kilmaley they can look forward to participating in the Clare senior hurling championship in 2018.