Clare GAA discussion thread

Clareman

Clare club football has always been very strong, it takes a very strong leader to bring all the players together, John Maughan did it in the late 80s/early 90s to great success. The problem is inter-club raillery is too strong, Kilkee vs. Kilrush, Donbeg/Quilty against everyone else it might seem weird, but you'll have fellas not talking to each other in the dressing room, guys not passing to each other, fights in training, guys "striking" cause 1 of their buddies for their club hasn't been picked.

Saying all that, Clare were very unlucky last year in the championship, they played the All Ireland Champions in their first game and the runners up in their second, they should/could have won in the Park that evening, I would say that if the hurlers had some of the on the pitch leaders that footballers had they'd be in a lot better place.

I'm also really looking forward to seeing how Colin Lynch gets on training the Ennistymon seniors this year.

Gael85

New faces on board as footballers gear up for 2012
Written by Peter O'Connell
Friday, 30 December 2011 11:54
AS the Clare senior footballers prepare for their opening game of the McGrath Cup against UL in Miltown Malbay on Sunday, January 8, they will play GMIT in a challenge in Galway on Monday, January 2.
Several newcomers have been added to the Clare panel for the McGrath Cup campaign. The newcomers include David Murphy and Seán O’Driscoll (Ennistymon), Stephen Tierney (St Breckan’s), Killian Malone (Kilfenora), Seán Haugh (O’Curry’s), Podge Collins (Cratloe), Thomas Downes and Thomas Donnellan (Cooraclare), Luke O’Loughlin (Corofin) and Chris Williamson (Kilkee).
County champions Kilmurry-Ibrickane have four players on the McGrath Cup panel; Peter O’Dwyer junior, Martin McMahon, Darren Hickey and Stephen Moloney. Declan Callinan, who featured against Down in Cusack Park, is injured at the moment.
Fellow 2011 panellist Mark Tubridy (Cooraclare) has emigrated to Australia, while Niall Browne (Two Mile House, Kildare) is injured but will be part of the panel when he recovers in about four weeks.
Kilkee veteran David Russell is also on the panel, having featured just briefly for Clare against Down in last June’s first-round All-Ireland qualifier. Russell will again be joined by his long-time county team-mate Ger Quinlan (O’Curry’s) along with other fairly experienced players including Joe Hayes (Lissycasey), Rory Donnelly (Cooraclare), Michael O’Shea (Kilkee), Alan Clohessy (Liscannor), the Kelly brother’s (Miltown), Timmy Ryan (Kilmihil) and Laurence Healy (Ennistymon).
Clare manager Micheál McDermott told The Clare Champion the panel has been on an individual strength and conditioning programme for the last six weeks, under the direction of new team trainer Micheál Cahill.
However, the Clare manager, who is in his third year in the post, is concerned Clare might be short of match practice as the McGrath Cup approaches.
“The McGrath Cup is, to a degree, coming four weeks too early. We’re really only back on the field with our first challenge game against GMIT on Monday. That game will go a long way to determining, along with the training, who is going to be in contention to start in the match against UL,” he said.
McDermott is also concerned that lack of match practice, due to the GAA’s winter training ban, might lead to players picking up early season injuries.
“The thing about the McGrath Cup being run in January, from a player welfare point of view, it’s very unfair on players to ask them to not do any training collectively in the months of November and December. In any sport, pre-season is a must to prevent injury,” he pointed out.
“I’d have no problem with players having November and December off if the league started in the month of February as it does but not having the McGrath Cup starting on January 8. It’s very, very unfair on players to expect them to go out having not trained on any pitches for maybe three to four months,” he reiterated.
As for the make-up of the current panel, McDermott says players may drop in and out depending on their game and training form in January.
“I would say that it’s very, very early to tell what the finalised panel will be. The McGrath Cup and the on-field training in the month of January will go a long way to determining what the panel will be for the league in the first week in February,” he stated.
If Clare beat UL in Miltown on Sunday week, they will have to travel to Páirc Uí Rínn on Sunday, January 15 to play Cork. The semi-finals are dated for January 22 with the McGrath Cup final to be played on January 29.

keane2097

Good to see a few more Kilmurray players on the panel this year, what's been the story behind their lack of representation in the past?

Mountainlad

Championship dress rehearsal this Sunday. See ye there boys! :cool:

hurler on de ditch

Mountainlad wrote: »

Championship dress rehearsal this Sunday. See ye there boys! :cool:

ill be there cant wait ,fitzy will have the clare lads wound up to bursting point ,they wont have a hope

Clareman

Seeing as it's been a while I thought I'd resurrect this thread.

Hurlers
Probably playing the best hurling in the country at the moment, saying that I don't know if they would be playing as well/fancy in division 1A. They are in a weird position in their next game that they can have a say in who they play in the 1B final, lose to Offaly, they can play them again, the 1 team I wouldn't want to be playing (no offence to Offaly or Limerick) would be Antrim, we struggled against them the first day and they'll have the Loughgiel back now.

Footballers
Going great guns, pretty much have their own destiny in their own hands, speaking to a lot of the players I wouldn't have great confidence in their management, but it'd be great to get out of division 4, maybe even a Munster final.

Under-Age
The stories I'm hearing about how some of the under-age teams are being treated and over trained is very worrying but hopefully they are just exaggerating and everything will be fine.

County Board
If I was to say what I think about our county board not only would my mod-ship of here be revoked but I reckon I'd get a ban from all of boards I would encourage any Clare supporters here to visit Cusack Park, take a note of your impression and send a letter to the county board with their impressions of their visit.

Gael85

Footballers
Going great guns, pretty much have their own destiny in their own hands, speaking to a lot of the players I wouldn't have great confidence in their management, but it'd be great to get out of division 4, maybe even a Munster final.

Whats the story with the management?Shane McGrath has been great addition to footballers,was on Dublin panel last year for O'Byrne Cup

Orizio

Clareman wrote: »

Hurlers
Probably playing the best hurling in the country at the moment,

...eh?

Clareman

Gael85 wrote: »

Whats the story with the management?Shane McGrath has been great addition to footballers,was on Dublin panel last year for O'Byrne Cup

They don't seem to be the most organised bunch of people in the world

Clareman

Orizio wrote: »

...eh?

They are playing some lovely hurling at the moment, some of the stick work and passes is absolutely brilliant, this is more than likely because they are concentrating more on the league than the other teams that they are playing, a lot of our players are coming straight from colleges to inter-county

InchicoreDude

They are playing some lovely hurling at the moment, some of the stick work and passes is absolutely brilliant, this is more than likely because they are concentrating more on the league than the other teams that they are playing, a lot of our players are coming straight from colleges to inter-county

But it is still division 2. A bit of a stretch then to be saying they are playing the best hurling in the country. They would not be allowed play that if up against division 1 teams....

Fireball07

What do ye think are the chances of Clare resting a few players for the Offaly game?

Surely they wouldn't??


Please?

Clareman

Exactly my point InchicoreDude, they are allowed play, it'd be a complete difference against other teams.

I wouldn't imagine there'd be much "resting" for Sunday, I think Davy has shown that the league is important and he won't want to lose bragging rights to Ollie

Henno30

Fireball07 wrote: »

What do ye think are the chances of Clare resting a few players for the Offaly game?

Surely they wouldn't??


Please?

Could well do. Largely meaningless game from Clare perspective and there's a big squad there looking for game time. Would be no love lost between a lot of the panel and Ollie Baker however so they might relish the opportunity to put the first big hole in his Offaly reign.

They're the current favourites for promotion in any case and their form is a big step up from last year's at the same stage. Realistically an All Ireland QF is the upper limits of our ambitions this year from this vantage point it looks achievable.

Waterford, regardless of any recovery which may take place between now and championship, will be at least as vulnerable as they have been in Munster for the last 4 years and maybe more so. Certainly they would be beatable from our perspective in that scenario and I'd be very surprised if we weren't the better prepared side heading into that game.

There's two phases for the current generation to pass through before we can seriously start looking at them as contenders for the big prize. The first step is establishing superiority over the type of teams that are in division 1b, the sides that aren't on the shortlist for provincial titles. The next step would be beating the likes of Cork, Galway, and indeed Waterford who at the moment at least are on the next level. If you're at that stage you can start eyeing up the big game but they won't be in our sights for a while yet. First three months of Davy's reign get a thumbs up though. If we win the two big games of the next three months then we'll be very happy indeed.

LuckyGent88

Hon the BANNER. What a comeback

Kristopherus

Well done, Clare. Great win after having to do it the hard way. Great to see them back in with the big boys. UP THE BANNER:D:D:D:D:D

Fireball07

Fair play to Clare.


Thought we threw it away tbh but Clare were definitely the better team for the majority of the 2nd half, won all the breaking ball. James McInerney was class.

Mountainlad

Why wasn't the game on tv?

Clareman

I heard that it was originally down to be played today and it was scheduled to be on but it was changed to last night and the TV schedules couldn't be changed to accommodate, personally I think it was a good thing that it wasn't on TV cause I know a lot of people wouldn't have travelled into it if it was on TV.

mccarthy37

What a comeback 8 points down I taught Limerick had this game won. Well done to Clare on a great win.You would have to feel for Limerick having won this fixture last year to have the rug pulled from under them I taught it was very unfair. No coverage on television for a league final with all this talk about promoting our national game is a complete joke. I listened to live coverage on live streaming Clare FM and I have to say it was one of the best I have ever heard on any local radio station so I suppose if it had been on Television I would have missed this treat. Well done Clare FM. Looking forward to our clash in June which I think will be a great game. All the best from the Deise.

DARK-KNIGHT

Was that limerick guy that went for Clare's beloved manager sent off?? He should have been if he wasn't

shawnee

No he wasn't but I think the Manager was sent off the field :D and he shouldn't have been there in the first place..;)

Fireball07

Clareman wrote: »

I heard that it was originally down to be played today and it was scheduled to be on but it was changed to last night and the TV schedules couldn't be changed to accommodate, personally I think it was a good thing that it wasn't on TV cause I know a lot of people wouldn't have travelled into it if it was on TV.

That might be true.

There was a good atmosphere, didn't hear the attendance though.

Still though, if Limerick hadn't been playing, I would have still wanted to watch the match but it'd be very unlikely that I would go to the game. It should have been on tv.

buck65

shawnee wrote: »

No he wasn't but I think the Manager was sent off the field :D and he shouldn't have been there in the first place..;)

Actually the player hit Fitzgerald beyond the sideline where the managers are entitled to be.
I expect we'll see a marked out area that managers can't stray beyond eventually.
Ironically this got the Clare players blood up and one could argue that Ryan cost Limerick the league.

buck65

Fireball07 wrote: »

That might be true.

There was a good atmosphere, didn't hear the attendance though.

Still though, if Limerick hadn't been playing, I would have still wanted to watch the match but it'd be very unlikely that I would go to the game. It should have been on tv.

Just under 10,000

Fireball07

buck65 wrote: »

Actually the player hit Fitzgerald beyond the sideline where the managers are entitled to be.
I expect we'll see a marked out area that managers can't stray beyond eventually.
Ironically this got the Clare players blood up and one could argue that Ryan cost Limerick the league.

Meh, I don't agree with that.

Limerick lost because they only scored 2 points after the penalty, that was through their own deficiencies, not because Ryan got the Clare players' blood up.

buck65 wrote: »

Just under 10,000

That's alright, I suppose. Hard to know what to expect for these games.

buck65

Fireball07 wrote: »

Meh, I don't agree with that.

Limerick lost because they only scored 2 points after the penalty, that was through their own deficiencies, not because Ryan got the Clare players' blood up.



That's alright, I suppose. Hard to know what to expect for these games.

Ok we'll beg to differ on that one.

premierstone

buck65 wrote: »

Ok we'll beg to differ on that one.

Clare lads have been tellin me for years what a fantastic motivator Davy is, is so why did it take an incident like this to get ''their blood up'' in a national final, seems very odd??

Mountainlad

premierstone wrote: »

Clare lads have been tellin me for years what a fantastic motivator Davy is, is so why did it take an incident like this to get ''their blood up'' in a national final, seems very odd??

To be honest I doubt it had any effect on the Clare players. It may have a detrimental effect on James Ryan, but I doubt it stemmed any further than that.

premierstone

Mountainlad wrote: »

To be honest I doubt it had any effect on the Clare players. It may have a detrimental effect on James Ryan, but I doubt it stemmed any further than that.

Agreed, there is a possibility it caused Ryan to loose focus but if it took something like that to spur Clare on, then it raises more questions of them really.

It was Clare's superior fitness that won the game, imo.