Clare GAA Discussion part 2 , No Purple Jumpers Allowed !!

supernova5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120853262#Comment_120853262

Every team has its weak points [obviously some more than others]

despite all of the above its shot selection/inaccuracy, lack of composure at critical moments, too much fouling, and the chronic tendency to give up cheap goals that's ultimately costing us, these issues have not been FULLY addressed going back a fair number of years,

will some or all of it get fixed? unfortunately probably not with this current crop of players and management, would dearly love to be proved wrong on that.

keeponhurling

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120853233#Comment_120853233

I think he is a guaranteed starter

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120853262#Comment_120853262

you were bang on about lohan last year and again this year

but brian cant get blood from a stone , you asked the qustion about getting them players from the club championship , while i know you were in favor in fairness of a group stage championship for years which has been a total disaster

we need to revert back to the structure of 2014 to 2019 , we got more then the best out of our better players in that format . the group stage championship is just prolonging the clare cup another few weeks for the bigger teams

lohan kept us form doing an offally, waterford or wexford in the covid years , for me that will be his legacy

my prefrence after next year will be brian o connell and paul kinerks mentor and 5 time all ireland coach allan cunninghan , keep the likes of terrance fahey , donal moloney , gerry o connor , brusier and thomas kelly involved in the underage conveyor belt , keep the likes of tony and garry brennan running the flannans progran , the ard scoil lads like paul flannagan attracting the best lads we have from south clare , stick to the plan and it will work

opinionated3

Any truth in the rumour that Lohan has ditched all or some of his backroom team?

Clareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120861078#Comment_120861078

I don't know about keeping us from doing a Offally/Wexford or whatever, ultimately he took over a top 4 year of players right at their prime and has kept them there.

keeponhurling

I think his weakness is calls on the line.

He did take over a team with great hurlers like Kelly, O'Donnell, Conlon etc.

But some younger players have really blossomed under him like Fitzgerald, Cleary, Ryan Taylor...and this year he brought through Hogan and Rodgers

What he really needs to do is find back-up at numbers 3 and 6. They are really specialist positions. This is not hindsight, we've been saying this all along. Clearly and Conlon shouldn't feature in the first half of the league, let somebody else develop in those positions.

for full back, potentially young Conneally could get a chance

for centre back could try Cian Galvin, D.Lohan or even Diarmuid Ryan in there. Even Tony Kelly ! But just give somebody a proper chance

Clareman

Of the 3 players you called out, they all got their start before Lohan took over, I'd argue that Cleary has regressed as a player since he was moved to 3.

roashter

Cleary is better out the field alright, but reason he is at 3 is that we have/had no one else that was effective there.

Pretty sure in the league this year and last year he played practically all the matches at 3, so hopefully for next league campaign we try out a few others there to at least have a backup option. Probably need to do the same at 6 too.

Clareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120880746#Comment_120880746

Cleary was 6 with David Fitz at 3 until Lohan moved Fitz to the wing, Conlon to 6 and Cleary to 3, but at the start of Lohan's tenure we were leaking goals (7 against Galway in a challenge if I remember correctly) so something had to be done. We've tried no-one else at 3 or 6 except for Cleary & Conlon, they play all the Munster league games if available.

As for the "next league campaign", this will be Lohan's 5th league campaign, he should have a fairly set squad by now.

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120881086#Comment_120881086

You mean David Mc.

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120881086#Comment_120881086

i looked back over the clare championship reports of the league games , unless maybe brandon oconnell, foudy or someone like davey conroy was starting the rest of the team included marquee players all over the place

then we find ourselves in an all ireland semi final with no idea how to approach it , initially play morey as sweeper which doesn't work , at half time we send our best player back to play the colm galvin role and the quality ball improves drastically ,but for the goal chances we missed as a result we would be heading back up to dublin sunday

thats what the league is for , play the likes of foudy , paddy donnellon ,cian galvin , brandon oconnell , cian nolan , aarron fitzgearld , senada morey , paul flanagan , davey conroy , john coneeley , keith smyth , shanagher , garoid o gready .ect and see what we have between 15 and 35 , we know what we have between 1 to 15 thats what the league is for

at least then we might not have to resort to these trial and error moves in massive games like munster finals or all ireland semi finals

lim4ev

From the outside looking in I think lohan has done a fine job notwithstanding the points being made here I think moving conlon to 6 was a masterstroke which if I'm correct he took a bit of stick for?

Having said that he has made some juvenile mistakes especially at full back in munster final but full backs don't grow on trees it's arguable that limerick and kilkenny are in the final because of their full back line's abilities. With all of corks players pick etc it's their full back line is the problem imo also look at some of the other top teams? But to be fair leaving that young lad on gillane for so long was insane

Ye were the better team v kilkenny in semi but probably shot yerselves in the foot which you cannot do v them.

Hopefully we get over the line tomorrow it could go either way but if I was forced to call it I'd go for limerick.

Clareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120881871#Comment_120881871

So we have a ball winning, All Star centre forward and moved him to 6 without replacing him up front, not exactly a masterstroke in my opinion.

For me, we haven't had a squad under Lohan, in lots of games he doesn't bring on subs, this year he has gotten into the habbit of taking off fellas he brought on. Looking at this years championship losses

• Tipp - lost because of goalie
• Limerick - lost because of full back
• Kilkenny - lost because of sweeper

All 3 losses were because of decisions made on the sideline, now I understand that they are difficult decisions to make and you live by the sword, die by the sword but those were 3 big errors that could have been averted

• Goalie - I'll give him slack on this 1, Quilligan wasn't exactly setting the world on fire and need to try somethine new out but a change could have been made
• Limerick - new full back, no sweeper protection and no change once he was on a yellow. Any manager worth their salt would have made a change once the yellow card was shown
• Kilkenny - first time ever playing a sweeper and waiting until half time to change it, All Ireland Semi finals aren't the time for trying **** like this

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120881871#Comment_120881871

limerick wont get it wrong on the line , kiely has himself surrounded with some excellent selectors in alan cunningham and paul kinnerk . plan A,B,C & D have all been worked on for weeks now if not months , eoin murphy pulled off some serious saves the last day that alone has me thinking that limerick will win tomorrow as the likes of gillane wont be as wasteful

the john conlon at 6 was tried out at club level a good few years ago by sean stack who was clonlaras manager at the time , he played at least two championship seasons at 6 while playing in the forwards for clare , the big issue for us is if one or two marquee players are injured we have doen nothing to replace them

if you go back to the league we played conor cleary and conlon in all 5 league games , including the facile wins over westmeath and wexford , it would have been better had we used the league to see what we really had in reserve and give them an idea of intercounty hurling , not throw lads in at the last minute , we need to make better use of the league next year

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120882153#Comment_120882153

Clares forwards are not really the problem. Not trusting them is. Conlan moved to centre back because we don't have a centre back that has a presence. Cleary plays well there but is needed elsewhere. At the moment we have better forwards than we probably ever had but we have a problem at cornerback, Centre/wing back and mid-field. no team plays both mid-field and/or half forwards for the full match, but we don't have a replacement in place that can slot in like Limericks David Reidy. For Lohan, he has to spend the next few weeks looking at the club matches and picking out replacements or additions that will make a difference. There is a bit to do.

Cork, Tipp, and possibly Waterford will be better. Going to Cork, and Tipp next year is going to be a struggle. We have to plan to beat Limerick and Waterford in Ennis. That's Lohans challenge.

One thing that was commented on early this year by some here was that Clare wasn't fit, however, in all games after Tipperary, Clare's game was delivered without being worried about fitness. Adam Hogan suffered a bit against Limerick but in general, that part of the setup looks good.

windy shepard henderson

Tonight its hard not to feel like the player on bullseye ( late 80s early 90s tv show) , ... that has just won a tumble dryer , cd player , a black and white television set , and bullys special prize of a Charles and Diana cutlery set , decided to gamble only to combine a score of 79 and watch in horror as jim bowen shows you what you could have won , as the lada with a badly painted caravan spins around in the company of two beautiful women

to make it worse before the players of either team take the field tomorrow , the **** offally hurlers from 1998 will take to the field , the only missing member of course is galway man jimmy cooney ,

so less then 2 weeks later after we exit the championship, ,mr keating from kilbaha go's straight in no kissing on the county championship , and tells the likes of mark rodgers and tony kelly to get on with it ,and they did , rodgers aided by patrick crotty his brother liam , shane kavanagh and fergus maddan were excellent , for a young team they already look a seasoned senior championship team , will go close to getting out of the group i reckon ,barefield will do well to avoid the relegation quagmire on todays showing

as for ballyea , played ok maybe within themselves up until the last ten minutes , then a bizarre thing happened with less then 15 minutes left , tony kelly screamed over to kevin sheehan on the sideline to take one of his team mates off , gus keane was the target , probably an unusal starter given martin o' leary and thomas kelly were on the bench and much more tider hurlers , a few minutes later kelly went over to take a sideline and fucked his former goalkeeper out of it for not making changes quicker and to wake up ,what insued was just a paltry two more subs by kevin sheehan and an onslaught by kilmaley in the last ten minutes ,

while injuries have hampered both sides , Brian Culbreth has kilmaley flying , they finished much the stronger team with some excellent displays from especially Mikey O'Neill ,Mikey o mally and the frustratingly brilliant darragh keane who has his fathers ability one day his mothers the next ,,,,

kilmaley are starting to beat ballyea at there own game with the likes of garoid o grady , oisin looney , conor cleary, martin o conor ( excellent tonight) and with garry brennan mark two out injured in the excellent brian mcnamara they are starting to develop a hardcore west clare element to the side

id rather be heading to dublin in the morning but its good to be back non the less,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRouAsiweqM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi8y83gnou4

caddy16

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120885182#Comment_120885182

Martin O'Connor is from Kilmaley. Bar the first couple of minutes Kilmaley dominated Ballyea for the entire 2nd half.

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120885182#Comment_120885182

Ballyea didn't score from the 40th minute and didn't score from play in the second half I think. Kelly was excellent but on his own, Conor Cleary was outstanding in the air and midfield is his best position. Kilmaley missed 1-3 between the 10th and 20th minute so by half time this game should have been far different. Ballyea aren't fit and will probably be out of the championship next week if IK have anything about them. Ballyea have problems on the field and off the field that won't be solved in seven day. From a Kilmaly viewpoint, it would be foolish to read too much into a match where the opposition wasn't functioning properly. IK could beat Ballyea by 15 points next week.

Clareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120885182#Comment_120885182

Kilmaley were getting footballers long before other clubs, the isolated player rule used to be that you had to play for the nearest club so Kilmaley got all of west Clare playing for them.

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120885868#Comment_120885868

I would change 'getting footballers' to developing players. I don't think the isolated rule ever said the nearest club. That was a debate raised years ago that was disproved. An attempt was made to change it locally in Clare that was thrown out as it's a national rule. That was being thrown out years ago until the rule was actually read out and it was unworkable as how do you define the nearest club? Is it by distance from the person's house to the parish boundary.. From club field to field. From parish boundary to boundary?

There are similar issues with 'first club' etc. You could get a parent at the age of 70 togging out for their original parish to get the son eligible for their 'first club'. The son could be 50. Lots of holes in the rules to be exploited. A bigger question is the Shane Walsh-type transfers to bigger clubs from smaller clubs, or even in Ennis from the Banner to Eire og within the parish or even Ballyea and Clarecastle.

caddy16

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120885940#Comment_120885940

Cathal Malone type transfers you mean!

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120885960#Comment_120885960

You could infer that.. or some wanderers from Parteen in the past...who, like Swallows, head home for the winter...or play football in North Clare but used to hurl in Ennis... not to even mention amalgamations!

windy shepard henderson

quick summary of round one of the hurling championship , most games played at a fairly poor standard which is what to be expected with 17 teams senior championship in a county of just under 30 teams , until the county board cut another 5 teams from this championship it wont get competitive until then

the only team showing signs of high quality sign's are sixmilebridge and the excellent young clooney quin team without ryan taylor , it seems eire og have yet to recover from last years great debacle from the county final , until matt shannon is gone from the set up its only going to continue , broadford defeated a clarecastle side without boby duggan , both sides look poor at this level duggan will probably be back for clarecastle in a relegation battle , but in truth neither side are good enough for this level

kilmaley got the job done against a brave barefield side , while ballyea beat a brutally poor shooting inagh/kilnamona side , everything about the game in shannon today shocased the bad of clare hurling this summer , bad wides , backs getting turned over in possessision and poor free taking , none of these two will be in the mix at the end of the year on todays form

in the other games , newmarket won the battle of the veterans in the park last night by a distance , both sides full of 2013 players , even conor ryan made his name into a match day panel for the first time in nearly 10 years , the blues like gerry adams haven't gone away yet you know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lcdU-Wy2B4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC-2278cgsU&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMJgTuja3bk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8z93oOYuGw&t=368s

opinionated3

Talking to a SMB legend last night who attended the bridge match, and he said the standard was atrocious on both sides!! Not only that but he reckoned the bridge got away with a goalmouth scramble in the last couple of minutes that could have ended on a goal for crusheen.

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120917561#Comment_120917561

if it came from gilly it must have been bad , i wasnt in clarecastle yesterday either but heard they were going ok , the group stage is rubbish in terms of quality if you want to give teams more games go home and away in the clare cup like junior soccer in the county , and go back to the format pre covid also cut the numbers down to at least 14 if not 12 like the football

in tipp they have a fantastic championship with 16 teams , a complete battle royal down there but they have 3 times the clubs we have to formate that championship , we dont , look at oggonelloe today against the inagh k second team in intermeadite today , that dose nothng for any team , have a propper 12 team senior , 12 team intermeadite , and same junior and not a reserve team in termeadite championship

Clareman

17 senior teams isn't feasible for a county like Clare, 12 at a push would be more accurate but clubs are so fascinated in keeping senior status we'll be doing well to get it down to 16.

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120918064#Comment_120918064

at the time we went 16 teams we actually had 8 senior B teams in two groups , but given the fact that one or two started making county finals from that position they just went the whole hog , plus it was in the boom times when everyone thought we were better then what we actually were , like ogonnnelloe who won 2 senior b's and made two 1/4 finals with david forde leading the fight , we are not as expansive as a county any more

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120917561#Comment_120917561

The Bridge lads are already talking themselves down.. they are already in the Quarter finals now and they know it! You can take that comment from the SMB with a pinch of salt!

Figerty

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120918195#Comment_120918195

ROLL OF honour of senior winners... look at the variety of winners over 25 years. 12 different winners over the years. That's a competitive championship. The issue isn't really the number of senior teams it's the standard of underage development.

However, the current Senior B is pointless.

windy shepard henderson

the problem is not the number of winners but the level of standard in the county , remember when your lads played murroe boher a few years back they looked top 6 in terms of clare championship sides against kilmaley in the park , thats my point