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

PeggyShippen

Shane Meehan still has a whole careers contribution to make but ,and it's not his fault, he's very small for today's game. There's no way around that really. A good big fella is better than a good small fella.

Mounsey and Crotty should make waves this year. They are plenty old enough and have been around the panel a year or so. There's so many positives in the personnel Lohan has and even the backs have plenty of options even if they concede alot. However it's ingame tactics and gameplan that let us down last year and I'm not sure if Lohan can change.

keeponhurling

I think Lohan can and will change, and recognized that withy the new backroom team. He has been doing a lot right so only minor tweaks needed.

You're right about Meehan's size, seems that management see him more as an impact sub....whose pace is deadly once the game opens up

caddy16

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121756611#Comment_121756611

I've seen him a couple of times at Junior and I can't say he's overly impressed me albeit he's obviously heavily targeted. I can see him moving from the Banner to play at a higher lever over the next year or two.

jamesconlan85

I know Shane has opted for hurling but for Shane he could be a good intercounty hurler but an exceptional intercounty footballer. Shane Meehan starts every game for the Clare footballers and has that status of Keelan Sexton in terms of his importantance but the lure of possibly winning a munster title or All Ireland as part of a panelist or sub has made him pick intercounty hurling over intercounty football where he would have a career for the next 13 years if he wanted too and play in every match compared to hurling where he might be brought on now and again but that is glamour of hurling exposure of Clare compared to football

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121763003#Comment_121763003

I know I posted a photo on here pointing out Meehan's size in relation to Limerick's O'Neill but I wouldn't doubt Meehan's ability to become a starter with the Clare hurlers. Most people with speed don't often know how to read a game (because they don't have to) and rely on their speed. I think Meehan has the ability to read game (probably due to his football experience) and he his has speed - he covers the pitch really well - he also knows where the posts are. He's only 21. He might not be a starter under Lohan yet, wouldn't rule it out for this season completely, but I'd say he will be going forward.

This is exactly the different type of player that Clare need to hit form to get over the line against Limerick. Someone a bit different. But he does look like he needs a bit more time in the gym, that said wouldn't rule him out making an impact in the summer.

keeponhurling

Meehan got 1-3 yesterday to help Mary I into the Fitzgibbon final.

maybe just a case of Lohan managing his load. We’ll see if he gets some starts later in the league.

Mary I v UL in the final, loads of Clare involvement on both sides

windy shepard henderson

big game for the footballers tomorrow , harshly defeated two weeks ago in mullingar they travel to tullamore tomorrow to try and set the record straight from two weeks ago , the result of this game will defy which part of the table we will be concentrating on for the remainder of the spring

a win and with some more favourable ties upcoming would give us a great shot at promotion , a defeat would mean the next two games against wicklow and limerick would be must win games

quietly confident on what will probably be a tricky tie , tg4 have highlights monday night too i believe

https://twitter.com/GaaClare/status/1758793514060562681/photo/1

dohboy

What a game. Clare footballers are pure box office, almost every match is nuts.

callaway92

That’s a serious win in fairness

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121784441#Comment_121784441

it was a terrible performance up until the last ten or 15 minutes , a young inexperienced team making loads of errors , but the last 15 minutes is very encouraging the level of fight shown to see the game out was excellent ,most teams trailing 1-10 to 0-4 with that amount of time left would throw in the towel , this is the type of game that will drive them on , when we found top gear we out scored them 2-6 to 0-3 but it took us 45 minutes to find it

great win in the end , offaly crowd were furious with it naturally so , they got the opportunity at the end and didnt take it ,it was a brutal penalty in fairness went probably 10 foot over the crossbar

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121785080#Comment_121785080

I’d say it’ll be a prime example of Clare being delighted with the 2 points and won’t worry too much about the performance in a match that they were fairly big underdogs.

Treble double

They are down 12 players from last year and missing a few more through injury but, that first 50 minutes was the worst from a Clare team since the dark days of Div 4. They just had a cut when it appeared all over and subs like Eanna O Connor, Cormac Murray and young ODonnell made a huge difference. Offaly very poor. It was great to win it and should make Clare safe in that Division now. Looks like Westmeath and Down will get promoted. Stephen Ryan was excellent and looks like he is becoming a leader on the team and by God do they need a few lads to do that. The starting 15 should see 3 or 4 changes the next day as the lads that came on put up their hands and fellas taken off can't really complain

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121785264#Comment_121785264

yeah stephan was excellent , its amazing how one tactic can throw a game on its head , i taught when we brought on tom mcdonald , brought stephen uot to midfield for the offaly kickouts against a strong enough wind it was the winning and losing of the game , we had 4 huge men in the middle of the park and just turned over their kickouts at will

we probably should not be winning these games , only stephan played in the mayo game in 2021 which was a playoff for division one , before the game i noticed 5 key players that were out injured in , cillian brennan ,cillian rouine , brendan rouine ,kiaran malone and darragh bohannon , on top of god knows how many players have departed , mark fitz is doing a super job so far

o donnell has to start the next day along with cormac murray , i would like to see tom mcdonald and james curran get more game time too ,

Gael85

Completely robbed Offaly. Agree McDonald made a massive difference. O'Donnell kicked two big points.

I thought the Offaly goal was a square ball. Clare only started playing after that. Offaly wilted once Clare pressed the kickouts ..

Serious heart to come back from that. A great last 10-15 minutes.

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121785721#Comment_121785721

i actually feel sorry for them , they are the soundest bunch you could meet to be fair to them , a really good bunch , a debate over 1998 is never far away either 😂 always good craic

offaly wilted because we have a top class S/C coach in owen tarent from kilrush , he was the mayo S/C coach last year , offaly were the better football team by a mile , and i was very impressed with cormac egan , nigel dunne and dylan hyland , they brought on guys like anton sullivan who i think is a serious footballer and rurai mcnamee both of them along with peter cunningham have more experience then the entire clare team put together they are all great footballers but the energy levels didn't last any more than 45 minutes

i feel we have embraced the modern game better than a lot of counties it might not be great to watch but its getting us results , as you saw our kick passing was terrible at times but our running game excellent

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121784350#Comment_121784350

to be fair the lads on the radio are very funny beit football or hurling , i didn't hear it today as i was up there but i imagine it was comedy gold , a load of people from hurling country all say the same thing though which is great 😂

Treble double

With Tipp and Waterford standing in the way there is a very good chance of getting to the Munster final and with that Sam Maguire Football. Am I wrong in saying that the Tailteann Cup would be way more beneficial to the development of this team at the moment. What good is a tanking from Kerry in a Munster final and then a tanking from another elite team in the All Ireland series going to do this team. They would be capable of putting up a few rounds in the Tailteann which could bring them on again.

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121786444#Comment_121786444

to be fair , it would be more beneficial to be playing sam, we got hammered by kerry last year fine but we were ultra competitive against derry monaghan and donegal , the tailteann cup would do nothing for us especially if we got beat by say offaly , the whole football county would be on the young lads backs

on paper you are right , but in clare we dont do things on paper

jamesconlan85

I cant understand why Emmet McMahon wasnt on the frees from the start. Some gimme points missed from frees until Emmet took over them surely he has to be first choice on frees going forward. I say you could see Shane Griffin, Mark McInerney and Ciaran Downes drop out of the side the next day. I think Eanna O Connor too good to be on our bench and maybe we could push Daniel Walsh to wing forward and have Ikem and Eanna as our two wing backs. As for the other subs James Curran, Cormac Murray and Diarmuid O Donnell all lively. Ya but excellent result given without Cillian Brennan, Cillian Rouine, Joe McGann, Brendy Rouine and Darragh Bohannon who are all starters in fairness. Its hard to see Down or Westmeath dropping points but at least we have put ourselves in a spot to take advantage if they do. Antrim away will be difficult game aswell but next two are very winnable before we finish with Down and Antrim

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121786480#Comment_121786480

Ohhhhhhhhhh, Clare have gone digital? Paper not good enough anymore.

Michael has the big whip out:

https://x.com/DuignanMichael/status/1759349028116934902?s=20

KIB4Life

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121786567#Comment_121786567

I wouldn’t think Brendy Rouine is a guaranteed starter if fit.

theMountain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121786567#Comment_121786567

Clare V Antrim Allianz Football League Roinn 3 Round 6 Cusack Park, Ennis 3:30 PM.

windy shepard henderson

teams for tomorrow in both codes , cormac murray starts ahead of mark mcinerney as expected , plenty of changes again in the hurling line up but no start for shane meehan again which is disappointing , looking forward to see how crotty takes his chance , great chance for cian broadrick to nail down a place on the squad for the summer too

thank god for tg4 , they will be making the long journey south east tomorrow ,which will give the lazy supporters like myself a chance to watch both games tomorrow

https://twitter.com/GaaClare/status/1761332620460253284

https://twitter.com/GaaClare/status/1761160821449625721

gaa goes

I read the match report on Rte re Clare’s game v Wicklow. However I think I counted that Clare made 6 subs in the game. We won by 13 points. I hope I don’t have to go to get my glasses checked again! Anyone at the game? I was stuck in hospital for the last few weeks so can’t make a comment on how we are playing, playing style etc. But great to see Joe McGann coming on as sub today. He could be a match winner for us!

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121816325#Comment_121816325

i was at it , i think daniel walsh went off with a head injury , i am open to correction

windy shepard henderson

clare 2-15 wicklow 0-8

as routine as it gets ,wicklow had a fine defensive set up but had nothing in attack no great counter attack , even looking at some of the scores in the second half they got one or two sympatric frees from the referee along with a point that tailed about 3 foot wide that was given 😂

at the moment wicklow need all the help they can get , the in house stuff up there is worse then here in the pat fitz days , its a pity because they seem to have one or too very useful players

its probably a more remarkable scoreline given we are now down nearly 20 players with dermot coughlin out injured today , but the performances of emmett mcmahon , ronan lanigan and cormac murray excellent , murrays two goals have justified years of promise forecasted here on this thread

the two coraclare boys were outstanding though michael garry and brian mcnamara , thankfully michael didnt win the house in ennis a few weeks ago as he threatened to leave the country if he did win it 😂, not only is brian mc a serious footballer but he really looks to be turning into a real tough bit of stuff, and takes no nonsense , and the first man in if a team mate is in trouble , the under 20 footballer of the year turns 21 tomorrow and is no longer a prospect but a brilliant footballer full stop

we still need to work on the ball to hand stuff , the kick passing and the wides , but the future is bright with this bunch

clare scorers

cormac murray 2-1

emmett mcmahon 0-4

ciarann downes 0-3

aaron griffin 0-3

brian mcnamara 0-2

ronan lanigan 0-1

diarmuid o'donnell 0-1

i will talk hurling after i watch back the deferred highlights on tg4

Treble double

Fair play to Clare on the win today but I am shocked at the big drop in standard from Div 2 to Div 3. I know Wicklow are one of the weaker teams in the Division but they were very very poor. Colm Collins' mantra was " mind the football" We gave the football away cheaply way too many times today, but wicklow gave it right back to us. If you gave it away cheaply in Div 2 there is a good chance the next time u would touch it is picking it out of the net. You would be worried playing teams of this standard that u could fall into seriously bad habits. The stretch in Div 2 has shown us what conditioning is needed to compete with the elite teams and that is standing to us in the lower division, we were alot fitter than Wicklow and Offaly as well the last day. Cormac Murray showed his potential today he has a cut about him and so has Joe McGann good to see him back today. We have too many forward players who are nice footballers but have no cutting in them. McNamara played well in the middle of the park and the usual suspects did well at the back, not much more u could take from it. Its hard to believe we spent so many years in Div 4 when you see how low the standard in 3 is after being exposed to a few years in 2

windy shepard henderson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121816788#Comment_121816788

i told ya we were miles ahead of most teams in this division in terms of fitness , owen tarrant from kilrush was last years mayo S/C coach and a fine footballer in his day , but this is something most division 3 teams don't even focus on

but yes 100% right , we are a mile off with our kick passing , our ball to hand passing and our kicks from range , but on the positive side the 2 cooraclare lads look the business , its a transition but its been a positive one so far

windy shepard henderson

clare 0-16 1-13 wexford

wexford excellent under keith rossiter , a serious effort by the home team and very unlucky not to see it out

here is my take of both halfs

adam hogan huge at times

galvin looking much better then meehan

daragh lohan excellent , line balls and reading of game 

keith smyth needs another year 

david fitz shooting from distance poor

david mc leader

mccarthy from play first half excellent

wexford better team in the first half

cathal dunbar serious leader for wexford great score before half time

second half

somone tell david fitzs keep the ball alive , dont shoot from distant angles 

malone the same

sean rynne nievity in his pass's

fitzgerlad excellent but too many pot shot's

brodrick excellent in his shot stoping

keith smyth in two mindes 

serious effort at 6 from conlon

damien reck excelent for wexford

as is shane reck and cathal dunbar

aidan mccarthy not a free taker

wexford backline excellent espically simon donohue

roary hayes and leen excellent at the back

keeponhurling

Was Rory Hayes playing full back ? Not sure that’s sustainable if there’s a taller more physical full forward in there.

on TV it looked like a poor enough standard, neither team deserved to win. And both spurned a few chances to win it too. Lots of poor passing and decision making from Clare.

David Fitz was the only forward who looked like he could score, plus Rogers after he came on.

Conlon was massive and pulls the whole defence together. D.Lohan does look good, impressive every time I see him. C.Galvin had a decent game too.

unfortunately none of the forwards really put their hands up, Mounsey (despite scoring a great point from the sideline) and Crotty both hooked at half time. A.McCarthy and I.Galvin quiet in open play. Smyth really struggled, but hopefully will benefit from the experience.

Cian Broderick in goals was solid, one great save and generally got his puck outs away.

Who will start midfield in the championship alongside Malone ? Ryan Taylor is injured and Rynne still looks a bit raw.