Clare GAA Discussion part 2
Tuam stadium ain't great, though no pitch was good this weekend, but wait until you go to Salthill next Sunday. Add on 2 extra hours travel time absolute minimum.
starting with the goalkeeper situation , going back to joe hayes we have had serious issues with kick outs , there was a championship game against kerry a few years back in killarney where we actually played well but we gifted them 2-01 from stupid short kick outs in the first ten minutes , we probably out scored them for the rest of the game but lost by that margin of 0-7 points
a game in armagh in the qualifiers where we were in control and were reduced to our 3rd keeper that day and lost it in the last 5 minutes from stray kick outs
the problem is everyone is happy enough with us picking up 5 or 6 points every year in division 2 and avoiding relegation , if the same issues happened next week in salthill in a dead rubber match brian lohan would be getting it from all angles before he reaches the team bus
collins has done excellent ,believe it or not hes a big nfl man and sets up accordingly , he hires in a coach to implement his game plan , some very impressive names like mick bohan and cian o neill in the last few years , he brings in a forwards coach and backs coach and oversees everything like a head coach in the nfl , the person to blame on the kick outs is diarmuid o'keeffe , its his recommendations collins goes on in picking a keeper , its him that works on the kick outs and its no surprise that every keeper that has played for us has made mistakes , thats where the change should come
our fitness levels are fine , our defensive structure is fine , today manus doherty had a superb game on shane walsh top class , as was cian o'dea but we were toothless in attack and that has to change ,
The game was anyones untill Clare handed a goal to Galway from a short kickout. It was game over then, they had worked so hard to curtail a multi talented Galway attack, particularly ODea and Brennan who I felt did well on Walsh and Comer. After all that work to just gift Galway a goal is the losing of the game. I'm not going to blame the young keeper who had a reasonable debut but this is the second game in a row where the game has been taken from them with a goal from a misplaced kickout. There has been too much chopping and changing of goalies over the last few years and who ever has responsibility for it needs questioning.
Clare made too many errors when in possession and didn't seem to have any great plan on how to open up the Galway defence. In saying that the Galway tackling was really hard and disciplined, Division 1 level and they swallowed any unfortunate Clare man caught in possession.
Tuam is some shambles of a ground and Clare had practically no support. In fairness to Collins and the footballers I don't know how they keep going. The effort that is needed to survive at this level is massive and the support they get for their efforts is embarrassing.
The Gaa don't help playing these games at this time of the year.
Galway 2-08 Clare 1-05
As poor a performance in front of goal as i have seen from this clare team , kicked 10 wides some of which incredibly poor epically in the second half , we dominated possession for most of the game but distribution was poor at the best of times , and any time a clare man was turned over galway punished us with a score
galway never had any really long spells of the game with possession , they didnt need to with the efficiency of heaney and comer , they kicked some excellent scores on the break paul conroy and kerian Malloy with the best scores of the game , malloy was man of the match for galway and drove them on all day as did his club mates dylan mchugh and liam silke , but this was a lesson in efficiency and one we really need to learn from
Clare scorers
Cillian Rouine 1-0,
Eoin Cleary 0-2 (0-1f),
David Tubridy 0-1 (0-1m),
Keelan Sexton 0-1 (0-1f),
Jamie Malone 0-1.
Too much chopping and changing going on for my liking suggests mood cant be great in the camp. Ryan is a decent keeper, his only issue is he hasn't a massive kick and can't belt it over a press. What kind of a kickout has this lad got? McGann is very hot and cold doesn't offer anything better than we already have.
rumor knocking around tonight that joe McGann is back on the panel and Tristian O'Callaghan is starting in goals , both spa men would make a huge difference to the side tomorrow in tuam
he will be back hopefully before the limerick game , lets just say he has been dropped before for the same issue in the past , just collins's way of making him work hard to get back in the panel and stick to the squad rules
we need him back because he has been excellent this year in every game he played even the derry game , he is a colossus of a footballer for us we cant afford to lose him long term
he hurled so bloody well for ballyea last year that he must have been in brian lohans radar , hes the most 100% player i have seen in years ,
Pearse gone from the panel??
That is not good, a hugely important player for us.
Can't afford to lose players like that.
Heard Lillis was dropped for tomorrow for discipline issue.
an absolute gentleman , in the modern era of hurling in this county he is probably the best hurler not to win an all ireland , to auction probably the closest thing to a celtic cross sums up the man , id go so far to say that if he did win an all ireland that would be on auction as well ,
Cathal is caring a knock , word is Pearse is gone from the panel , this is our last shot at getting a run at promotion , derry so far have proven to be the best team, in the division galway can be hot and cold , very very good on there day but like offaly showed the last day in salthill they can be there for the taking
Galways record over the last 10 years in Tuam is Played 10 Won 3 Drew 3 Lost 4 , most of the wins came in division 1 while the draws and defeats occurred mostly division 2 , i quietly fancy our chances of puting it up to them
as regards relegation , down are all but gone now , a point is all clare would need from the last 3 games will keep clare up , if they cant muster that then they dont deserve to be playing at this level
Galway have named probably a championship strength team for tomorrow's game in Tuam. Massive ask for Clare after the disappointing result against Derry. Clare have named a team which doesn't include two of their most important players Cathal O'Connor and Pearse Lillis, I don't know if injuries are a factor in this.
Best of luck to them tomorrow in what will be a serious examination of where they are at and the result will determine if their final two games are relegation or promotion dogfights.
You're right on Cooney, but to be fair we have injuries to 3/4 forwards who would be ahead of him in the pecking order. Come championship, hopefully some of those will be back.
As I reflect on it, really happy that the middle third did well. That was our biggest worry ahead of championship and it gives us hope. Our FF struggled but we do have options there.
In a way it is also very positive that we seem to have settled on numbers 1,3 and 6, the defensive spine. (btw I thought Quilligan did much better on puck-outs yesterday). But are we just one injury away from trouble? Or is David McInerney our back up for both numbers 3 and 6 ? We know that Jack Browne will probably struggle at 6, and it's a crucial position in modern hurling.
That’s a pity about McCarthy after the breakthrough season he had last season. Hopefully we will see him back to his best again for Clare when ever that date is.
what i am hearing is rodgers is going to be back , draw a line across aidan mccarthy i am told and thats from the people in KIB , Who dont expect him back for the club football championship so he out
we just dont have a big enough reserve ,limerick do but they look so flat , cork do also but never get close , if diarmuid ryan can make it back along with maybe rodgers we will have a good championship
take the league with a huge pinch of salt , remember the 2014 ,2016 league campaigns and how sour those championships became , if i am john Kiely or henry sheflin i am happy with a bad league campaign
Yeah I agree, I think our distribution to the inside line is a work in progress. As you said, Golden and McCarthy put in good shifts. I taugh they had a good battle with O'Donoghue, and O'Donovan, and possibly winning it even, certanly on the possession count. I think we need that target man in the inside line, Meehan and Mounsey are good young lads but are very light. Anything that breaks, its very hard for them to hod their ground on say a Dan Morrissey or Barry Nash. I think losing players like Mark Rodgers and Aidan McCarthy is tough too, because they'd be our next best scoring forwards after Kelly. We played an excellent 3Q, but just couldn't keep the scoreboard ticking over down the straight. It was a pity, because the game was there for the taking.
If we can get players like those back, Ryan and Shanagher too, there is no reason why we can't be competitive in Munster. I think the backline is quiet settled, just probably the no.7 is up for grabs, I'd have Browne the frontrunner right now. After a terrible start to the league, I think alot of players are starting to find form and we have earthed a couple of new players which is always important. If we beat Galway, finish 3rd from 6 teams, 2 wins/losses and draw, that would be grand league considering the injuries, all in all.
as far as the forwards are concerned , bringing on gary Cooney spells an absolute disaster , especially for meehan , cooney is no where near that level so thats why the last 15 minutes was poor
you are right about everything else , i taught byrnes was excellent also he ran and controlled everything for limerick , got some superb scores from play and really drove limerick on
i think its improtant to beat galway to build up momentum for the munster championship , today was a baptism of fire for patrick crotty he really struggled against barry nash , a tough 1/4 against galway would bring him on no end , we need more battles like this to move forward
yeah, the Limerick backs got a real grip on our forwards in the last quarter. We do need some sort of aerial option in the FF line, whether it is Shanagher, Domhnall MacMahon, Duggan, SOD(!) or whoever.
From 1-12 we were pretty good, maybe we gave away a few too many soft frees as usual.
TK was a bit off his usual standards, which is understandable given he's only back from injury.
Conlon was outstanding. Davy Fitz and McInerney were good and should get better with games after their injuries. Jason McCarthy was good, especially when you consider how we were overrun in the middle third in previous games, even v Offaly.
On the Limerick side, Diarmuid Byrnes was outstanding, but at times it felt like we kept landing the ball down on him.
I wonder how we will approach the Galway game, as we now cannot now reach the semi finals or be relegated. Same for Galway, so it's almost like a challenge game.
from a Munster perspective, any way you look at it for some reason Limerick really not at the races in the League to date, when you look at Cork and Waterford, Clare fall a long long way short of the levels they are at...
golden was actually very good today , like Fitzgerald though he can be so hot and cold , if they could maintain that consistancy for the championship we will rattle feathers, but at the moment relaying on them isnt enough , watching the match today i was listening to clare fm , cyll o'connor is a really good judge of the game but his assesment of both mcinerney and jason mccarthy worries me
mccarthy got loads of ball in the first half but nearly every time when he laid it off he put the next man under serious pressure , mcinernry was good at times but not man of the match , we will need so much more then this come championship
i would like to see duggan as an inside forward beside the two young lads if rodgers is back for championship , david fitz and malone works on the 65 kelly roaming with reidy in midfield , diarmuid ryan along side conlon and browne in the halfback line hayes /cleary /flanagan full back line for me
i actually fancy our chances up in salthill in two weeks time , not something you could have said a few weeks back
that win in 2018 was huge , i think it banished a lot of things associated with the fixture over the years , we came back from 9 or 10 points down i think , the team we will face in thurles wont be as strong as that day 4 years ago ,
the league often lies too , many teams have great leagues and difficult championships , waterford at home is a realistic target to win regardless of how well they are going ,
Thats certainly not beyond us. Limerick will probably regain form and blast a team or two but Waterford look the form team and Cork. We've a dire record against Tipperary in comparison to our neighbours Limerick. If we can't beat Tipp this year then we never will.
in the munster group it could come down to score difference again , we allowed ourselves to get destroyed by both tipp and limerick in 2019 and missed out as a result
to be fair waterford look the form team at the moment plus they have no injuries , tipperary are in total transition but are still dangerous , who knows about limerick , there supporters were very deflated after today they were expecting more from them after making the 8 changes they look miles off other years , we should have beaten cork last year but we always struggle against their forwards its going to be tough
we have two games in ennis and two in thurles if we win one game at home and one on the road it might be enough for us
Much better from Clare. I liked the backs today,very tight and the midfield battled hard. Clare should have won. I dunno what Limerick are at but they are nowhere near last years form,yet anyway.
The goal Clare had disallowed was a legitimate goal. That would have been big. TK missed a good bit aswell and Taylors goal bound effort was poor. Conlon was good..he was aggressive ,overly so at times. Malone was good, took Coughlan for pace once or twice. Byrnes missed a shed load of scores for them..
Clare seem to be getting it together for Championship. They've every chance of coming out of the group. Tipperary are bottom of the group so far in my opinion and Limerick need all the usual suspects starting to get out. At the moment Cork ,Waterford ,Limerick are favs but we aren't far off. It could come down to Clare v Limerick In Ennis.
much better performance today , really should have won it though limerick were flat , there first touch was poor and they were relaying too much on byrnes and gillane for scores , byarns was probably man of the match in truth
from our point of view jason mccarthy won a heap of ball in the first half but his distribution was terrible at times , mounsey and meehan were excellent as was david fitz , kellys importance is huge for us , taylor and mcinerney did well enough , conlon back at 6 is a better call too
clare scores
Tony kelly 0-9
ryan tylor 0-2
shane meehan 0-1
robin mounsey 0-1
cathal malone 0-1
david fitzgearld 0-1
david mcinerney 0-1
jason mccarthy 0-1
Dissappointing not to come away with the win, but I suppose so would Limerick be as both team missed a ton of chances towards the end of the game. I taught Clare played a very strong 3rd quarter, it was dissappointing we couldn't maintain that momentum.
I taught it was good to see Clare carry a physical challenge to Limerick. Lohan got his set up right, going with a very morkmanlike 8-12 of McCarthy, Golden, Malone, Taylor and Fitzgerald making for a competitive fight between the 40s. The half forward line in particular of Malone Talyor and Fitzgerald got up and down the field all day and I'm thinking that they could well be our half forward line come championship. Sometimes though if we could get a bit more end product from Taylor and Malone it would help even more, I taught going into the last 15 mintues, Taylor missed 1-1, Malone had a wide of 1 or 2 wayward passes. But both are guaranteed starters and very important players for Clare.
The backs were very good, all 6 of them did well. I taught Conlon really excelled at 6 today, brought that physical presence, leadership and came out with some cruical balls there in the second half. I love seeing him win a hard ball, carry it out and winning a free, it really lifts the crowd. He won't be going back to 14 anyway.
I think whats biting us right now is the injuries, particuarly in the full forward line. Meehan again posed a threat, but he needs more support. Mounsey tried well beside him and Crotty and Duggan found themselves in the full forward line too, but they aren't natural inside forwards. Realistically, we cant afford to lose Mark Rodgers, Aidan McCarthy, Aron Shanagher, Shane O'Donnell and Ian Galvin all at the one time. I think if we had one of them today, we could have won.
I think while we've only won one game, it hasn't been all bad for Clare. The main thing is trying to get these injuries sorted. Add to the guys mentioned, Diarmuid Ryan is supposedly in a race to be fit for championship and David Reidy is also injured. That's 7 either starters or top 20 players, which is alot, also factoring Peter Duggan is just returning. But if we can get alot of these guys back, we can give the championship a fair shot imo.
Neither of them on the panel for today. Also SOD not back so realistically can’t see them being ready for championship.
“Having seen John Conlon, Tony Kelly and Peter Duggan return from injury in the last two matches, the bench is further strengthened by experienced duo David McInerney and David Fitzgerald.”
I’d say we’re fairly close now to the starting 15 for championship. Hopefully with Rodgers back.
was just thinking, I think Quilligan in goals played every minute so far this season. Might not be any harm giving the back-up (Foudy) some game time, just in case of injury
was wondering if Ian Galvin and David Reidy are also on the long term injury list? haven't seen either one in League so far
