Clare GAA Discussion part 2
That was 2 years ago, plan is to go from 18 to 16 which is taking longer than it should.
I've been saying we've just about 12 senior clubs, there's a few just happy to stay in senior but looking at the quarter finalists and some of the other clubs left in I say leave it at 16 with 4 groups of 4 for a while.
Thanks for the explanations, lads.
We used to have 16 teams in senior in Wexford (four groups of four) but it's been just 12 teams (two groups of six) since 2012, apart from how it operated differently during the couple of 'Covid Championships'.
Wasn't as heavily involved in admin back then as I am now, so honestly don't know how they got clubs to accept a proposal that saw four of them relegated out of senior. But I do know that 12 teams works well here - going back up to 16 would really just be putting in cannon fodder of teams who really should be intermediate, and whose only realistic hope in senior would be to escape relegation by virtue of being 14th or 15th best out of 16.
O'Dea didn't bring anything to the game and gave away two crucial frees. It's a bad sign they had to bring him back to fill a hole and didn't solve it.
Bad sign when he's just back off the plane and is put out on the pitch ahead of lads who trained all year.
https://twitter.com/GaaClare/status/1706386943863382257
It's happening, Feakle vs Scariff final
World war 3 you mean 😂
Wexford club hurling is fairly weak at the moment though. In Clare there's an even spread among the clubs...probably 16 works well enough. Limerick went a different route with their system and that works for them. They seem to get alot right.
would fall a long way short of the old firm NOF/ Clarecastle back in the day😋☺️
That day has been gone for quite a while! Dynamics change.
Clubs won't vote to drop the number of senior clubs so there isn't much point in suggesting it just embrace the 4 groups of 4 for a few years.
12 Senior teams in Wexford, Kilkenny and Waterford, 10 in Dublin, open to correction but think Cork is now at 12 Senior clubs plus divisional and 3rd level teams, personally wouldn't be a fan of Limerick system of a top and bottom 6, just serves to widen the gap between the established top 4 and the rest, pretty sure with the exception of South Liberties last year same last 4 in Limerick for the last 7 or 8 years.
Would O'Dea have played much hurling prior to transferring to Eire Og? He probably home for Kilfenora relegation playoff against Shannon Gaels this weekend.
How are ye calling football semi finals at weekend?
He played for Corofin, intermediate level, he's a great athlete but only an OK hurler.
Clare clubs are paranoid about not being senior, ffs just look at our league competition, 20 teams in the "Clare Cup". For us to drop down to 12 senior clubs over half the clubs would have to agree to it, considering half the clubs wouldn't have the confidence in being in the top 12 not a hope would it pass. Another option would be for clubs to amalgamate, even following the Camoige would be a great start, but that won't happen either.
Best thing that could've possibly happened Clarecastle is get the camel off their back of getting relegated. Can have a complete reset now as a club at Adult level and hopefully for their sake maybe go down to two teams instead of 3 adult ones.
Their facilities are some of the best in the country, they took the eye off the pitch for a while and are in a bit of a slump at the moment and deservedly got relegated, it's up to them to bounce back up. Barefield were in a similar position and took a while to get back up.
Why should they go down to 2 adult teams, that would be counter productive. Their biggest challenge like a lot of clubs is retaining players out of underage , they certainly have the numbers to justify 3 teams.
Clarecastles facilities are some of the best in Clare but not the country. Have you ever been to Nemo Rangers òr Parnells in Dublin...ect. different level
With their full sized all weather pitch (a lot funded by Roche) not too far from completion, the guy saying they have best facilities in the country isn’t a million miles off.
From what I gather though, that full sized all weather will be a business venture rather than a club pitch, so even if certain teams within Clarecastle want to use it, they have to pay for it.
I’d imagine Clare GAA will start using it too instead of UL now, unless there’s a longer term contract there.
The fact that Clarecastle is being compared to such facilities is high praise on it's own. Clarecastle and Gurteen are a credit to the clubs involved.
Clare County Board have first call on some of the pitches in Clarecastle, it was detailed in the report last year.
The Limerick system is awful. The 4 groups of 4 that we have is a far better system. This has been a super county championship so far, why would anyone even be thinking about changing it.
to be fair a senior b system would work better , but i cant help but think the idea of intermediate and intermediate premier is aimed at amalgamations in the future , especially for clubs like killanena and ogonnelloe who have such a shortage of numbers but very good individual players they are at their bare bones numbers wise at the moment
i dont know how there is not more opposition in limerick about the championship set up , but then again whos to argue its not working , the last two hurlers of the year have come from patrickswell and most likley gillane will win it this year which will make it 3 in a row , coincide that with the exploits of na piarsaigh in the city and their national titles and its hard to compete anyway if you are a smaller club
with this county being more of a duel county at club level anyway we could never have two groups of 6 teams in hurling it would take up too many games too
Miserable couple of weeks for Eire Og, hurlers and now footballers knocked out.
Not sure how I feel about penalty shoot outs really
Penalties is a tough way to lose but then again there’s no nice way to lose a game. It was just as cruel on Eoin Cleary yesterday missing a last minute free or Podge McMahon today for Clondegad, but that’s sport if teams can’t be separated after 80 plus minutes then penalties is the fairest way to finish a game.
By the way great game today, Cratloe had one of their best performances in years the likes of Seán Collins, Podge, Kevin Hartnett and Cathal McInerney were immense for them in their comeback win.
Was Podge far out today for that free?It said on radio it was straight forward.
It was at a bit of an angle, but favoured a left footed player. I would say it was roughly 25 metres out or a small bit more with the angle.
A task force is needed in Clare for urban areas. Shannon are intermediate in both codes and thats a disgrace. Underage is dire there. Eire Og haven't won a hurling championship in 30 odd years ,in a town with one other junior club. Bear in mind Tralee is a smaller town but has 4 good senior clubs in Stacks, Mitchell's, Na Gaeil and Rock road and a senior hurling club in Parnells. Id obviously temper my criticism if Ennis had a senior AIL rugby team..(mediocre junior club) or a league of Ireland soccer team. It doesn't. Youd even think Eire Og would be dominating underage in both codes.. Nope. The likes of Monaleen, Mungret and Na Piarsaigh dominate underage in Limerick. Dont get me started on Clarecastle. Another Club who ll be intermediate for a good while.
My solution is a task force sent in by the county board but also with outside urban officer help from Cork or Dublin or wherever. There's a huge administration issue that this malaise has been allowed happen in Clare. Its a crisis in my opinion.
Don't forget Clarecastle aren't a senior club anymore and are a large urban area.
In regards to Ennis, they have tried so much down through the years but as Eire Og has so much "power" that everything is suffed out very early on, the town league being a great example of this but when you have a club that is only focused on developing their own club rather than the game in the town then you're going to struggle.
