Clare GAA Discussion part 2
i walked across it at the end of the game , the pitch is in super condition , after a minor game thursday night and a league game tonight it was perfect , it would have nearly passed a Noah's ark pitch inspection had it came to that , the few weeks work was worth it
a great day for all us west clare supporters who have been traveling up and down the country for years supporting the county team without a hurling club to shout for , delighted for conor , as i am sure you well know one of the soundest lads you could meet too had a fantastic game tonight too to be fair to him
i like how you managed to type that post without a hint of praise for his club or parish 😂
on the game its self , maybe a few pints tonight , but some serious improvements needed for two weeks time , david fitz is well entitled to have an off night tonight , but the likes of aidan mccarthy , peter duggan , cathal malone , john conlon and at times diarmuid ryan all need to step up two gears for tomorrow week and the munster championship , the fact that we won without so many key players under performing at times is huge testament to adam hogan and conor clearys performances tonight, along with davy mc, shanagher and the outstanding shane o donnell after being introduced
not sure did the camera pick up o donnells movement off the ball but he was just everywhere , its not often you see huw lawlor getting such a run a round like he did in the first ten minutes of the second half , that was the catalyst for the win tonight , it was a league final played with plenty of league hurling mistakes at time tonight , we need to up the gears a bt for two weeks time with or without tony kelly
so important to get the monkey off the back , since our last league final win in 2016 , we have lost 4 munster finals , 1 league final and two all ireland semi finals , we were starting to come under serious scrutiny in podcasts, print media , the sunday game ect , i know its only an 8 year period and what the media never mentions is the amount of obstacles we had to jump through to get to some of them finals or semi finals , the amount of stuff gong on behind the scenes in the county board before we finally got rid of the purple jumper and his yes men , lohan deserves great credit , the players do but the real winners tonight are the likes of deidra chaplin , deidra murphy , and kieran keeting , the work they have done in the last few years in unreal , we were in the pits only 3 or four years ago now we are one of the top counties in the country ,
the underage work that has gone on has been sensational as proven over the last few days also , we really have a springboard to jump from now heading into the championship , the monkey is off the back and we can now give munster a proper rattle without the outside noise , great night in fairness
Great day for KIB a man with a Kilmurry mother captains the team and a man with Kilmurry Father scores 2-10. All joking aside great win for Clare especially delighted for Aidan McCarthy an absolutely gentleman that has had tough periods over the last 2 or 3 years but tonight he showed his class.
Woo hoo!
A national title !
Worked out nicely, we got the win but still plenty to work on
David Mac and SOD got game time
if the game was to be called off due to weather, pitch or something…then the fixture makers find themselves in quite a pickle
Training in the west. Taking it serious so.
As for the original forecast I posted from earlier in the week, it's nowhere near the levels of rain forecast now. No way the game would have been played if that level of rain happened.
firstly , lohan never gives anyone a straight answer so that interview could mean anything , if a fella was on crutches or wheelchair bound he would still be touch and go as far as lohan is concerned in his interviews…
dont worry about the weather , we had the lads training back in west clare all week to get acclimatised to the storm tomorrow night ,
both minors and 20s were good in the second halves of either games , both looked out of shape position wise in both games first half , when adjustments were made we took over in both
i would be happy enough with last night , harry doherty looks like a star in his second year minor , a long way to go of course and looking at the other game between cork and tipperary , in terms of intensity we will have to find another gear against both
tonight we could have lost , or won comfortably by 6 points , soft enough goal conceded in the first half , poor penalty miss in the second , some very poor wides at times too , and some very questionable selection calls at the start of the game
the line got it right midway through the second half and we just about done enough , michael collins loos better nearly at this grade already then last year at minor , but the line really do need to put our best players in there best positions and build the team from there , with the likes of Evan mixtad and james orgin coming off the bench tonight and the likes of senan dunford and diarmuid stritch to come back later on in the championship .there is the makings of a strong panel to go one better n munster this year
given that limerick wont be 100% either come the first round of the munster with injuries , and lads just coming back , this side if preforms well enough could be the starting line up in the park , bar the introduction of shane o donnell and david mc ,
tony might start , its hard to know just how well he is progressing since the operation last year if he was to feature i wouldn't be surprised if he started off the bench
as for the game tomorrow night , its such big games for the likes of lohan and Galvan , both had good leagues and need to play well to have any chance of starting in munster , darragh has been impressive but sometimes naive in his play
much different type of game too especially from the league game in the park a few weeks ago ,which was played at a snails pace at times and hampered by sometimes bizarre refereeing calls , even with the strong wind promised i expect the shooting efficiency from the cats to be much better then that day in ennis too
you cant draw too many comparisons to the semi final last year due to the number of changes on both teams , but i expect to see the same level of intensity from kilkenny , they have been about two gears below their normal level most of the league and i expect that to change
whatever team lohan dose go with we cant afford to get caught cold again like last year , we need to start from the front foot and match kilkenny at least for the full 70 minutes , this game can act as a real spring board for the championship , especially with a win
Hard to judge the minors as Waterford were very poor but we were a much better coached team. Bigger tests ahead.
You'd have to think Davey Mc would have to get serious game time this week to be in consideration for Limerick. Don't think Taylor is in contention for the first couple of games but should make the end of the group stage.
Good start to the weekend with the minors winning comfortably last night v Waterford.
Senior team named for Sunday. David Mac and Shane O'Donnell among the subs, so hopefully both can play a part and be ready for Limerick in 2 weeks. Conor Leen keeps his place (ahead of Rory Hayes or Flanagan). Darragh Lohan also starts.
Still no sign of either Ryan Taylor or Tony Kelly. But great guys to have coming back later in the season when games come thick and fast. We play Limerick and Cork in successive weekends, but then have 3 weeks off until Waterford on May 19th. That gives the lads 6 weeks from now to be ready.
I think probably 13 of these will start v Limerick, with D.McInerney coming back in for C.Galvin, and SOD coming in for either Reidy or I.Galvin.
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Clare’s full senior squad is as follows:
1. Eibhear Quilligan (Feakle)
2. Adam Hogan (Feakle)
3. Conor Cleary (St Joseph’s Miltown)
4. Conor Leen (Corofin)
5. Diarmuid Ryan (Cratloe)
6. John Conlon (Clonlara)
7. Cian Galvin (Clarecastle)
8. David Fitzgerald (Inagh-Kilnamona)
9. Darragh Lohan (Wolfe Tones)
10. Cathal Malone (Sixmilebridge)
11. Mark Rodgers (Scariff)
12. Peter Duggan (Clooney-Quin)
13. Aidan McCarthy (Inagh-Kilnamona)
14. Ian Galvin (Clonlara)
15. David Reidy (Éire Óg)
16. Cian Broderick (Clarecastle)
17. Rory Hayes (Wolfe Tones)
18. Paul Flanagan (Ballyea)
19. Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge)
20. David McInerney (Tulla)
21. Paddy Donnellan (Broadford)
22. Shane O’Donnell (Éire Óg)
23. Aron Shanagher (Wolfe Tones)
24. Shane Meehan (Banner)
25. Patrick Crotty (Scariff)
26. Gearoid Sheedy (Ogonnelloe)
Lohan won it when he was playing.. at Wing back.
Yeah we definitely should be aiming to be in as high a division as possible. In fairness I think apart from the top 3 teams we could give most teams a decent game. The Down game wasn’t a true reflection of Clare and Down showed against Westmeath that they aren’t as good as they looked at times against Clare.
In a way it was important to consolidate other Division 3 status as teams that have got relegated from one division have slide and got relegated from another division two years in succession.
One of the biggest issues with Clare and Clare club football is that we are a handpassing and running team and most of the club teams are this way too. Like we have some very good players, athletes and point takers but we have very few genuinely good kick passers of the ball in the county.
We probably say the same thing every year under Lohan, but it really feels like nothing gets out of the camp. Which is probably a good thing in the scheme of things.
I'd like to see Clare give it a good go (and no red cards or injuries!)
In other news I see that Adam Hogan won player of the Fitzgibbon Cup for this year. I do think it's noteworthy when a corner back wins these types of awards.
Are ye training for Limerick or Kilkenny this week? Tough one.
…..
as a fellow football man you know the craic , the hurling is king and we will back them all the way , but there is no reason with all the work we are putting in under the radar that we cant spend another 7 plus seasons in division 2 again , anytime football was backed by the board it paid off , in the 1940s we had a serious team beat kerry and lost to derry in a national league division 1 final , lost to mayo in the minor final of 1958 , in the 1980s we spent most of our time in division 2 before spending a decade in division 1 , missing out narrowly on a historic double in munster without mentioning 92
to me this should be our level in division 2 and pushing for top 8 championship finish's as much as possible , i know it cant happen every year but very plausible targets ,
i was going to say the same thing , the only thing i would add is ,if you dont get on with your own club you can join another ,they will be happy to take your money just as well
Join a club.
Head up town the day of the match, there's always tickets available.
How does a clubless pleb get a ticket for this Limerick game then…?
Derry also have taken the league serious over the last few years and it hasn’t done them any harm.
Dublin were so far ahead of most teams under Gavin that they took every game serious as basically the players were playing for positions, which meant that they never slacked up or let up against any team.
They literally made a show of Tyrone in the 2017 semi final.
Clare are a top 4 team in the hurling now over the last few years, I think we will get out of Munster again this year and be in the Munster Final. I could be made eat my words but I think we are better than Waterford, Tipp and Cork.
Clare are playing in the ladies football Div 3 final at 4pm. GAA fixtures are a minefield tbh. No matter what time you put something on people give out.
People were giving out about the semi final time for the Saturday in Cork in relation to work. But I don't think that's why it's been changed. No doubt its due to TV scheduling.
I do wonder why the GAA pick such times.
Generally, it also means lower attendances, families less likely to go etc.
There must be a reason but I really can't think of it. A throw-in somewhere between 2pm and 5pm for this match would be fine.
The only championship match I see down for April 6th is London v Galway in the football at 3pm, but I'd doubt that's even on TV.
A balls of a time for everyone, but especially for people with kids.
The GAA always mess it up someway. It's too expensive, or too late or on in Cork.
Galvin could afford to take league seriously as was always going to walk Leinster.
Similarly with Kerry (and cork back when they were any good).
Would Galvin have done the same if he had to say play kerry, mayo, tyrone, cork in a robin robin with only 3 getting through within a couple of weeks of final, im not so sure.
So it's Thurles at 7.15 on the Saturday. It will be a late one if it goes to extra time.
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