Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

Fermanagh 0-18 2-18 Clare

A huge win for the footballers after two early defeats against westmeath and down , struggling fermanagh made 4 changes form the recent 7 point loss to sligo and it seemed to work , 10 minutes into the game the home side led 0-4 to 0-2 before ronan lanigan intercepted a daragh mcgurn pass to take off down the field to set up Aaron griffin to put clare in the lead

over the next 15 minutes fermanagh played most of the football missed several opportunities most from distance , mark mcinerney kept the clare scoreboard ticking over, by the time Griffin kicked his first point from play clare were 3 points up on the 30minute mark , cillian rouine went close with a goal chance not long after it remained 1-10 to 0-10 at half time

Fermanagh started like a train in the second half , initially kicking 3 wides they went on to kick 5 points unanswered within the first 12 minutes , clares first score of the half came on the 47th minute from a mark McInerny free , the last 20 minutes clare physically dominated the game and out scored fermanagh by 1-05 to 0-3 with daniel walsh getting the second goal

fermanagh didn't score for the last ten minutes of the game as clare pulled away with points from mcinerney , shane griffin and eoin cleary, stephan ryan pulled off a late save from conor love at point blank range but in the end it was a hard fought win and hopefully a sign paul maddens men have turned a corner

Clare scorers

Mark McInerney 0-8, 5f

Aaron Griffin 1-4,

Daniel Walsh 1-0

Eoin Cleary 0-3

Brian McNamara 0-2

Shane Griffin 0-1

A lot of injuries at the moment has the panel down to it's bare bones but cailfhionn o'dea and Shane Griffin made big impacts off the bench, Gavin Murray is used now as just a 20 minute finisher now too

The footballers welcome Laois to the park tomorrow in what will be another tight encounter , last year was a classic that went down to the wire , both teams are much changed from that fixture with laois starting only 8 from last years encounter while clare are starting 10 from that night in portlaois

Laois are in transition playing a completely different 15 against wexford than the win over sligo last time out and the draw with limerick , both teams are unlikely to be relegated but a win for either side will ease any chance of that outcome with 3 games remaining

the visitors have the stronger bench given the amount of injuries currently plaguing paul maddens side , laois have the likes of ronan coffey and niall corbet to call upon if needed , both caused us huge problems ast year while paul kingston is also on the bench cooraclare goalkeeper killian roche will have justin mcnulty well briefed on who to look out for especially his neighbour from cree in the middle of the clare midfield , like last years encounter though clare will have to be hitting the 20+ mark again if they want to get over the line here

Clare 0-24 Laois 2-15

Evan O'Carroll kicked 1-5 for the visitors today but will rue a missed penalty midway through the second half and a last minute 13 minute free which turned the game on its head, on the 34th minute with clare leading by a point O'Carrolls free went wide from 13 meters out , clare won the resulting kickout and worked the ball down field for eoin cleary to kick his 12th point of the game with 20 seconds on the clock , killian roches kick out was intercepted and quickly converted by substitute jamie stack

Laois captain Brian byrne was givin a straight red for an incident off the ball on the 23rd minute , laois held on to a one point lead at half time 0-9 0-8 . clare failed to kick on with a strong wind at their backs early in the second half and a rasper from o'carroll put the visitors 4 points up . 3 quick points from aaron griffin got clare back on terms before cillian brennan was black carded for a foul on o'carroll , he missed the resulting penilty but for the next 10 minutes clare struggled with teams 14 a side

most of clares attacked were micro managed through either ikem or dermot coughlin but it was far too predictable and laois started to push on again and caught clare on the break for several scores , most notably laois's second goal which was from a clare turn over in an attacking position and quickly punished at the other end of the field by paddy o'sullivan ,points form cleary , griffin and cormac stied the ship before the late flurry of scores after the o'connell missed free

overall a poor performance , but with all the injuries at the moment its an important one to ese any relegation worries

clare scorers

Eoin Cleary 0-12

aaron griffin 0-5

mark mcinerney 0-2

dermot coughlin 0-1

Cormac murray 0-1
Jamie stack 0-1

league tables after the weekend , hurlers need one point from the last two games to confirm promotion against either carlow or wexford , tough as both games are we need to be improving on last night and win both

Footballers depleted as they are will be disappointed they didnt win one of the first two games , a win will almost guarantee football at this level again next year but you would imagine we need to be aiming higher than that

its a very predictable brand of football almost a return to the style of play used by collins a few years ago , very little kicking all working off the shoulder up the field and patiently waiting for a shot on goal , the issue on sunday was we are missing about 7 players for various reasons so it was a combination of lack of experience and players playing out of possition

if the turnovers are fixed and we get a few of the injuries sorted things will improve fairly fast , its a good win considering but one we could have and probably should have lost , a frustrating watch but the win is the most important thing at this stage

Its Probably not such a bad thing that we have entered silly season aa far as the league is concerned for both the hurlers and footballers , the footballers go up against Evan taltys coached limerick team , talty is one of the best coaches in the country and will be with us in the near future, but i imagine tomorrow night he will be all out to stop us

both teams are decimated at the moment , clare have 9 injuries leading in to this game but here is the team

Clare
1: Stephen Ryan (Kilrush Shamrocks)

2: Alan Sweeney (St Breckan’s)
3: Ronan Lanigan (Éire Óg)
4: Manus Doherty (Éire Óg)

5: Brendy Rouine (Ennistymon)
6: Connor Meaney (Lissycasey)
7: ⁠Ikem Ugwueru (Éire Óg)

8: ⁠Brian McNamara (Cooraclare)
9: Cillian Brennan (Clondegad)

10: ⁠Daniel Walsh (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
11: ⁠Dermot Coughlan (Kilmurry Ibrickane)
12: ⁠Joshua Vaughan (Ennistymon)

13: ⁠Mark McInerney (Éire Óg)
14: Eoin Cleary (St Joseph’s Miltown)
15: Aaron Griffin (Lissycasey)

Subs:
16: Tristan O’Callaghan (St Breckan’s)
17: Cormac Murray (St Joseph’s Miltown)
18: ⁠Jamie Stack (St Breckan’s)
19: Michael Nash (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
20: Gearóid Cahill (Corofin)
21: Joseph Rafferty (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
22: Fionn Kelleher (St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield)
23: Gavin Murray (Éire Óg Inis)
24: Shane Griffin (Lissycasey)
25: Morgan Garry (Clondegad)
26: Luke Pyne (Éire Óg)

the hurlers face carlow , a huge banana skin of a fixture if last year is to go by anything , tony had to take us out of the fire last week hopefully the same wont apply this week , a few duds in the camp have been dropped a few have been given a last chance, likes of conor lean and david fitzgerald ,its not 2024 any more and these lads really need to step up before championship

the future is all over this team with the brilliant jamie moylan down as starter, along with jack o'neill and diarmuid stritch look to be close to starters come championship , another would be sean rynne, especially on his tipperary form in the championship ,niall o'farrell and john corneally are not are away either , colm o'Meara has yet to put a foot wrong this year , hopefully we see a better game from dylan mcmahon , funny thing is he is more suited to a dryer ground , before his injury in 2024 he probably was the best corner back in the county after adam hogan

heres the team , another 15 minutes of fame for jack O'Neill , not that he needed the first 15 😂

good win with such a young side out , carlow have developed into a fairly competitive side in the last few years i dont know what happened them last week , good to see shane meehan and diarmuid stritch keep up their good run of form regardless of the opposition even better to see jamie moylan start and finish his first senior intercounty game , a big future ahead of him i think

i would be expecting the likes of stritch, jack o'neill and sean rynne to be heavily involved in this years championship , the same for jack kirwin and niall o'farrell its likely most of these lads will be coming in off the bench though, if dathi lohan stays injury free its likely he will start in the half back line

Shane meehan will be close to starting too on his league form , there are plenty of options coming through

this is what you are looking at come championship in terms of reserves