Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

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

jack O'Neill , sean rynne and dathi lohan are probably starters or close starters come championship , if stritch continues his form he wont be far away either , right corner back and center back are wide open at the moment too , dylan mcmahon might not be far away for number 2 , but you would imagine rory hayes gets the nod ahead of him if leen was to be dropped

clare 0-26 1-20 Wexford

A comfortable win in the end against a below par wexford side , the visitors never really threatened much throughout the game bar a purple patch in the last 15 minutes where they outscored clare 1-5 to 0-5 and had a half chance of a goal late on but saved by mark sheedy

Before that clare were comfortable racing into a 0-15 to 0-9 lead at half time , such was the comfort diarmuid strich who was the best player on the field was called ashore with 0-3 to his name along with adam hogan , points from peter duggan on frees along with efforts form jack kirwan and sean rynne had clare 0-19 to 0-11 with 20 minutes to go,

Then came the wexford fight back which was fended off with a couple of late scores from ian galvin and ryan taylor , given the freedom simon roche enjoyed today brian lohan is no closer to sorting out the number 6 position , roche scored 1-06 from play and was unchallenged in his run for the goal

on the positives , diarmuid stritch and jack o'neill look like they could be starters come championship , while niall o'farrell ,jack kirwin and keith smyth look like options off the bench come championship , sean rynne mixed the good with the bad at times today but has plenty of talent if he puts it all together , ronan kilroy had a nervous start to the game but when he settled he done well , good to see conor leen is starting to show the form a few years ago again

Clare scores

Scorers Clare:

Peter Duggan 0-8 7f

Jack O’Neill 0-3

Sean Rynne 0-3,

Diarmuid Stritch 0-3,

David Reidy 0-2

Shane Meehan 0-2

Ian Galvin 0-2

Ronan Kilroy 0-1,

Keith Smyth 0-1

Ryan Taylor 0-1

Paul Madden has named an unchanged side for the visit of wexford to cusack park tomorrow , clare still have a real chance of promotion if they win their last two games and westmeath drop one more point , wexford have the biggest say in the second place spot with their last two fixtures against clare away and westmeath at home

wexford themselves have picked a strong team , the two hughes brothers niall and pauric have been flying it all season so far as has cathal kehoe and mark rossiter , at the back eoin porter is a top corner back and is going to have a serious battle with aaron griffin , gavin sheehan will also be a handful for mark mcinerney , if clare are to have any chance of promoation they need to be wining this one , but it could go either way , another close one in store .

Clare 2-17 Wexford 1-23

A game of two halves in rough conditions , wexford won the toss and played with the wind in the first half , the visitors built up a massive halftime lead of 1-18 to 0-6 which ultimately proved to be too much to reel in in the end ending clare promotion chances

The turning point of the game came in the 26th minute when shane doyle found the back of the clare net , it was quickly followed up with a two pointer from eoin nolan , prior to that it was a respectable 0-10 to 0-5 to the visitors with the elements at their back , points from pauric hughes and eoin porter pulled wexford clear to a huge lead at half time

Second half goals from eoin cleary who pounced on a rare wexford mistake and a mark mcinerney penalty along with 2 pointers from conor meaney , mcinerney x2 and eoin cleary had clare back to 3 but that is as close as it was going to get ,

A disappointing first half performance but in truth questions need to be asked about selection of some players and the selection process of players playing out of position , there are serious defensive issues in the side that were not there last year which management need to adress ,

Clare scorers

Mark Mcinerney 1-7
Eoin Cleary 1-4
Aaron Griffin 0-3
Conor Meaney 0-2
Brian McNamara 0-1

the players are there but not being picked or picked in the wrong position , the game plan seems to be one big figure 8 training session working the ball up to the shooters , it was pretty much the same yesterday in quilty , kicking the ball from the half backline to the forwards is a thing of the past it seems

i am a fan of madden but not so sure of one or two people he has surrounded himself with , only 2 subs made today in wild conditions and we struggling in midfield , that's not good enough in fairness especially with a young lad sitting on the bench that had played midfield last year

Rest in peace to jack boddy from limerick , he was part of the under 20 backroom team last saturday and died while out celebrating last saturday night , his funeral takes place tomorrow in kilkee

Clare 1-10 Waterford 0-12

A low scoring game last Wednesday night but mainly down to two very good defensive teams, fred heagerty took clare out of the fire with a 57th minute goal , he had already added 0-4 points to his tally before that, it was a quiet night for michael collins , marco cleary , ronan kilroy and sean Arthur who all have seriously promising careers , the same can be said for gavin o'shea who only managed one point from play for the visitors was well marshalled by joe casey of kilmaley

O'Shea was one of the heartbreakers in last years minor final and is a serious player for the future , but the best players on the field were the corner backs of either side , joe casey and eoin gunning for clare and the excellent Fiachra cooney and thomas Ahearn of waterford turned the game into a seriously tight affair , hugo quane and cathal O'Sullivan dominated the middle 3rd in the first half and kept clare to just 4 points and only one form play in the first 30

Daniel costelloe and both Mathew o halleran and jamie moylan all came more into the game , costeloe clares top scorer from play with just 2 points shows just how dogged the deise are,

A lot of people leaving the bridge were maybe not over happy with the performance , it was a very much a snatch and grab victory , but that waterford side is very good , 7 of last years minors started and most of them big men already , the future is bright for both counties

Clare scorere

Fred Heagerty 1-4

Daniel Costelloe 0-2

Darren Moroney 0-1

Ronan Kilroy 0-1

Jack Mescell 0-1

Ryan Hayes 0-1