Clare GAA discussion thread

washman3 · 06-03-2016 01:45PM

Clareman wrote: »

I'm not sure if head-to-head ties come down to scoring averages/difference or the head to head result between the 2 teams. A 7 point win by Limerick today and the go top and we'll have to win the last game (i.e. draw isn't enough)

It did in the past few years anyway. We drew with Cork in the first game 2 years ago, racked up a massive score at home to Antrim, went to Birr just needing a draw or a narrow win as we had a 17point superior score to Cork but got caught by a last minute Offaly goal.
Without the Na Piarsigh players today, Offaly will believe they have a real chance of another upset.

washman3 · 06-03-2016 01:50PM

keeponhurling wrote: »

Not sure if joking or serious.....

Not joking at all, definitely not.
We should know very well by now how difficult it is to win in Ennis.
Davy knows each Limerick player inside out, as one former Limerick player said, Davy knows what we had for breakfast.
Anyway, lets make sure we get over Offaly first.

Clareman · 06-03-2016 02:06PM

It's always extremely difficult to call Clare Limerick matches, very rarely any team wins 2 games in a row.

keeponhurling · 06-03-2016 04:20PM

Anyone at the football today ?
From RTE at least it seems Clare are a nice few points up

Still have to play Kildare of course , but a great start nonetheless , 3 wins out of 4

Clareman · 06-03-2016 07:43PM

My brother was at it and was saying we put in a decent performance and that our midfield were particularly impressive, 3 wins out of 4 is a great return and we are playing decent football

windy shepard henderson · 06-03-2016 07:46PM

keeponhurling wrote: »

Anyone at the football today ?
From RTE at least it seems Clare are a nice few points up

Still have to play Kildare of course , but a great start nonetheless , 3 wins out of 4

yeah good win for the footballers against a very poor westmeath side , it confirms there division 3 status for next year with 3 games to go . hopefully we can kick on and get promoted we are every bit as good as any team in this division and should not fear kildare the younger lads from last years u21 and minor teams are now making a big impact, a good position to be in .

tom cribbin the westmeath manager gave a famous interview on radio last year where he described his sides performance as "not f***ing good enough", i can only imagine today was worse , clare gave them the run around with about 70% of the possession , this time last year westmeath were only two points off the top of division 2 and promotion contenders , they are now odds on for relegation to division 4 in my opinion

pretty much everyone played well in a clare jesery , great work rate from sean collins , cian o'dea eoin cleary peirse lillis , cathal o connor , and keelan sexton after his half time introduction , david tubridy conor cleary and jamie malone kicked some fine scores , offaly in tullamore should be a stiffer test but heres hoping we can get two teams promoted in this years leagues

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 12:09AM

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big win needed in the park to lay down a marker if nothing else against kerry tomorrow , limerick just improved there scoring average by 32 points with a massive win over laois tonight which makes it win or bust from here on out as far as promotion back to division 1A is concerned

if shane o'donnell was'nt under enough pressure already , making him captain would be the last thing an out of form and overly marked forward would want on his shoulders , while it will be great to see him lead out the side i just think davy is asking a little too much of the young lad

clarecastle's pat kelly lines out in the green and gold and will join a rare list of clare hurlers to play for and against his county , dispite a poor result against wexford last week kerry have had a good year so far and like ourselves will probably have one eye on the last round of fixtures there game against offaly will dertermin who gets the last play off place and who joins laois in the relegation play off

letowski · 13-03-2016 12:24AM

Nice look to the half forward line. I think Aaron will prefer it out there for this game instead of being crowded out in the full forward line Big opportunity now for Bobby in his best position tomorrow to stake a claim.

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 12:29AM

joe hayes
seanie malone ,kevin hartnet, martin mcmahon
jamie malone, gordon kelly , cian o'dea
gary brennan,cathal o'connor
sean collins, pearse lillis ,shane mcgrath
eoin cleary ,enda coughlan , david tubridy

Unchanged lineup for the footballers as they head to tullamore in search of a third straight win of the division 3 campaign , a win would set up a promotion challenge with 2 games to go,

after 2 big wins over westmeath and limerick the bookies have rewarded clare with the underdogs tag again :rolleyes:. heading into this one , while offaly did record narrow home wins against sligo and longford they were well beaten by tipperary the last day out and i would be fairly hopefull on current form that the lads can prove the bookies wrong 3 weeks in a row and make it 4/5 in the league thus far albeit in a much closer tie

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 12:33AM

letowski wrote: »

Nice look to the half forward line. I think Aaron will prefer it out there for this game instead of being crowded out in the full forward line Big opportunity now for Bobby in his best position tomorrow to stake a claim.

bobby played well getting one or two nice scores last week but he seems to take his time getting into games from the start , solid on the frees last day too cunningham was quiet the last day so hopefully tomorrow is an improvement , on his day he is serious , main objective would to get out of this one injury free i cant see us closing the scoring average with limerick now in the unlikely event of a draw the next day out

letowski · 13-03-2016 12:53AM

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

bobby played well getting one or two nice scores last week but he seems to take his time getting into games from the start , solid on the frees last day too cunningham was quiet the last day so hopefully tomorrow is an improvement , on his day he is serious , main objective would to get out of this one injury free i cant see us closing the scoring average with limerick now in the unlikely event of a draw the next day out

The biggest issue for Bobby is getting more toughness and aggression into his game, because he has all the skills, he is an outstanding striker of a ball. The thing is, for now I think 11 is the only position for him at senior level, he can come short to get possession as he isn't a ball winner. But obviously Tony plays here so Bobby needs to put in a good bit of work to get become a starter somewhere. I think right now it's probably Colin Ryan who he will have to win the jersey off (Colin definitely is playing better though).

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 01:01AM

letowski wrote: »

The biggest issue for Bobby is getting more toughness and aggression into his game, because he has all the skills, he is an outstanding striker of a ball. The thing is, for now I think 11 is the only position for him at senior level, he can come short to get possession as he isn't a ball winner. But obviously Tony plays here so Bobby needs to put in a good bit of work to get become a starter somewhere. I think right now it's probably Colin Ryan who he will have to win the jersey off (Colin definitely is playing better though).

colin and david reidy have been outstanding so far in the league , the good thing about this division is we can give so many young lads a run out something you cant really do in 1A however we are playing at a far slower pace to the top division something that could be illustrated in the cork v kilkenny game tonight , the play offs will be a huge help in preparation for the championship though something i feel we badly missed last year

agree with everything said about bobby but give him two or 3 years in my opinion , we sometimes forget how young some of these guys are

Clareman · 13-03-2016 09:48AM

It's Colin Ryan's jersey, his freetaking alone makes him worth the place, I can't see any of the others being as consistent as he is over the ball, he is getting married soon so that would explain the day off.

The footballers can put a great marker down today with a win today, there is a real chance that both the hurlers and footballers could be in the same division next year

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 03:46PM

Clareman wrote: »

It's Colin Ryan's jersey, his freetaking alone makes him worth the place, I can't see any of the others being as consistent as he is over the ball, he is getting married soon so that would explain the day off.

The footballers can put a great marker down today with a win today, there is a real chance that both the hurlers and footballers could be in the same division next year

Those promotion hopes for the footballers hang in the ballance, very poor first half from a clare point of view offaly playing all the descent football at the moment leading 0-8 to 0-05 at half time Jamie malone, Gary brennan and eoin cleary with the clare scores

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 07:19PM

clare 2-28 kerry 1-09

kerry brushed aside in what was pretty much a warm up for the main event next week time against limerick , it was impossible for clare to catch limericks scoring average going into this one so it was just a case of getting the win hopefully next week will reap the rewards of what has been an interesting and productive campaign which has seen us try out a large number of the extended panel , more important maintain our unbeaten wining run for 2016

cnoc · 13-03-2016 07:25PM

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

clare 2-28 kerry 1-09

kerry brushed aside in what was pretty much a warm up for the main event next week time against limerick , it was impossible for clare to catch limericks scoring average going into this one so it was just a case of getting the win hopefully next week will reap the rewards of what has been an interesting and productive campaign which has seen us try out a large number of the extended panel , more important maintain our unbeaten wining run for 2016

Do you think Clare will have much of an advantage next week because of the home venue?

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 07:39PM

offaly 0-15 clare 1-11

a disappointing afternoon for the footballers who never got going , got of to a good start leading 0-2 to 0-0 in the first 8 minutes , but never reached the same levels of intensity as seen in previous weeks , offaly countered attacked clare in numbers, while double marking both clare inside forwards , which resulted most of our scores coming from out the field ,and any missed chance was immediately punished down the other end of the field

at the break the home side lead by 3 , a lead which lasted up until a late clare purple patch which saw them claw back a 5 point depict with the help of two fine scores from jamie malone and david tubridy along with a goal mouth scramble put in by cleary , with the sides level on the 70 minute mark 7 additional minuets were added for an injury to offaly forward bernard allan earlier in the half ,clare dominated the possession but failed to make anything out of it and again offaly pounced late on with a winning score by michael brazil with less then a minute of injury time left

the break next week will be badly needed for the footballers on this performance lackluster and well below par a win against longford will put clare back in the driving seat for promotion with superior scoring average but in reality they missed a great chance to go top tonight

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 07:42PM

cnoc wrote: »

Do you think Clare will have much of an advantage next week because of the home venue?

no not really , limerick will also have the option of drafting back some of the na piarsaigh players , plus they will bring a big crowd up for it as well , they met in the munster league final with clare wining by a point so it should be a very close game

Clareman · 13-03-2016 08:25PM

It's rarely either team get 2 wins in a row over the other, I would same home field advantage wouldn't be much of a bonus for Clare, the Gaelic Grounds is closer to a lot of Clare player's home than Cusack Park. It's win or bust next Sunday, with the amount of work that has gone into getting the team ready it's a shame it comes down to just 1 match but that's the beauty of sport. At least we scored 2 goals today, our goal scoring with the forwards we have is a big worry, saying that how great is it to have Podge back?

The footballers will be kicking themselves, if they won today they'd be 1 win away from promotion, now they've allowed Offaly back into it, Sligo beating Kildare is good that it keeps Kildare just 2 points in front but bad that there's now 4 teams on 6 points.

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 09:05PM

Clareman wrote: »

It's rarely either team get 2 wins in a row over the other, I would same home field advantage wouldn't be much of a bonus for Clare, the Gaelic Grounds is closer to a lot of Clare player's home than Cusack Park. It's win or bust next Sunday, with the amount of work that has gone into getting the team ready it's a shame it comes down to just 1 match but that's the beauty of sport. At least we scored 2 goals today, our goal scoring with the forwards we have is a big worry, saying that how great is it to have Podge back?

The footballers will be kicking themselves, if they won today they'd be 1 win away from promotion, now they've allowed Offaly back into it, Sligo beating Kildare is good that it keeps Kildare just 2 points in front but bad that there's now 4 teams on 6 points.

i was afraid to mention that stat, usually revenge is not far away as far as clare v limerick is concerned , beat limerick and they wont be long getting you back , podge will be a huge addition but as you rightly say the current game plan is not working as regards the inside forward line , i would still be confident enough about next week , although i wouldnt be getting as carried away as the limerick supporters in terms of being stuck in this division , atleast it allows us to blood a number of fringe players , although i do miss the games against kilkenny , tipperary and galway in particular

footballers played like a team who were out on there feet from the word go , they played the game at offaly's pace rather making offaly play at our pace . all that said had the chances to win it late on but it was a tired looking performance , some of the lads were playing there 3rd game in a week , i do expect them to win against longford at home though

the stand in o'connor park is a serious job compared to what we have , any chance you could have a word with your friends in the county board and make a proper renovation to the current sardine can stadium we have at the moment , i am not so sure that new roof cost 2 million quid either :rolleyes:

Clareman · 13-03-2016 09:11PM

Our players need games against the top teams with something on the line, Bobby Duggan couldn't rise the ball last year in Thurles, today he did a great job on frees (1 wide and a missed penalty I think), we aren't going to learn much more about him playing against Kerry as we would it training. This isn't a bunch of young lads that we're hoping come together to form a decent senior team, these are the All Ireland Champions from 3 years ago, we are 1 of 3 teams to win an All Ireland in the past 10 years, Tipp are still considered top tier but they are 6 years out from being champions.

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 09:23PM

Clareman wrote: »

Our players need games against the top teams with something on the line, Bobby Duggan couldn't rise the ball last year in Thurles, today he did a great job on frees (1 wide and a missed penalty I think), we aren't going to learn much more about him playing against Kerry as we would it training. This isn't a bunch of young lads that we're hoping come together to form a decent senior team, these are the All Ireland Champions from 3 years ago, we are 1 of 3 teams to win an All Ireland in the past 10 years, Tipp are still considered top tier but they are 6 years out from being champions.

yes but look at how much game time we did give the likes of duggen last year when we were in division 1 , instead fittz persisted on nearly the same team each week in a bid to avoid the drop he offered a number of cameo rolls to lads but still very little game time , this showed its head in the championship particular against cork in the qualifiers especially with the fiasco with john conlon , aarron cuningham didnt get much game time to prove his worth to the side either , he had to wait until the squad was depleted with injuries to get his chance, and gudgie had no game played before the limerick match in munster

kilkenny would be my example of squad rotation but which is more important? , in fitz's eyes it was wining league games over blooding players , this campaign will stand to us more so then last year come championship in my opinion

Clareman · 13-03-2016 09:26PM

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

yes but look at how much game time we did give the likes of duggen last year when we were in division 1 , instead fittz persisted on nearly the same team each week in a bid to avoid the drop he offered a number of cameo rolls to lads but still very little game time , this showed its head in the championship particular against cork in the qualifiers especially with the fiasco with john conlon , aarron cuningham didnt get much game time to prove his worth to the side either , he had to wait until the squad was depleted with injuries

kilkenny would be my example of squad rotation but which is more important? , in fitz's eyes it was wining league games over blooding players , this campaign will stand to us more so then last year come championship in my opinion

Good points, then again KK play a very simple game, beat your man, move the ball and if you have a chance for a goal take it. For all the different players we have we are still badly struggling to find a ball winning half forward, I'm loath to go back to the 90s but IMO we wouldn't have won half as much without the spoiling ability of Conor Clancy, I watched the 97 All Ireland final again recently and he put on a display on how to stop defenders play, our forwards just don't have the ability to do the "grunt" work.

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 09:50PM

Clareman wrote: »

Good points, then again KK play a very simple game, beat your man, move the ball and if you have a chance for a goal take it. For all the different players we have we are still badly struggling to find a ball winning half forward, I'm loath to go back to the 90s but IMO we wouldn't have won half as much without the spoiling ability of Conor Clancy, I watched the 97 All Ireland final again recently and he put on a display on how to stop defenders play, our forwards just don't have the ability to do the "grunt" work.

while we dont have the physicality to compare to the teams in the 90s ,it was that "grunt" work that got us the all ireland , and funny enough for the entire league campaign the next year , on our run to the league semi final we looked unbeatable at times , kinnerk departed later that june i believe and in which we have lost all that , we will have to start to interchange our half forwards and our half backs for puck out situations come championship pushing up the likes of conor ryan and conor cleary with the smaller guys feeding off the breaks

Clareman · 13-03-2016 09:59PM

Our puck our strategy is going to be key, in 2013 we aimed for Colin Ryan almost every time, he worked to break the ball and someone got the scraps. Personally, I think a low driven ball around head height would best suit our players, we look to be persisting with the 2 man full forward line so with a low ball at least we should benefit from the extra players out the middle of the pitch.

Out lack of goals is going to bite us in the @rse at some stage though.

windy shepard henderson · 13-03-2016 11:16PM

Clareman wrote: »

Our puck our strategy is going to be key, in 2013 we aimed for Colin Ryan almost every time, he worked to break the ball and someone got the scraps. Personally, I think a low driven ball around head height would best suit our players, we look to be persisting with the 2 man full forward line so with a low ball at least we should benefit from the extra players out the middle of the pitch.

Out lack of goals is going to bite us in the @rse at some stage though.

going back to the 2013 campaign we had the same complaint , at the time our top goal scorer was shane o'donnell with 3 , he was used an an impact sub in 3 games and scored coming off the bench each time, he didnt score in the game he started ( waterford) , he was never used in the limerick game , he would be a tactical nightmare for teams if we used him as an impact sub again , bringing on duck, cuningham totts or bobby duggen or whoever with 10 or 15 minutes remaining in a championship game for o'donnell dose not have the same impact in fact it has a negative one at times

mick bohan with the footballers has brought in a mantra to finish the game with a stronger team reserving one or two starting players and bringing them on half way through the game , something that worked well in his time with the dublin footballers in the past few years , kevin mcmenamon would be a great example

letowski · 13-03-2016 11:44PM

Id love if we could get Podge back flying, but it will be though for him with the injury and dual role. I think he could be a missing link we have needed. Davy only plays at max a 2 man ff line, SOD and McGrath, but having a high energy player like podge who would usually be withdrawn, can still be able to support them. I think we have only ever once played those 3 together, that was the AI replay 2013..
Im still a little concerned about the front 8 in terms of size, say if we play Galvin, Reidy, Conlon, Kelly, Ryan, McGrath, O'Donnell, Cunningham, its very lightweight attack in a crowded Waterford defense. Davys gotta have a good strategy to get the best out of them because they are talented notheless.

PlayByTheRules · 14-03-2016 09:41AM

What's up with Shane O'Donnell lads? 1 point from 3 games only so far! Put him in a Fantasy Team of mine expecting him to bag a good few goals against Division 1B teams.

Clareman · 14-03-2016 10:20AM

PlayByTheRules wrote: »

What's up with Shane O'Donnell lads? 1 point from 3 games only so far! Put him in a Fantasy Team of mine expecting him to bag a good few goals against Division 1B teams.

SoD is a finisher, he's best role is picking up breaking ball and poaching a few scores, he is currently playing as a target man who's role is to get the ball and either hold it up or beat his man.

Figerty · 14-03-2016 10:46AM

Clareman wrote: »

SoD is a finisher, he's best role is picking up breaking ball and poaching a few scores, he is currently playing as a target man who's role is to get the ball and either hold it up or beat his man.

Yep. Doing donkey work at the moment instead of being the team killer he is.

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