Clare GAA discussion thread

Donald Trumped · 18-04-2019 4:56pm

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

rory hickey is said to have quit refereeing , apparently down to not getting selected for intercounty games enough ,

a very fair ref from a football point of view much better then a number of so called top refs at the moment , the appointment of fergal kelly for the national league final a week after an abysmal job he done for the clare v tipperary national league game in thurles was a huge insult to the likes of hickey ,

the likes of fergal kelly , jerome henry and sean joy are some of the worst ref's i have ever seen in almost 30 years watching the game hickey was head and shoulders above them 3 and rarely selected for inter county ahead of them its fair to say he is a huge loss to the county if true

Agreed with everything what you said 1000%. Rory Hickey is very good and fair football ref. Very disappointing that he has taken this decision, but feels that this is the best move in his life which is completely fair. My huge gra with the GAA is that you have referees being allocated inter-county matches who wouldn't get near Junior C standard, let alone inter-county material.

You also have the bizarre situation and one thing that I have noticed in inter-county, is that one of the teams involved would have the match ref that is based in a neighbouring county, whether that be just inside or outside the province. Crazy stuff really. In my opinion the standard of refereeing has gone so bad especially nationally.

Locally the picture ain't pretty either. In Clare club matches, in particular hurling, I have noticed how refs give some frees that would make you wonder if we are playing some kind of non-contact tiddlywinks sport.

In other news there was some worrying developments for Oisin O'Brien. He played for Clonlara in their narrow win over Feakle in the Clare Cup. However the match was completely overshadowed when Oisin collapsed and was subsequently hospitalized with a suspected asthma issue, 10 minutes from time.

Thankfully he has made a good recovery but clearly from a personal point of view it has been a most difficult period in his career with a host of injury problems plaguing O'Brien. Best of wishes to Oisin on his continued recovery.

BloodyBill · 18-04-2019 5:13pm

Donald Trumped wrote: »

Agreed with everything what you said 1000%. Rory Hickey is very good and fair football ref. Very disappointing that he has taken this decision, but feels that this is the best move in his life which is completely fair. My huge gra with the GAA is that you have referees being allocated inter-county matches who wouldn't get near Junior C standard, let alone inter-county material.

You also have the bizarre situation and one thing that I have noticed in inter-county, is that one of the teams involved would have the match ref that is based in a neighbouring county, whether that be just inside or outside the province. Crazy stuff really. In my opinion the standard of refereeing has gone so bad especially nationally.

Locally the picture ain't pretty either. In Clare club matches, in particular hurling, I have noticed how refs give some frees that would make you wonder if we are playing some kind of non-contact tiddlywinks sport.

In other news there was some worrying developments for Oisin O'Brien. He played for Clonlara in their narrow win over Feakle in the Clare Cup. However the match was completely overshadowed when Oisin collapsed and was subsequently hospitalized with a suspected asthma issue, 10 minutes from time.

Thankfully he has made a good recovery but clearly from a personal point of view it has been a most difficult period in his career with a host of injury problems plaguing O'Brien. Best of wishes to Oisin on his continued recovery.

Poor auld Oisin has had it tough the last 2 years. Best wishes to him. On the Ref issue. Its turning into a debacle in Clare. Games are all frees and its rubbish to watch. People dont come to watch guys hitting 15 frees a game. Any shoulder is now a free. Any dive is giving a free..Its embarrassing. I see where Ard Scoil Ris are making great inroads in Hockey. I think we ll have to forget about the hurling and follow their lead. Hockey is at least referred consistently.

Clareman · 18-04-2019 8:50pm

Donald Trumped wrote: »

Agreed with everything what you said 1000%. Rory Hickey is very good and fair football ref. Very disappointing that he has taken this decision, but feels that this is the best move in his life which is completely fair. My huge gra with the GAA is that you have referees being allocated inter-county matches who wouldn't get near Junior C standard, let alone inter-county material.

You also have the bizarre situation and one thing that I have noticed in inter-county, is that one of the teams involved would have the match ref that is based in a neighbouring county, whether that be just inside or outside the province. Crazy stuff really. In my opinion the standard of refereeing has gone so bad especially nationally.

Locally the picture ain't pretty either. In Clare club matches, in particular hurling, I have noticed how refs give some frees that would make you wonder if we are playing some kind of non-contact tiddlywinks sport.

In other news there was some worrying developments for Oisin O'Brien. He played for Clonlara in their narrow win over Feakle in the Clare Cup. However the match was completely overshadowed when Oisin collapsed and was subsequently hospitalized with a suspected asthma issue, 10 minutes from time.

Thankfully he has made a good recovery but clearly from a personal point of view it has been a most difficult period in his career with a host of injury problems plaguing O'Brien. Best of wishes to Oisin on his continued recovery.

Anyone that has a problem with a ref should give it a try, I was a club ref for a long time and you get nothing but abuse, the losing team will nearly always blame you for their loss whereas the winning team will never thank you.

Donald Trumped · 19-04-2019 8:20am

It appears that Keelan Sexton has decided to head to the US for the summer. That means that he will not be available for selection for the Clare senior footballers Munster or All-Ireland campaigns. But in good news for his club Kilmurry Ibrickane, he should be back for their quest for Jack Daly glory in August though. Here's more in the link below.

https://clarechampion.ie/banner-blow-as-sexton-plans-us-trip/

Donald Trumped · 19-04-2019 7:02pm

https://twitter.com/GaaClare/status/1119245511284985857

tomo75 · 19-04-2019 7:11pm

Donald Trumped wrote: »

https://twitter.com/GaaClare/status/1119245511284985857

Well, that makes it all better! ðŸ€¨

Figerty · 19-04-2019 8:55pm

tomo75 wrote: »

Well, that makes it all better! &#55356;&#56360;

That statement is laughable... The key for the second room is on the door of the first room...but we had to tell them where the key way..

for jaysus sake it's not 1960...

As for ordering food.. another ridiculous statement offloading blame.

At least Donald Trumps statements are somewhat entertaining.

Clareman · 20-04-2019 9:54am

So the statement is that the dressing room was locked and there wasn't any food ordered but that was because they key was "hidden" and someone didn't order the food, nothing to do with the county board........

windy shepard henderson · 20-04-2019 6:34pm

what baffles me is why didnt the management not order the food any way , charge it to the county board , the sherwood in ennis is the company that covers the players meals its where players are brought to after training or home matches ,

they travel all over the country with the county teams providing meals surly the fact they didnt get fed is down to management not making arrangements after the game for players

the key on the door excuse is laughable but probably true , most venues in the country even for challenge games would have several officials on hand to look after teams , show them where there changing area is , making sure hot water and shower areas are clean and working parking outside the ground ect...

not in clareabby however , only one man patrols the area and tries to do everything himself and thats the man in the purple jumper pat fitz himself

windy shepard henderson · 20-04-2019 8:13pm

round up of today's action , starting with camogie as clare minors beat tipperary by a point in the end to book an all ireland final spot against cork

in the clare cup , david mcinerney saw red in heavy enough defeat for tulla against clonlara who stay top , inagh k saw off newmarket in the end of a tight game by the minimum , 16 points by peter duggan helped clooney quinn to a comfortable win in the end against feakle , kilmaley stay in the mix with a big win away to cratloe

tony kelly also saw red in ballyea's win over neighbours clarecastle , whitegate are the surprize chasers in second after a good away win against tubber , eire og made fight all the way to the end against broadford , the table dose not include the mills late injury time win over scariff

in football
st breckans have added to cooraclare's woes by inflicting a 5 point defeat on the blues with 2 goals inside the last 10 minutes in lisdoonvarna , miltown beat eire og on thuresday night to go top of the cusack cup
Doonbeg leapfrog kildysart at the top of the gary cup after a one point win in kildysart , rest of the football to be played tomorrow

Division 1A
Clonlara 2-17 1-13 Tulla
Crusheen 1-15 1-19 Sixmilebridge
Cratloe 1-18 3-25 Kilmaley
Feakle 0-16 0-21 Clooney Quin
Newmarket 1-15 0-19 Inagh-Kilnamona

Division 1B
Clarecastle 2-14 0-26 Ballyea
Tubber 1-13 1-21 Whitegate
Broadford 2-24 4-15 Éire Óg
Doora/Barefield 1-16 1-22 Smith O'Brien
O'C Mills 3-17 -2-17 Scariff

Division 2
Éire Óg 2-11 2-18 Newmarket on Fergus
Corofin 1-17 1-15 Bodyke
Inagh-Kilnamona 4-17 1-17 Ruan

Cusack Cup
St Joseph's Miltown 3-06 1-07 Éire Óg
St Breckans 2-16 1-14 Cooraclare
Garry Cup

Kildysart 0-15 3-07 Doonbeg

https://twitter.com/DLynchSport/status/1119593241312100352

BloodyBill · 20-04-2019 8:54pm

Figerty wrote: »

That statement is laughable... The key for the second room is on the door of the first room...but we had to tell them where the key way..

for jaysus sake it's not 1960...

As for ordering food.. another ridiculous statement offloading blame.

At least Donald Trumps statements are somewhat entertaining.

Donald Trump has style. This Clare county board has all the colour of 1955...same year the County secretary last updated his suits and haircut.

Clareman · 20-04-2019 10:00pm

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

what baffles me is why didnt the management not order the food any way , charge it to the county board , the sherwood in ennis is the company that covers the players meals its where players are brought to after training or home matches ,

they travel all over the country with the county teams providing meals surly the fact they didnt get fed is down to management not making arrangements after the game for players

the key on the door excuse is laughable but probably true , most venues in the country even for challenge games would have several officials on hand to look after teams , show them where there changing area is , making sure hot water and shower areas are clean and working parking outside the ground ect...

not in clareabby however , only one man patrols the area and tries to do everything himself and thats the man in the purple jumper pat fitz himself

No management will ever be allowed order food like that, ffs, a bag of chips costs money you know it all have to be approved by the Tsar.

It's a disgrace that the dressing rooms weren't open, that means there was no-one there to look after the venue

windy shepard henderson · 20-04-2019 10:21pm

Clareman wrote: »

No management will ever be allowed order food like that, ffs, a bag of chips costs money you know it all have to be approved by the Tsar.

It's a disgrace that the dressing rooms weren't open, that means there was no-one there to look after the venue

that's what i was saying about clareabbey , he is the only one there , because there is no club attached to the venue anymore there are no volunteers only mr fitz , who dose everything himself

in regards food all they had to do order the food from the sherwood and get it delivered to clareabby ,that's there job as food supplier to the county teams add the bill to the county board , mr fitz would find away to "cover" the cost before the end of the year ,defiantly this is on management

in terms of fitz , because of his petulance , last year the clare football minor team barely made thurles in time for a 7pm thrown in against tipperary in the munster semi final because fitz forgot to order the bus , maurice walsh and his team had been waiting at the west county hotel since half 3 for the bus that turned up just before 6 o'clock

it would be interesting to see what the clareabby bills are , fitz cuts the grass ,lines the fields puts the wrong keys on the dressing room doors ect..

dose the county board charge landscaping fees as expenses at the end of the year
do they charge for running costs of the venue even though one man runs the place
do they charge for stewards for car parks and staff for challenge matches and board meetings even though there are none

a lot of questions to be answered , there is not many voices in the board at the moment , desie solon from whitegate is the strongest voice against fitz , it would be good to see the likes of jim mcinerney , conor clancy and brian lohan represent there clubs at county board meetings as they are some of the more out spoken ex players against the current regime

windy shepard henderson · 21-04-2019 4:26am

Clareman wrote: »

Anyone that has a problem with a ref should give it a try, I was a club ref for a long time and you get nothing but abuse, the losing team will nearly always blame you for their loss whereas the winning team will never thank you.

as much as i have time for your posts , this one i will challenge , why... the current process

rory hickey quit because he deserved more inter county game time , fergal kelly struggled to manage a game between two sides in division two in front of 1000 people one week gets rewarded with a league final in front of nearly 50000 the next week he was diabolical in thurles for both teams

my one criticism of the gaa is they fail to outline what a foul is and what is not, this notion of the referee's interpretation is a load of bolix ,its a foul for everyone or it is not. one or the two , its a complete cop out from the rule makers in my opinion

Clareman · 21-04-2019 8:16am

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

as much as i have time for your posts , this one i will challenge , why... the current process

rory hickey quit because he deserved more inter county game time , fergal kelly struggled to manage a game between two sides in division two in front of 1000 people one week gets rewarded with a league final in front of nearly 50000 the next week he was diabolical in thurles for both teams

my one criticism of the gaa is they fail to outline what a foul is and what is not, this notion of the referee's interpretation is a load of bolix ,its a foul for everyone or it is not. one or the two , its a complete cop out from the rule makers in my opinion

Rory retired because he had a falling out with Fitz and wasn't getting backed by the County board which meant he wasn't getting inter County games. He also is in his late 30s, had a few injuries and bad matches

Donald Trumped · 21-04-2019 10:07am

Clareman wrote: »

Rory retired because he had a falling out with Fitz and wasn't getting backed by the County board which meant he wasn't getting inter County games. He also is in his late 30s, had a few injuries and bad matches

Very worrying development indeed. Pat Fitz at this rate would fall out with the Pope, such is his ignorance and sheer arrogance.

The same man that is using bully boy tactics to ensure that his son gets the Clare senior hurling gig for a second time.

The same man that put an unknown rookie as manager of the Clare minors ahead of an All-Ireland U-15 winning manager.

The same man who didn't order the bus for the Clare minor footballers in 2018 and left them waiting for about 3 hours.

The same man that failed to open the dressing rooms in a recent U20 Challenge match in Clareabbey and left the squad without the meal post-match, not the first time that this has happened this year.

This man with his trademark purple jumper is destroying Clare GAA with his confrontational provocative actions. The man is getting worse with age and anyone that does not toe the Fitz line gets punished and rewards his cronies with top jobs. He is Putin/Kim Jong Un in disguise I feel.

I have lost so much interest in Clare GAA recently. It will be a long time before my love for Clare GAA returns to where I want to be. Very sad times indeed.

Clareman · 21-04-2019 11:39am

Don't forget about all the empty space at the 2013 All Ireland final because someone forgot to sell the tickets.

Donald Trumped · 22-04-2019 7:06pm

Clare minor football manager Dermot Coughlan has made 8 changes to the team that defeated Tipperary, which qualified them for the Phase 1 Munster Final, for their match against Waterford on Wednesday in Dungarvan. The team in full is in the link below.

https://clarechampion.ie/clare-ring-the-changes-for-munster-mfc-showdown-with-waterford/

Donald Trumped · 23-04-2019 8:15pm

The Clare senior hurlers played two challenge matches over the last few days. A mainly second string team beat Laois comfortably. While the first team beat Dublin also. Just under 3 weeks and counting to Waterford in Walsh Park in the Munster championship opener.

letowski · 23-04-2019 11:14pm

Donald Trumped wrote: »

The Clare senior hurlers played two challenge matches over the last few days. A mainly second string team beat Laois comfortably. While the first team beat Dublin also. Just under 3 weeks and counting to Waterford in Walsh Park in the Munster championship opener.

Seems like Jack Browne will play center back for the suspended Conor Cleary. Not sure about that move though he played well there for his club last year. I think we will be doing well to get a result.

BloodyBill · 24-04-2019 8:17am

letowski wrote: »

Seems like Jack Browne will play center back for the suspended Conor Cleary. Not sure about that move though he played well there for his club last year. I think we will be doing well to get a result.

Jack Brown in centre back?! He has played above his God given abilities consistently over the last year. However, he is only one calamity away from falling to pieces. He ll get roasted centre back. He doesn't have the height or presence. We are really going through a lean spell in the backs. Clare are like Munster rugby are. They are good enough to scrape into semis but they arent good enough to win anything. It's a frustrating place to be and the sad thing is that they are slipping year on year.
We are banking on winning our 2 home games. We wont. Cork or Tipp will beat us and we are due a tanking off Limerick. They will beat us in the Gaelic grounds. Weve had their number but the fact is they are a better side and will eventually stop giving us respect and just cut us asunder. That coupled with 2 ' pen pusher' managers who are poor on the sideline. No charisma and always 10mins late in decision making (Shanagher last year v Galway) . As far as I'm concerned Clares glass is half empty. Oh one more thing...we have a county secretary who acts and looks like hes in 1955!

Clareman · 24-04-2019 9:46am

Browne is always likely to get booked, but weirdly I think a holding center back role would be ideal for him as he mightn't be isolated 1 on 1 and he has a good hurling brain to cover space. Backs is our weakness, David Mc and Conor Cleary aren't inter-county full/centre backs but they are coping.

In my opinion we have the capabilities to be All Ireland Champions but we drop for 20 minutes in most games and we are quick to blame outside forces, for example last years semi final against Galway, Shanagher should not have missed that open goal (yes it was a difficult chance but it was an open goal in an All Ireland Semi Final it should not have been missed), we dropped for 20 minutes when the game nearly got away from us and we were exposed in midfield. I know I'm being a bit extreme but I'd drop Tony Kelly, for the couple of great things he does in a game he's liable to do 50 bad things, either be in the wrong position, be hiding, have a bad wide, give a bad ball, etc. etc., we need a 21 to 21 midfielder who doesn't go missing.

For the first game against Waterford we need to concentrate on not giving away soft frees, playing the full 70 minutes and taking our chances when they come, if we can do that in every game we'll be All Ireland Champions, if we don't we'll be out of the championship in June.

Figerty · 24-04-2019 12:33pm

Clareman wrote: »

Browne is always likely to get booked, but weirdly I think a holding center back role would be ideal for him as he mightn't be isolated 1 on 1 and he has a good hurling brain to cover space. Backs is our weakness, David Mc and Conor Cleary aren't inter-county full/centre backs but they are coping.

In my opinion we have the capabilities to be All Ireland Champions but we drop for 20 minutes in most games and we are quick to blame outside forces, for example last years semi final against Galway, Shanagher should not have missed that open goal (yes it was a difficult chance but it was an open goal in an All Ireland Semi Final it should not have been missed), we dropped for 20 minutes when the game nearly got away from us and we were exposed in midfield. I know I'm being a bit extreme but I'd drop Tony Kelly, for the couple of great things he does in a game he's liable to do 50 bad things, either be in the wrong position, be hiding, have a bad wide, give a bad ball, etc. etc., we need a 21 to 21 midfielder who doesn't go missing.

For the first game against Waterford we need to concentrate on not giving away soft frees, playing the full 70 minutes and taking our chances when they come, if we can do that in every game we'll be All Ireland Champions, if we don't we'll be out of the championship in June.

Galvin will probably drop to cover in front of Browne. Waterford are switching to working the ball out shorter than before. Kelly won't be dropped, but we will create space for the full forward line to open up Waterford. Limerick did it also.
Don't underestimate the loss of a holding centre back who dominates the space so long as Mid-field are working that diamond with the centre forwards.. This is the problem with Kelly, sometimes he doesn't hold that shape.

Clareman · 24-04-2019 12:38pm

Figerty wrote: »

Galvin will probably drop to cover in front of Browne. Waterford are switching to working the ball out shorter than before. Kelly won't be dropped, but we will create space for the full forward line to open up Waterford. Limerick did it also.
Don't underestimate the loss of a holding centre back who dominates the space so long as Mid-field are working that diamond with the centre forwards.. This is the problem with Kelly, sometimes he doesn't hold that shape.

I agree 100% with this, he just seems to go off and do his own thing, the last play against Galway last year when he took up the ball BEHIND the full back line summed up the problem with him for me, he shouldn't have been there, he should have been taking the game by the scruff of the neck but he went hiding.

letowski · 24-04-2019 1:13pm

Tickets for the Tipp, Limerick and Cork games are up on tickets.ie.

Clareman · 24-04-2019 3:26pm

I heard from a usually reliable source that Ian Galvin was dropped off the panel and Colm has an injury, looks like neither of them will be available for the Waterford game.

BloodyBill · 24-04-2019 3:27pm

Clareman wrote: »

I agree 100% with this, he just seems to go off and do his own thing, the last play against Galway last year when he took up the ball BEHIND the full back line summed up the problem with him for me, he shouldn't have been there, he should have been taking the game by the scruff of the neck but he went hiding.

It was his tragic decision to hit a nothing ball into the Galway fullback line with that last play that summed up his decision making for me. He could have carried it abit more and then trusted his super God given striking abilities or he could have played it in low. He did neither. Game over ,ball burst. .
I think Clare expect too much from him. Hes never had a head on his shoulders and weve always struggled to deploy him properly. If he had Galvins head on his shoulders hed be the best hurler in Ireland ...but saying all that we should mitigate his deficiencies and just take decisions out of his hands. Treat him like a kid fresh on the panel. That's how he plays.

Clareman · 24-04-2019 3:36pm

BloodyBill wrote: »

It was his tragic decision to hit a nothing ball into the Galway fullback line with that last play that summed up his decision making for me. He could have carried it abit more and then trusted his super God given striking abilities or he could have played it in low. He did neither. Game over ,ball burst. .
I think Clare expect too much from him. Hes never had a head on his shoulders and weve always struggled to deploy him properly. If he had Galvins head on his shoulders hed be the best hurler in Ireland ...but saying all that we should mitigate his deficiencies and just take decisions out of his hands. Treat him like a kid fresh on the panel. That's how he plays.

He had 3 options with that ball, pass it inside which would have probably resulted in a free because the ref wanted a draw, take the ball on and draw a foul or a better shooting opportunity or just hit it aimlessly and hope for the best. Personally I think he was out on his feet and it was a desperate act by someone who had given his all but had to run about 50 yards with the ball at that stage.

Donald Trumped · 24-04-2019 8:02pm

https://twitter.com/tomasmcc/status/1121125108364582914

Clare lost 3 players in the first half due to injury. Players now going back to the dressing rooms. Second half delayed for about 20 minutes plus I believe.

Donald Trumped · 24-04-2019 8:20pm

https://twitter.com/tomasmcc/status/1121131404463607808

Clare GAA discussion thread

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