Clare GAA Discussion - 2024 All Ireland Hurling Champions

windy shepard henderson wrote: »

Look I know the limerick game was bad but you reep what you sow and basically.we planted nothing after the 2012-2014 team Lohan has done brilliant In 11 months to get the best out of shanagher , the two McCarthys Ryan Taylor Rory Hayes , diarmuid ryan , not to mention Stephen o holleran and cathal malone

Malone was chastised by most average Clare hurling people as a footballer on the hurling panel whe is so much more

O'Holleran is playing club hurling with the wors run club in the country and rarely mistakes
Taylor,shanagher ,Ryan and the McCarthys all lived under the shadow of a tipp and limerick golden generation so how bad we have players coming through yet ourselves

Malone's development into a quality intercounty player is a testament to the man himself and the work he has put in his game. Just looking at him hit 4 points from play, from way out the field, is an example of how much improvement he has made.

There is a genuine case he is the second guy penciled in on our second teamsheet.

Congratulations to the Tipperary and Cavan footballers yesterday. Bravery, heart, skill and above all pride in your place shone through.
Straight knockout makes for great sport. To see what it meant to Colin O'Riordan a professional athlete was special.
Clare Football people can really identify with Tipperary. It's an uphill battle in a hurling county and how sweet success is if it comes, memories of 92 came flooding back.
I have to say though what an opportunity missed by the Clare footballers this year and management need to shoulder the blame. If Colm Collins stays on he needs to freshen up his backroom because the effort made at getting to a Munster Final this year was very weak

Treble double wrote: »

Congratulations to the Tipperary and Cavan footballers yesterday. Bravery, heart, skill and above all pride in your place shone through.
Straight knockout makes for great sport. To see what it meant to Colin O'Riordan a professional athlete was special.
Clare Football people can really identify with Tipperary. It's an uphill battle in a hurling county and how sweet success is if it comes, memories of 92 came flooding back.
I have to say though what an opportunity missed by the Clare footballers this year and management need to shoulder the blame. If Colm Collins stays on he needs to freshen up his backroom because the effort made at getting to a Munster Final this year was very weak

Yeah but we have just as much football clubs in the county as hurling clubs. There are plenty of football only clubs in the county to be competitive just one of the problems is that the population isn’t there in the football part of the county, definitely a bigger population in the hurling part of the county and also not much in the way of employment opportunities in West Clare compared to the East of the county. The top 3 or 4 clubs in Clare would probably put it up to and probably beat the top teams in both Cavan and Tipp so there is no reason why into the future why we can’t have success.

I think we might need a fresh voice in terms of management in the county Colm Collins has done great work with Clare but some of the his team selections left a lot to be desired playing his nephew from Mayo is an absolute insult to defenders in the county thinking of the likes of Ciaran Morrissey from my club done a great man marking job on Podge in the county final and even came up the field to get a point. He was part of the panel earlier in the year, but it wouldn’t entice lads to come onto the panel when nepotism is used when picking teams.

I would like to see someone like Mikie Neylon from Miltown take over the team he brought Miltown from nowhere to win 2 Championships. The man is a perfectionist and doesn’t go half hearted into anything. Would bring serious pace and work rate into the Clare panel like he brought with Miltown, guys like Martin McMahon who is part of the Clare ladies management would be a great man to have in a management team or the likes of David O’Brien from Miltown who was there before would be another great man to have in a management team. Even someone like Donie Garrihy who has done well with St Breckans and before that brought great success to the Clare soccer team would be another great man to have in a management team.

KIB4Life wrote: »

Yeah but we have just as much football clubs in the county as hurling clubs. There are plenty of football only clubs in the county to be competitive just one of the problems is that the population isn’t there in the football part of the county, definitely a bigger population in the hurling part of the county and also not much in the way of employment opportunities in West Clare compared to the East of the county. The top 3 or 4 clubs in Clare would probably put it up to and probably beat the top teams in both Cavan and Tipp so there is no reason why into the future why we can’t have success.

I think we might need a fresh voice in terms of management in the county Colm Collins has done great work with Clare but some of the his team selections left a lot to be desired playing his nephew from Mayo is an absolute insult to defenders in the county thinking of the likes of Ciaran Morrissey from my club done a great man marking job on Podge in the county final and even came up the field to get a point. He was part of the panel earlier in the year, but it wouldn’t entice lads to come onto the panel when nepotism is used when picking teams.

I would like to see someone like Mikie Neylon from Miltown take over the team he brought Miltown from nowhere to win 2 Championships. The man is a perfectionist and doesn’t go half hearted into anything. Would bring serious pace and work rate into the Clare panel like he brought with Miltown, guys like Martin McMahon who is part of the Clare ladies management would be a great man to have in a management team or the likes of David O’Brien from Miltown who was there before would be another great man to have in a management team. Even someone like Donie Garrihy who has done well with St Breckans and before that brought great success to the Clare soccer team would be another great man to have in a management team.

Collins deserves to stay if he wants it, he has more than earned that, he has brought us from a rabble to a consistent Div 2 team
If he stays he needs a strong backroom that will challenge his selection decisions, I agree there were questionable selection decisions made in the first fifteen and panel that had an adverse effect on chances of success
This was a brilliant chance to get the county to a Munster final and it was badly handled. Remember Clare defeated and relegated Tipperary last season, Clare beat Cavan in the leauge in Breffini this year and Cavan were relegated. Clare have beaten Cork the last two times they have played them. Very disappointing effort in the championship, but Collins has earned the right without question to stay but a shake up is required in his management team definitely.

mountgomery burns wrote: »

Lads I think there is an over reaction by some here. I was reading after the Laois game lads talk about heading for the doldrums. Then after the Wexford game there was talk of all Ireland finals, now back to the abyss after Saturday.

The reality is it was always going to be a tough year with the absentees and plenty besides went wrong. I'd be encouraged if I was ye getting 3-18 and Tony Kelly scoring only 0-2 from play battling injury (some talent to get those two with his ankle killing him).

Conlon is the sort of fella who could hang on for a few years yet and have a big impact, similar to how Brick and Kevin Moran have done for us. Duggan and Galvin aren't that old at 27 if they do come back. Shanagher looks to be starting to fulfill potential if he stays fit.

Yer backs are a problem and have been for a good while, but if ye get all yer players back and bring the fight shown in the last two games and for a good portion of the Limerick game ye will be competitive going forward. It'll be tough for any team to win all irelands in the years to come so I'd park that talk, but I wouldn't be despairing just yet if I was ye.

Most counties are never as good or as bad as their fans think they are.

Feenie wrote: »

put it like this, a sliotar is a hard ball.
In Hurling, the minute you lose or aren't exactly great on paper, your "overrated "or "in peril" or whatever journalists want to throw on.
but if you win, or look good on paper, your a great team and an All-Ireland contender.

Some of the GAA journalists are as amateur as the players they report on. I agree with all of the above-mentioned.

Might aswell do one myself.
Can't such much about football, don't follow it.

Overall I'm impressed with Clare. not hugely, they have some gaping holes but you know what we played good hurling, it was a good time watching every match we played. That's the main positive.
Against Limerick we simply came up against a stronger team physically with more depth, but put it up to them in the first half and in my opinion we owned that half. The first 20 or so minutes of the first half was strong enough aswell, but Tony Kelly's 2 missed frees kind of signaled who was now in control. One big positive was our ability to gain possession. I have no statistics on it but I'd imagine Clare were fairly ontop for atleast the first 50 or so minutes. We don't have Galway or Limerick style players who can just knock about onto possession, and it shows Brian has coached them to having more smart, quick witted approach to winning possession.

In the laois game I thought we genuinely played well in the face of a dubious enough red card. However one thing can't be ignored, and it's a huge part of Clare's season, we simply did not mark tight enough. You saw it in almost every game, our backs just didn't stick. It became a huge issue when Laois and Waterford started running at our defence. We have good defenders who can win their one on ones, but simply can't *defend* in the modern sense.

Wexford was a brillaint performance. Not much else to say about it.

I want to look at the positives of the waterford game aswell. With Tony Kelly more or less out of the game, Clare put up 27 points. Not bad at all. It showed an ability to win more ball and score without him which is huge.

However I think Clare's biggest positive is the character they're beginning to show.
Against Wexford in the league, away from home,a man down, playing against the breeze, wexford slowly coming back into it. Stayed going and powered through.
Against Kilkenny, in the heart of their enemy, a few points down and managed to come back to draw level.
Against Limerick and Waterford chasing the game a few points down but never went away and kept going at them
Against Laois a man down and facing a stunning come back, stayed up and responded keeping their noises in front.
I'd give the season a 6.5/10. Sure there was some huge let downs but I have more faith in Clare's players than previously.

Clareman wrote: »

If we had the Waterford draw we could have had a great season, but if and buts.......

We have to be reaching quarter finals at least, that has to be the baseline for us, anything over that is a bonus. This current bunch of players have a load of under 21 and a senior all Ireland, I don't think it's too much to expect to be competitive.

Getting to the quarter finals sounds like a bigger achievement than it actually is, in reality you are coming 6th in a 10 team competition.
Clare beat Laois and Wexford to get to a quarter final this year, not earth shattering stuff.
I suppose what I'm saying is Clare have to be targeting a provincial title or getting to an All Ireland semi final to be making progress.
An All Ireland Quarter final appearance can make a bang average year seem better than it actually was.

Munster cups do matter and leagues do matter. That we have won so few Munster cups is terrible. Youre right ,All Irelands are the real currency that teams are measured on but there's only 3 cups every year.
In Clare we always say 'would we be better off getting knocked out early in Munster and getting ahandy qualifier draw?' That's the narrative every year. Nothe munster county does that. The facts behind it are we will still get knocked out before the All Ireland final. For me Munster should be the aim. If we won a Munster it gives serious impetus and confidence. And it would get us to Croker where we play well..

Just want to acknowledge Gordon Kelly who has hung up his boots at the age of 37 after giving 15 years loyal service to the saffron and blue footballers.
A teak tough defender who lined out at centre back and more recently at corner back. Very talented defender and effective ball carrier. He spent the first 7 years of his inter county career in division 4 but was a lynchpin in the Collins era when the Banner consolidated themselves as a division 2 side.
One of the top forwards in the country David Clifford named Kelly as his toughest opponent.
Thanks for the service Gordon and no doubt there is a few years of top quality club football to come.

Clareman wrote: »

This isn't a new thing, it's been that way for years, there's a letter sent out saying how great it is, I thought everyone knew about it.

It is far from great. It's an absolute shame. The kids have to sell €10 scratch card tickets for first round of championship. Each card has a minute and a second on it. If the first goal of the game occurs at that time you win a prize.
I am not being critical of the mentors as they have to get funds somewhere to run their development squads.
If they ran a proper draw with decent prizes it would be something. People wouldn't feel cheated out of their money and everybody wants to support local, young hurlers. However businesses are slow to contribute to county board coffers due to poor bang for buck and loads of squandering and mismanagement in the past which has been low on accountability.
It is just pitiful and nothing will change probably

Clareman wrote: »

I think it's terrible that gambling is promoted at underage or within the GAA, the scratch card might seem like a harmless piece of fun but it's still promoting gambling, same as the Last Man Standing promotions that most clubs are running, but at least the scratch cards have something to do with the GAA not another sport altogether. Don't get me wrong, fund raising is extremely difficult to all facets of life not just GAA clubs or underage teams and it can be extremely difficult to to think up of stuff and being on the moral high ground being behind a keyboard and saying I'm against gambling, "foreign games" or other stuff like fast food restaurants is easy for me to say.

Gambling is one of the biggest scourges in society at the moment and I wouldnt have my kids going around selling poxy scratch cards. I used to think that not having a pub or bar attached to the clubhouse was silly. Iv changed my mind on that too. And studies have shown that the younger generation are drinking less and less and thats good. Theres other ways to raise finance more sustainably and better ethically than bars and gambling. In saying that Shannon have a great bar and run it well so I'm selective in my criticism haha.