This article is from page 67 of the 2009-06-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 67 JPG
THEY formed the most famous mid- field partnership that ever togged out in a saffron and blue football jersey — the day 17 years ago that Clare took a catapult to Kerry in The Gaelic Grounds.
The Tom Morrissey/Aidan Molo- ney partnership was too much for Noel O’Mahony and Anthony Glee- son that Munster Final day — 17 years on they joined forces at champion- ship level once more when plotting Cooraclare’s first championship vic-
tory in five years.
It was the story of the opening weekend of the 2009 championship as Cooraclare ambushed five-times county finalists this decade, Eire Og, in Kilmihil on Friday night to bring an end to the biggest losing streak in Cooraclare’s proud championship VI Ke as
“Since 2004 we hadn’t won a cham- pionship match,’ said Morrissey after Cooraclare’s 1-15 to 1-9 vic- tory. “Some of them had never won a championship match but they went out there today and for the first time
in a long time a Cooraclare team showed a bit of heart, a bit of passion and a bit of fire. We’re just delight- ed, delighted for Cooraclare that we LOLeN eM CneT-VObYancxolMmsetclMneueP
“We brought in Aidan ‘Horse’ Moloney and you couldn’t have better than him. He knows all the drills and he put a bit of belief into our lads. We have been down, we have been down a lot in the last four or five years.
“We are a good traditional cham- pionship team. We hope to get out of the group and have made a good start to get out of the group. We have
to go out again the next day and re- peat that — that’s what we’ll be look- ing for. Nearly all of them lads have been playing since 2004 and have not come out of the group. To win is a massive lift for all those boys in there. They’re finally men the way the stood up there today,’ added WY uu
It the only blow for the underdog over the weekend — elsewhere county champions Kilmurry Ibrickane, and Doonbeg, who are greatest pretenders to their throne, were most impressive in easily dispatching the challenges
mounted by Ballyvaughan and Shan- non Gaels respectively.
Controversy came in the shape of an end-of-match dust up between Kilrush Shamrocks and Liscannor players after their drawn game in Quilty.
The fracas saw the Shams’ Alan Daly and Liscannor’s Ronan Slattery receive straights red cards from ref- eree Kevin Walsh.