Category: Sport

WHAT COULD he really say?

St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield selector James Hanrahan had just witnessed his beloved club suffer a heartbreaking county final day defeat and the losing margin of twelve points certainly did not make it any easier.

The players who had served him so well this year were distraught and at the point of breaking as they painfully watched the Kilmurry Ibrickane celebrations explode around them. A disappointed but proud Hanrahan still had a trickle of optimism in his post-match analysis.

“Look we didn’t perform at all on the day. Fair play to Kilmurry they really played a great brand of football. They really showed us how to do it out there. We just couldn’t get our hand on the ball so what could we do?

“Of course there experience was huge for them and after all this was our first final but we’re hugely disappointed now. This is not the end though and for sure we’ll come back. We’ll be back again next year. We’ll be there or there abouts again. This year has been a huge learning curve for us and the experience we got out there today can only stand to us again in the future.”

Amid the many offers of condolence from members of both clubs players and fans alike his never quelling pride and honour returned again when talking about the younger members of the club and the bright footballing future they can possess.

“We have some very young players involved and they can only get better from games like this. They are young so they will obviously be very disappointed and it will take time to get over this loss but they will get over it eventually. We will rally again and this won’t be the case of a one and only appearance in a county final. I really believe that!”

DAVY Fitzgerald doesn’t expect to get preferential treatment from the Clare County Board, just because he happens to be Pat Fitzgerald’s son. And he doesn’t want preferential treatment either.

That’s the gospel according to himself, something he told county board delegates in no uncertain terms as the outlined his vision for the working relationship between his county senior management team and the top table of Clare GAA during his threeyear term in charge.

“I know my relationship with the county board is going to be very open,” said Fitzgerald. “A lot people will say ‘because he’s Pat Fitz’s son he’ll get what he wants’, this that and the other. I have made it clear to Mike (O’Neill) that I’m prepared to work to the same parameters as any other team management over the last few years. I say that to Mike (O’Neill). He’s a guy I hope to work very closely with myself. As for my own Dad, the amount of respect I have for him is unreal.

“I know he mightn’t be all ye’re cup of tea at times, he has his ways, he’s very dogmatic, trust me I’ve fought with him enough myself. But, I will say one thing, I am very proud of him, so I am – that’s for definite, whether ye like him or don’t like him.

“That doesn’t bother me. He’s very honest and straight and the one thing he has in his head is Clare GAA. There’s no favour. I look forward to working with him. The relationship with the county board will be right across the board, with the whole lot of them we’ll work together,” added Fitzgerald.

“IT’S going to be hard to keep a few of the lads out of the pub after this!” Kilmurry Ibrickane’s Declan Callinan was readying himself for the inevitable party zones at The Hand, McCarthy’s of Coore, The Quilty Tavern and wherever else porter is being served in the parish of the 2011 senior football county champions.

“Yeah it’s brilliant stuff alright. It’s such a fantastic feeling. We said all week that we would work hard for each other and keep our focus.

“We weren’t playing well all year but we knew there was a big performance in us and all we had to do today was to bring it out and thank God we did just that.”

The half time position of utter dominance was unexpected so how was this victory going to be seen out without any lack of concentration?

“We wanted to start the second half again as if it was nil all and to keep our focus and to keep working hard for each other.

“Thankfully it paid off for us in the end. It was such a great result in the end.”

So what next for this terrific generation of footballers who have been the standardbearers of the Clare club scene for the last decade. Their historic 12th Jack Daly will be celebrated but then what?

“Yeah as I said it’s going to be very difficult to keep the lads out of the pub alright but seriously we will enjoy this week but then our thoughts will quickly turn back to Munster.

“We’ll start doing our homework the week after and then really get stuck into it again like.”

The ‘Bricks will without doubt give a Munster campaign a serious rattle and even now there is a sense that this won’t be the last occasion when the bonfires will be burning back west.

Anyone up for a St Paddy’s Day in Dublin did I hear them say? That’s part of the grand plan. They’re now in a position to go in that direction.

IN hurling, as in life, there are no guarantees – that was the resounding message sent ringing out to underage or former underage championship winners within the county by Davy Fitzgerald when speaking to the grassroots of Clare GAA in the West County Hotel last Tuesday night.

Pointing ot the senior experiences and travails endured by both Galway and Limerick after their raft of under age successes in the new millennium, Fitzgerald warned Clare’s rising stars that it doesn’t follow that senior suc- cess is a given after minor and under 21 victories in recent years.

“We are going to have a lot of young players in,” said Fitzgerald, “but it has bothered me over the last two or three years. We have had a lot of (underage) success.

“The thing that’s bothering me is that success leads to success at senior level. I put it to you, did it lead to success for Limerick and Galway for last couple of years?

“We have got to be careful that we don’t put our players up on a pedestal. I believe we have to remain grounded, even after we achieve stuff at minor and under 21. We have to make sure we keep these lads’ feet on the ground and get them working hard for senior.

“That’s what I would encourage,” he added.

“We all know the last few years haven’t been fruitful for Clare. I can’t promise you. I can’t tell you we are going to turn things around and we are going to go back to the glory days, but the one thing I can tell you is that I am going to work as hard as I possibly can and I mean that,” continued Fitzgerald.

“My own personal view is that the rebuilding is still far from finished. I’m going to be straight about it. I think there’s more players that need to be brought in. They are going to get a go.

“The one thing I’m going to encourage ye and the people watching – the way I’ve worked over the last few years is that I have a tendency to play players and give them games. They mightn’t be flying it at the time but it’s important to give them their chance.

“Giving a fella 20 minutes here and a game there doesn’t always work. You need them to get their confi- dence, which is very important. You have to be patient for a small bit, we all want the same thing, but we’ve got to find out what’s what. Character is very important.

“I think Sparrow did a great job in the last two years. It wasn’t an easy job to come into after what had happened.

“He came in, he rejigged it, he started to build. I don’t think our strength and conditioning is good enough, something I’ve done a lot of homework on in the last couple of years. I’m going to work hard on that,” he added.

IF ever we wondered how defeat can bring out the greatness in a team, just look at Kilmurry Ibrickane.

You know the scéal. Kilmurry a goal up on Doonbeg in last year’s semi-final on the cusp of the last ten minutes. Then bang. David Tubridy shaking the rigging with a goal. Then Enda Doyle shooting for the stars with a point.

The response from Kilmurry, as midfielder Paul O’Connor reveals seconds after the final whistle is to dwell on defeat for a few months, then return to training in January and go through the year unbeaten.

That’s greatness. That’s hunger. That’s Kilmurry.

“After the high of March and reaching an All-Ireland club final to be beaten in a county semi-final we should probably have won,” he recalls. “I think it refocused us. We got an extra few months off – it focused everyone as a group.”

“Any time you get beaten you’re going to come back the following year and prove a point,” says Enda Coughlan. “We had a tough enough run when getting to the All-Ireland It was tough enough on the legs and maybe in fairness to Doonbeg, they beat us fair and square last year and maybe we didn’t just have it in the legs in the last ten minutes, but we were very hungry this year,” he adds.

“Ger (Lawlor) came in and John (Kennedy) then came and this group of 30 have trained really hard since January 1, the first day we trained. We really wanted it this year, we wanted it badly,” continues O’Connor.

“Our game plan was to hit them early and get a couple of scores on the board. It was their first final, so we wanted those early scores. Luckily for us they went over. Ian McInerney had a couple of super kicks early in the second half and they settled us down. We had a strategy and it seemed to work for us. We created a lot of space and we got scores from it.

“I wouldn’t say we were more up for this game than we were for the Cratloe or Cooraclare games, it’s just that we decided that we wouldn’t be kicking from the positions we kicked from against Cratloe and Cooraclare. We worked the ball in a bit closer to lads who found their range a bit better today.”

It all means that 31-year-old O’Connor now has four county medals – he missed out on the win in ’04 when he was playing his ball in Van Cortland Park in New York and not Páirc Naomh Mhuire in downtown Quilty.

“They’re all sweet,” he says. “Every medal you add, especially when you’re pushing up the years like me, is sweet, but this one really is especially after what happened to us last year.”

Hunger is the best sauce.

Kilmurry Ibrickane bare testimony to that.

St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield will hope to in time after this huge learning curve.

THE bottom line for Michéal McDermott and his management team after they won a year’s extension to their term in charge of the county senior team is that Clare wins promotion to Division 3 and reaches the Munster final.

That’s according to former Clare selector of 25 years Noel Walsh, who was part of John Maughan’s backroom team in 1991 to ’94 when the county won All-Ireland B honours, the Munster senior title and reached the semi-final of the National League.

“He should get one year,” said Walsh in backing the nomination of McDermott’s ratification, which was proposed by county chairman Michael O’Neill and seconded by Irish Officer Tom Burke.

“And if it’s successful it should be reviewed – if he does a good job there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be extended.There’s no doubt they gave everything over the past two years.

“I believe they have a great chance this year because they have five games at home in the league, which should obviously give them an advantage and the open draw in Munster favours them – playing either Limerick or Waterford, who we would be our equals, so we would this year be hopeful of going to a Munster senior football final.

“Who knows what will happen there – we know what happened in ’92.

“Those two objectives are reasonable – promotion from Division 4 and an appearance at least in a Munster football final,” added Walsh.

The chairman revealed that McDermott is still hopeful of adding another member to the backroom, something he intimated would be the case back in September when saying “

“It’s three at the minute – he hopes to get another selector as well. He hasn’t been earmarked officially yet,” said O’Neill.

“I would suggest that he would get a local man,” said Walsh.

IT’S ALL minor action again this weekend as the Division two cup final and Division three shield and cup finals take place. All matches are dependent on weather conditions of course.

At 2.30pm on Saturday, Miltown Malbay hosts the Division three shield final between riversiders Coolmeen and Shannon Gaels followed at 4pm by the Division two cup final between seasiders West Clare Gaels and Liscannor. Coolmeen will want to finish this competition on a high but Shannon Gaels did have two big wins in the campaign already. Both teams will have something to prove.

In the Division 2 final, West Clare Gaels had victories over Kilmihil and Wolfe Tones and overcame Cooraclare in the semi-final by 5-11 to 3-05 while Liscannor despatched Cooraclare and Clooney/Quin before putting paid to Kilmihil by 3-13 to 1-07 to reach the decider.

The Gaels will be leading a strong defensive section onto the field including the up and coming Brid Foran and sister Maria, Grainne Harvey, Lauren Keane and Emma McMahon while sister and captain Lauren will be assisted by the indefatigable Shauna Harvey, Collette Keniry, Ailish Brew, Shauna Melican and Ciara Lynch in the attack.

However, Liscannor are used to winning big, thanks to major contributions from county regulars Roisin Rouine, Fiona Considine, Aisling Torpey, Therese Shannon, Roisin Considine, Emer Hillary, Therese Shannon and exciting prospect Katie Considine. This will be the deserved highlight of the day and should serve up a thrilling encounter.

The following day at 1.45pm also in Miltown, Fergus Rovers and Éire Óg go head to head in the Division three final. Éire Óg overcame Kilrush, Shannon Gaels and Doonbeg in the semi-final and were ruthless in their handling of the Doonbeg chal- lengers.

Captain Tara Sheehan will be happy to have the likes of top keeper Aoife O’Neill and Sophie Hanna, Rae Wall, Loren O’Mahony and Aoife Sheehan in defence. Up front Katie Malone and Amy Hayes did well in the semifinal but the Ennis side have vigour and tenacity in abundance with the lethal Orla Devitt and double trouble Alannah and Shauna O’Brien, all three outstanding in their penultimate stage clash.

However, Fergus Rovers have already beaten Éire Óg in the opening rounds. Add in the fact that the opposing teams are each managed by husband and wife team Alan (Éire Óg) and Edel (Fergus Rovers) Malone and it makes this encounter one not to miss. Rovers fell heavily to Shannon Gaels in the opening round but overturned that result in their second meeting later in the campaign but they have since had big wins over Kilrush, Éire Óg and Doora/Barefield. Aoife Clohessey, Emer O’Shea, Aine McSweeney and Ciara and Eva O’Malley are the core of a formidable defence while captain Grainne McCarthy pushes a dymanic attack in the shape of Jackie Coughlan, Jenny Maher and Lauren and Louise Griffin.

Hard to call this one but would you want to?

AS Éire Óg prepared for their biggest hurling game since they contested the millennium county senior final against Sixmilebridge, they are mourning a stalwart of the club this week after the hugely popular Francie McMahon passed away after illness.

McMahon was part of the great Éire Óg squad that contested three county finals in the early 1980s, winning senior medals in 1980 with the Éire Óg Dalcassians that beat Newmar- ket-on-Fergus and then another in 1982 when the Townies beat Sixmilebridge after two epic encounters.

Away from his involvement with Éire Óg over many years, McMahon was also a stalwart of Clare Camogie. McMahon had a long involvement with Clare Camogie at club and county level since the late ‘60s, coaching teams at all levels and most recently at Minor level.

He was part of the management team that led Clare to the Junior All Ireland Finals in 2003 and 2005. He managed the Clare U16s in ‘08 and ‘09, when they won the Munster U6A title. More recently, Francie was the Manager of the Minor team that in 2010 won the Munster Minor title and went on to contest the All Ireland Minor Final.

“Clare Camogie Board was deeply saddened on hearing the sad news of the death of Francie McMahon on Monday,” Clare camogie PRO Brid MacNamara said. “His passing will be felt deeply throughout Camogie circles,” she added.

Sixmilebridge 2-15 – Clonlara 1-13 at Knockalisheen Park, Meelick

SIXMILEBRIDGE qualified for their fourth successive minor final on Saturday after eventually seeing off a stubborn Clonlara side. Don’t be misled, they were ahead from start to finish and after building up a 2-6 to 0-2 advantage with the aid of the breeze by the 24th minute, Clonlara would never get to within four points of the winners but equally had the underdogs taken their goal chances, this game might have developed in a different path.

The Bridge deserved their victory though, mainly because they had the better balance overall with Brian Carey keeping a watchful eye on Cathal O’Connell, Dylan Fleming also rising to the occasion while county minors Jamie Shanahan, Seadna Morey and Alan Mulready controlled the attacking sector, aided intermittently by Brian Corry and Conor Deasy.

Clonlara too depended on their Munster minor winners for inspiration, with Colm Galvin, Cathal O’Connell and Shane and Oisin O’Brien to the fore but they didn’t have enough strength on the flanks to keep Sixmilebridge on their toes.

The Bridge started in impressive fashion, picking off the first four points of the game in as many minutes through Jamie Shanahan (2), Seadna Morey and Brian Corry. Clonlara finally settled with a brace of their own courtesy of Oisin O’Brien and Tots O’Connell but they were to be the exception to the rule as the Bridge hit the front once more.

They cemented their authority with two quickfire goals from Seadna Morey, who completed a flowing move in the 20th minute, followed soon afterwards by a superb solo goal from Conor Deasy who arrowed an unstoppable shot past goalkeeper Ryan Morris from 30 metres.

Clonlara did recover briefly to cut the deficit to nine by the break at 28 to 0-5 but Sixmilebridge still ap- peared more than comfortable at that stage, despite hitting ten first half wides.

Their supporters did begin to shift nervously as the second half developed as a momentum filled Clonlara hit the first five points of the half to slash the lead to just four. But they required a goal to really make the ‘Bridge anxious.

That chance fell to Cathal O’Connell in the 40th minute but his effort was crucially saved by Pa Freeman while Tom O’Neill also hit the side-netting soon afterwards.

In all, Clonlara would hit seven second half wides and you would have to feel that they needed a near perfect strikerate if they were to upset the favourites.

Instead, Sixmilebridge got themselves off the ropes and with Alan Mulready coming into the game at centre-forward and Jamie Shanahan converting frees, they soon reopened an eight point advantage by the hour mark.

Oisin O’Brien did wreck Sixmilebridge’s hopes of a clean sheet in the 61st minute but it was to be the last puck of the game as the ‘Bridge set up an expected final showdown with Ballyea.

This game should stand to the Bridge as they line up the Ballyea boys in what should be a very hotly contested final. Of course minors like Jamie Shanahan and Seadna Morey will have another county final to think of before knuckling down to concentrate on the U-18 decider.

Sixmilebridge
Pa Freeman, Brian Carey (0-2), Darragh McNamara, Evan McInerney, Eoin Hogan, Conlith Agnew, Dylan Fleming, Seadna Morey (Capt.) (1-1), John Mulready,Alex Morey, Jamie Shanahan (left) (0-7f), Brian Corry (0-2), Sean Lynch,Alan Mulready (0-2), Conor Deasy (1-1)

Subs
Darragh Fitzgerald for Ltnch (41 mins)

Ballyea 2-18 – Clarecastle 1-06 at Fr Murphy Memorial Park, Newmarket-on-Fergus

IT ALL went according to the form book on Saturday as championship favourites powered their way to the final, following an convincing victory over their nearest neighbours.

It was always going to be a tough ask for the Magpies who were the only side in the semi-finals not to have had a player on the Munster minor winning panel this year.

Ballyea had more than enough county experience at that level with Jack Browne, Gearoid O’Connell, Niall Deasy and Tony Kelly in particular proving too hot to handle for the Magpies.

Under 16 Bobby Duggan was Clarecastle’s main scoring threat throughout and it was his 17th minute goal from a 20 metre free that provided a glimmer of hope for the Magpie supporters.

However, they failed to build on it and the revolution was soon quashed as Ballyea finished the half strongly with Kelly and Deasy doing the main damage on their way to a 0-12 to 103 half-time lead.

Ballyea’s focus on the final strengthened significantly after the break when Tadgh Lynch punished a defensive error to give his side a nine point advantage.

And when Niall Deasy struck a second major at the turn of the final quarter, there was only going to be one outcome, a comfortable success as was the case when these two met in the group stage.

From that juncture to the finish, it was damage limitation for the young Magpies who were predominantly made up of 16 and 17 year olds.

However, that was no concern of Ballyea’s as they ruthlessly closed out the game to put themselves to within touching distance of a historic title.

Waiting for them in the final will be the all conquering Sixmilebridge and a clash of epic proportions is expected. With stars of Clare underage hurling on show like Tony Kely and Jamie Shanahan, a large crowd can be expected for this contest.

Clarecastle
Jamie Coughlan,Tommy Howard, Mark McGuane, Dylan Broderick, Pat Tuohy, Gearoid Ryan, Padraig Callinan, StephenWard, Joseph Barry, Robert Duggan (1-5), Michael Casey (0-1),Aaron Green, Mark Foley, Conor Galvin, Kevin Scanlon.

Subs
Shane Galvin, Seanie Lynch, Johnathan Griffey,AdamCrowe, Eanna Cooney, John McInerney, Justin Neville, Brian Gilroy, Conor

Ballyea
Conor Harkins, Darragh Crowe, Jack Browne (0-2), Eoghan Donnellan,Aonghus Keane, Gearoid O’Connell, Joe Nylon, Stan Lineen,Tony Kelly (0-08) (right), Michael Nagle, Martin O’Leary, Tadgh Lynch (1-2), Lee Brady (0-1), Niall Deasy (1-5), Martin Quigley,

Subs
Shane Harkins, Ryan Griffin, Stephen Longe,Aaron Nugent, David Brassil, Niall Lynch, Lee Sherlock, Diarmuid Lorigan, Eoghan O’Leary

Referee
KevinWalsh (WolfeTones)