Category: Sport

THERE should be as many as four adult clubs in Ennis – Clare’s county capital that has been described as “a luxury the GAA can’t afford anymore”.

Stinging criticism of the current state of health of Gaelic games in the capital was sounded out by Ruan delegate, Ger Lyons, who called for the Clare County Board to spearhead a new direction for promotion of GAA affairs in the centre of population.

“This is a subject for a whole meeting in itself,” said Lyons. “The whole town of Ennis is a luxury that the GAA can’t afford anymore.

“If you look at Killarney and Tralee – they all have two or three functioning clubs at senior level. I acknowledge the effort that’s being done by Éire Óg, but with the population – Ennis has gone so big and that we have to grasp the nettle, sooner rather than later and stop pussy footing around. There should be three or four clubs in the town of Ennis that can survive and function,” he added.

And, in calling for change, Lyons highlighted the fact that many attempts at tackling the promotion of GAA in Ennis have failed.

“There has been a lot of resources put into in Ennis and initiatives have gone so far but then all of a sudden they fall apart. They go so far that then it stops,” he said.

“We (Ruan) have been associated with The Banner and there have been some fantastic hurlers there but a lot of them have fallen by the wayside. That’s sad and I think the GAA in Clare cannot afford the luxury of Ennis the way it is.

“There has been too much standing aside and it needs a lot of leadership and a longer discussion. My main point is that there should be a lot more units in the town of Ennis. Ennis is not a small place anymore,” he added.

FORMER county board secretary Simon Moroney used the platform of last Thursday’s annual Convention to make a staunch defence of the Éire Óg underage Academy that has put the Ennis club at loggerheads with the Clare GAA leaders over the past two years.

Moroney, who is also a former secretary of Éire Óg, said the Academy that caters for children between the ages of six and 12, has “mobilised excellent coaches” and is the way forward for the club.

He made his comments in response to a motion for the Banner club that called on the county board to establish a committee that would be responsibility for managing GAA affairs in Ennis.

“It’s far more complex than implementing By-Law 19. It needs a lot more consideration,” said Moroney. “Ennis does require attention, but it should be started organically between the clubs and the clubs themselves must get up off the floor and promote it in a much better fashion.

“The Éire Óg would totally go along with the sentiment of improving the standard and levels of participation of GAA in Ennis.

“We would totally agree that the promotion of the GAA in an urban context would present a lot more difficulties and frustrations.

“It is true to say that in urban populations there isn’t as great a penetration for our games as would exist in country places where identity is so bound to the local place and is so strong. It is far more difficult with other codes.

“The club has started working much harder with the Academy. Without slapping our own club on the back, it has been extremely successful and it has mobilised excellent coaches and people who want to learn the coaching trade.

“We have put in place a Child Protection Officer and everything like that and we’ve lucky to get over 200 kids over 18 months two years now.

“We feel the answer to the problem in Ennis lies with strengthening the clubs and assisting the urban clubs in being able to give the proper service to all the youth and maximising the participation of all the youth in the town,” added Moroney (below).

PLANS and costings for the redevelopment of the main stand at Cusack Park are being drawn up by architects as the Clare County Board’s initial response to the recent health and safety audit that has reduced the ground’s capacity by over 10,000.

Board chairman Michael O’Neill told delegates to Thursday’s annual Convention that Horgan, Lynch and Company from Cork have been employed by the board to draw up new plans for the redevelopment of the 75-year-old seat of Clare GAA after the recent Slattery Report reduced the capacity to 14,864.

O’Neill made his comments on foot of a motion that was tabled by St Joseph’s Miltown delegate, Noel Walsh, which called for the county board to appoint a new sub-committee that would address the reconstruction of the main stand.

“The ground is becoming a little bit more dilapidated, particularly the main stand,” said former Munster Council chairman, Walsh. “It was decided back in Fr Mac’s time to do something about it, but it’s a problem, a perennial problem that there’s no money to do it. I understand that it was decided to sell a section of ground to refurbish the main stand,” he added.

“We are where we are with Cusack Park,” interjected chairman Michael O’Neill.

“The point I am making that it was eight years ago that the county committee had decided to go ahead and do that – they had decided unanimously to do that. For some reason it didn’t happen,” responded Walsh.

“Despite the fact that there is a shortage of money – plans should be drawn up with people who do that down in cork , Horgan and Lynch should be asked to put forward plans.”

“I don’t want to cut across you,” interjected O’Neill. “Can I outline that that (employing Horgan/Lynch) is in progress at the minute. Two years ago we would have met all the relevant authorities here in Clare. Our capacity was something in the region of 25,000/27,000 people.

“Nobody had any disagreement with that. There is no problem, in my opinion with having 25,000/27,000 over there. We have to carry out works there. We have a fair idea at this stage about what they are. We haven’t them costed yet, but that will certainly be done in the not too distant future,” the chairman added.

“If our capacity reaches a certain minimum size we would be in a very weak position when it comes getting high profile games like All-Ireland under 21 semi-finals, or big Munster championship games,” warned Walsh.

“I remember in 1993, 19000 attended Clare against Cork in senior football. The Clare football team wouldn’t attract that attendance now, but you never know. If the capacity is that low we won’t be able to enter into a home and away arrangement in senior hurling either,” he added.

“The capacity is more than 12,000,” countered O’Neill. “It’s capable of taking nearly 15,000. We need to put in extra turnstiles. It wouldn’t take an awful lot to bring it up to 20,000, but certainly to bring it up to 25,000 would take a fair bit of money. That’s where we’re at at the moment. All the things that you talk about are in situ at the moment – we are in discussions with Horgan/Lynch,” added O’Neill.

“I would like to see the report of Horgan/Lynch at a board meeting during the year,” responded Walsh. “I go back to the time of Brendan Vaughan’s time in the 1970s. There was very little money around in ’78 when he set up a committee and he got debenture loans – we got a wonderful county ground at that time that was superior to any other county ground in the country at that time,” he added.

During Mr Walsh’s three-year term as Munster Council chairman from 1995 to 1997, he secured substantial funding for a pilot project to erect floodlights at Cusack Park.

However, Clare GAA turned down opportunity to be the first ground in the province to have floodlights, with the grant aid totalling around £100,000 being grabbed by the Kerry County Board for Austin Stack Park in Tralee.

PERSISTENCE proved to be the key for Clarecastle’s motion to establish a committee to review the enforcement of the rules, in particular in relation to ‘striking with hurley, either with force or causing injury’ and the gravity of the offence in relation to suspensions.

Clarecastle delegate John Callinan outlined his club’s concern about the implementation of the rules in relation to suspensions which opened up a 40 minute debate from the floor, the longest of the night.

“We are not criticising the Disciplinary Committee in any way, we are merely requesting that a review be put in place on the enforcement of the rules that exist, particularly relating to Category III infractions and arising from that, a review and clear guidelines could be established.

“Our particular concern is the offence of striking with the hurley either with force or causing injury. The minimum suspension is eight weeks and you may be also aware of the gravity clause which says that ‘where a minimum suspension is prescribed in relation to an Infraction, the Coun- cil or Committee-in-Charge shall have due regard for the gravity of the Infraction in each case and where appropriate should impose a longer term of suspension.’

“If you go to the back of the AGM booklet, there is a section on offences and suspensions. I think there are 21 suspensions relating to striking with the hurley using minimum force. All received the minimum four weeks. There are five suspensions under striking with the hurley using force or causing injury and all five received the minimum suspension of eight weeks.

“We are not saying that the committee has acted in any unfair, impartial or unjust way. Having regard for the gravity provision, it is strange, is all we can say, that each of the five situations merited the exact same suspension in each particular case. The minimum.

“Does one size fit all?”

Initially, Chairman Michael O’Neill requested that the motion be put forward to congress for a change of rule but after repeated clarification from Clarecastle delegate Callinan that the club were not looking for a rule change, the debate was opened up to the floor.

County Secretary Pat Fitzgerald considered it a matter for the referees to indicate the severity of the offence in their reports; Ger Hoey, Referee Administrator Coiste an Chlair told the meeting that referees are instructed from national level to report per rulebook, full stop. ‘You don’t go any further, you don’t go any less.’

Fellow referee and Ruan delegate Ger Lyons suggested it needed a change of protocol from Croke Park while Sixmilebridge delegate PJ Fitzpatrick backed Clarecastle’s proposal.

“I think what John [Callinan] is saying is that the minimum suspension has automatically become the maximum suspension and that there is a huge difference.

“We have a duty to our games. There is no justice whereby you see a player who sustains an injury from a deliberate blow from a hurley who is out of the game twice as long as the suspension issued to the person who administered the injury.”

The debate raged on with Chairman O’Neill sticking to his guns on the matter. “We can put the committee is place but I don’t know if there is a whole lot we can do about it unless we bring it to Croke Park, that’s my assertion of it.

“In principal the motion will be carried but in this case, the motion means nothing. The rule is the rule.”

However, the intervention of Corofin delegate and referee Ambrose Heagney proved crucial in the debate. “I’m a bit baffled at this. Maybe I’m a very fortunate in that I never refereed a game with an incident like this. But if I came across an incident where some hurler was struck intentionally, by God, in my report it would be seriously underlined. I just wouldn’t quote the rule, I would go a long way more than quoting the rule.

“This is very serious that if a guy can strike down another guy, that he would get the minimum suspension. I think that the referee has to put in his report that this was a bloody serious offence and put in a few words along with it. It doesn’t take a lot and I don’t think you will leave yourself wide open by doing so.”

Further additions from Clarecastle delegate Neville O’Halloran that the term ‘this is a serious strike’ was used in one referee’s report this year and the offender still got the minimum suspension added more fuel to the fire while PJ Fitzpatrick rounded off the discourse with a final plea.

“You can see from the discussion that it has opened up options and what Ambrose [Heagney] has said there has given some clarity to the situation as well.

“If a committee was set up to discuss something that is a cause of grave concern, surely it must do some good and it might be a system of clarifying issues for referees, the disciplinary committee, club managers or club officers.”

With no opposition, Chairman O’Neill finally granted the motion.

“Just to finalise it, I would be prepared to put a committee in place.

“This was a merited discussion because if our games are getting nasty and getting dirty, the message should go out there that we will be stringent with the rules but we can only be stringent with the rules as they stand. So a three person committee in conjunction with myself and possibly a representative of the referees will sit down and see if we can work around this obstacle that is there at the moment.”

THE Tuamgraney Handball Club 2012 commemorative calendar is now on sale. To celebrate their Centenary Year, the East Clare club have marked the occasion by producing a calendar, packed with over 150 photos from past and present celebrating Tuamgraney’s rich handball heritage. The calendar also features many handball legends from around the country and is a bargain at just € 10. Anyone wishing to purchase a calendar can contact Club Secretary Shane Walsh on 087-9415001. Free postage within Ireland. Tuamgraney Handball Club would like to wish everyone who supported us this year and all of Clare’s handballers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

League Fixtures
Monday 26th December FAI Youths Cup Round 3 Crossgalla(Limerick): Pike Rovers v Avenue Utd Limerick Officials 2.00 Note: In event of a draw10 mins e/wextra time and penalties if necessary.

League Results
Sunday 18/ 12/ 11 Munster Junior Cup 3rd Round Avenue United A 0-1 Connolly Celtic

TWO FINE wins by 64 Kilo Youths James Galbraith and Reese Doyle gave Clare Boxer a tenuous 7-6 lead going into the final bout of the evening in the Cecil Campbell Memorial Trophy match between Clare and Limerick at the Community Centre in Ennis on Friday night last; and a sublime if narrow victory for the Clare sides only lady competitor Sally Carrig copper-fastened a victory for the home side. It was a victory which scarcely looked attainable early on when Limerick stormed into a 3-0 lead with wins by Luke Nolan, who beat local debutante Jack Murphy in a thriller and tactical victories for the O’Reilly brothers Jamie and John over Tommy Galbraith and Davy Keenan respectively.

There was ample retribution for Irish Champion Conor Doyle who suffered the first defeat of his career last week in Limerick; when he kickstarted the home sides recovery process with a solid victory over Dom Sarsfield. Doyle regained all of his characteristic accuracy with a great left jab and followed through with scoring righthanders which overwhelmed the Limerick fighter.

52 Kilo Southpaw Mike McDonagh continued the winning vein with victory over Clive O’Mara and Middleweight Wayne Danaher restored parity with a good win over Limericks Podge McDonagh, a tough enduring Middleweight who hails from Shannon. This was undoubtedly the bout of that everybody came to see, and neither boxer gave way in a bruising first round before Danaher gained supremacy with precision left jabs to the head in the second and in spite of McDonagh’s resilience popped up with some solid righthanders to seal victory in the third.

The Light-welter battle between Ennis favourite Simon McDonagh and Limericks Clive O’Mara turned into a torrid battle of attrition. These boys had met twice previously and everybody knew this was going right down to the wire and so it proved. The Ennis boxer dominated the first and second rounds, but could not shake off the resilient Limerick fighter, and with victory literally secure, a moment of indiscretion cost McDonagh the victory after he was given a pub- lic warning for barging (shades of Amir Khan in last weekends World title in Washington State).

The Clare side carried that narrow 7-6 lead going into the final contest, and young Sally Carrig duly delivered with a fabulous victory over the experienced Patrique Kelly from the St Francis Club. Both boxers enjoyed momentary superiority in the crucial battle, but it was the Ennis girl, daughter of Ennis Coach Sean, who produced the accuracy of punch and controlled aggression which gleaned a much cherished victory over three absorbing rounds.

Results in detail
Clare names first. 32 Kg Boys Mike Doherty beat Martin Pratt 33 Kg Boys Martin C Doherty beat Jay Casey 36 Kg Boys TomGalbraith lost to Jamie O’Reilly 39 Kg Boys Davy Keenan lost to John O’Reilly 48 Kg Boys Conor Doyle Beat DomSarsfield 50 Kg Boys Mike McDonagh Beat Gary Butterfield 57 Kg Youth Simon McDonagh Lost to Clive O’Mara 46 Kg Boys S Nugent Scr Conor MaddenW O 60 Kg Youth J McDonagh Lost to Lee Reeves MiddleWt Wayne Danaher Beat Podge McDonagh 70 KgYouth James Galbraith Beat Danny Roche 75 KgYouth Jack Murphy lost to Luke Nolan 64 KgYouth Reese Doyle beat Cullan Ryan 64 Kg Ladies Sally Carrig beat Patrique Kelly

REGRETS. There are a few, given that Clare’s brave assaults on All-Ireland minor honours came up agonisingly short in 2010 and 2011.

But Tony Kelly doesn’t dwell too long on those regrets as he looks forward with confidence to the under 21 and senior challenges that lie ahead, while always remembering some stirring days in the minor ranks.

“At the beginning if someone had told me that I’d have two Munster medals in two years, I’d have bitten their hand off,” he says.

And, it’s no wonder, for the Ballyea clubman has been Clare’s star per- former over those two years. Midfield on the 2010 Munster winning team, midfield and captain in 2011 as he emulated his clubmate Paul Flanagan who was captain in 2010.

“We set out at the start the year to retain Munster,” he says, “but the aim for the overall year was to go one better than 2010 and try and win the All-Ireland.

“Other teams in Munster were probably thinking that Clare won the Munster final in 2010 and they won’t win another one, but winning it again proved that it wasn’t just a flash in the pan.

“There were about nine of us on the panel from the previous year and management were looking to us to motivate the team this year and help the new lads along – there wasn’t that much extra pressure put on us. We were just told to go out and hurl. We’re just as motivated because we knew that if we came out of Munster we would have a chance of winning the All-Ireland.

“What’s the highlight of the year? It was definitely going down to Thurles and beating Tipperary. They came up to Cusack Park the previous year and were favourites, but we beat them. It was said that it was a once off and that Tipp didn’t take the game seriously – going down to Thurles and beating them was great and it really set us up to retain Munster.”

When the job was done against Waterford, attention then turned to the All-Ireland – time for those regrets again as a great opportunity was lost, agonisingly so at the death of the semi-final.

“We knew that Galway were one of the best teams in Ireland,” says Kelly.

“We knew that whoever won the Clare/Galway match were probably going to go on and win the All-Ireland.

“Being honest, we thought we had the game won when we were three points up. I suppose it was a lack of concentration that cost us in the end with that goal going in, while when it came to extra time they were physically stronger than us. We had no complaints in extra time but that lack of concentration in extra-time got the better of us.”

But with that the regrets about AllIreland opportunities lost are over, all because of what Clare minor hurling’s historic achievements in 2010/11.

“The two years were very successful and contesting an All-Ireland final and semi-final has been a huge achievement as regards Clare hurling. Things are looking good for the future.”

Tony Kelly is that future.

WITH THE benefit of almost four months hindsight, there still remains a certain romance to Clare’s historic Munster and All-Ireland intermediate success. Whether through the perseverence of manager Kevin Kennedy in finally achieving warranted reward for his years of toil at the grade; the return of seasoned campaigners such as Niall Gilligan and Tony Carmody to aid the younger generation get over the line, or simply the mystique of beating defending champions and perennial hurling superpowers Kilkenny in the national decider, Clare’s unprecedented year at the intermediate grade was really something to savour. Sentiments echoed by captain Tony Carmody following Saturday night’s medal presentation.

“It was a fantastic achievement looking back now. It’s been a good few months since we won it and I suppose a lot of people had forgotten about it but this has really brought home the success in sharing the occasion with the minors in winning back-to-back Munster minor titles.

“It goes to show the work that is being done and hopefully a lot of the lads playing both intermediate and minor will go on and hopefully win an All-Ireland and Munster titles with Clare in the coming years.”

With any successful campaign, there are always key turning points or moments in the season that will forever be embedded like pockmarks in the memory and for the Sixmilebridge player, everything seemed to take flight after their opening game in the Munster championship.

“I think the big thing was the commitment of both the management and players. From the outset, we looked to make a difference in the grade that hadn’t been done in the last few years. I think attitude and the minds really being right was important and once we got over Cork in the first game, it kind of led from there.

“Belief is a massive thing and once we got belief, I think there was no doubt that we were ever going to win it.

“The Kilkenny, Cork and Limerick games this year are ones that I’d pick out. They are all strong hurling counties and these were essentially their second teams, with most of their players looking to play senior for their respective counties. But no more so than the Clare players this year and I think the proof will be there in the next few years how many players that won the All-Ireland this year will go on and play senior hurling for the county.

“This year and last year, the Clare minors were without a shadow of a doubt the best team in the country but unfortunately didn’t win an AllIreland. But I think that could be a good thing in years to come that they will still have hunger and the right attitude to make amends for not winning an All-Ireland at that grade. Please God, they will go on and really prove their worth in the coming year.”

And for Carmody himself, the pride of lifting both The Sweet Afton Cup and the aptly named Michael Cusack Cup in 2011 is one of the undoubted highlights of an already glittering career.

“It was a huge honour for me personally to be captain of that team and especially to lift cups in both Cusack Park and Semple Stadium was a great feeling to have. They will be fond memories that will live with me forever but you have to move on as well. It’s important to enjoy the suc- cess but at the end of the day, every player has to move on and look to the following year.”

The celebrations are still warm but already Carmody is setting his sights on the future. It’s the sign of a motivated player, the sign of a leader as he truly was in Clare’s historic Intermediate year.

CLARE’S new under 21 hurling management team will have “a blank sheet” when selected their squad to challenge for provincial and AllIreland honours in 2012, incoming joint-manager Donal Moloney has revealed.

Speaking to The Clare People ahead of the 2011 Munster minor hurling medal presenation, outgoing joint-manager Moloney, has pledged “a back to basics” approach to the management team’s new role with the county under 21 side.

“It’s a very, very different campaign at under 21 level,” says Moloney, “and we’re delighted that the majority of the management team are continuing on with the under 21s.

“It’s a very difficult grade because the access we would have had to players at minor level is not going to be the same. We will have to work very, very closely with the senior set- up, with Davie (Fitzgerald) and with the colleges, because 95 per cent of these players are in college. It’s a challenge and how we deal with that will determine whether we’re going to be successful or not,” he adds.

With the scale of this challenge in mind, Moloney, admits that success can’t be taken as a given, despite the stirring successes at minor level in 2010 and ’11 when the county achieved back-to-back provincial minor titles for the first time ever.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion,” he says. “Players develop in different ways. Look at the likes of Limerick this year. They won the Munster under 21, whereas they were really nowhere at minor level.

“Players develop differently. You can have a lot of late developers who come through at under 21 level, while some guys who were there at minor level might not progress as fast.

“We would be hopeful of success, but we don’t have a good record. Clare have never taken a minor side – any of the previous minor sides that have won something – and transferred it into a Munster under 21 title.

“That’s something we’re going to have to monitor very closely because in terms of picking our panel we have gone back to basics. We have a blank sheet to make sure we assess people properly in terms of where they’re at now, rather that what they did a year ago, two or three years ago at minor level,” he adds.

THE COMPLETE turnover of officials last year made way for a united front this time around as all seven officers were returned to the top table of Bord na nÓg Iomaint at their annual convention on Thursday in The Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis.

That continuity was reflected in Chairman Martin Reynolds address when paying tribute to his fellow committee for their hard work over the past twelve months and in particular secretary Sandra Reynolds for being a ‘powerhouse and a wonderful find for Bord na nÓg.’

“Last year was an unusual year in Bord na nÓg Iomaint in the sense that all the officers changed hands and we had a new committee and I would like to particularly thank all the clubs for being so lenient and not giving such a hard time at the beginning of the year when we were all getting used to the job. We made some errors earlier in the year but without the clubs, the year could not have been a success.

And in outlining his plans for 2012, the Clarecastle delegate called on clubs to further support the development squads and put forward more referees in order to get Clare underage hurling to the next level.

“We would certainly like to see more clubs getting in behind the development squads and supporting them. I feel that the work the development squads at Under 14, 15, 16 and 17 have done over the past number of years have been 90% responsible for the county winning back-to-back Munster minor championships and I think clubs should get behind the development squads and send their players to them because they are our future. “I would also like to thank the ref- erees. We can’t have games without referees and that’s a given. I would urge clubs to forward new names so we can increase the panel of referees and reduce the age profile. “At the start of the year, we as a committee asked the referees to in- troduce a new system in Clare. We felt it was wrong for mentors to be running around the pitch, certainly at underage with hurleys in their hands and we spoke to the clubs and got great cooperation from the clubs and the referees and now thankfully we don’t see that happening anymore.

“As regards referees, we held 20 finals in Bord na nÓg Iomaint this year and had 20 different referees for those finals. We started at Under 14’s and tried to bring on some of the new referees and younger referees and use referees who officiated at the Féile last year and we intend to continue on that trend this year.”