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HURLING: Clare lead from gun to tape to stun Waterford in Munster Hurling Championship opener

Munster Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final Clare 1-22 Waterford 0-21 A FIRST Munster victory under Brian Lohan as Clare hit the ground running in this year’s championship to stun Waterford into submission in Semple Stadium, Thurles on Sunday afternoon, reports Eoin Brennan. Leading from start to finish, Clare should have eased to a much more convincing triumph after having almost 50 shots at the posts in a dominant display. However, digging out the result by whatever means possible was the most important aspect for a new-look Banner who got revenge for being knocked out of the All-Ireland series by the same opponents last September. As with every championship match in 2020, Clare kept their opponents defence on their toes with regards to the positioning of talisman Tony Kelly, with Lohan and Co. making the brave call of placing the current All-Star at the edge of the square for the entire 70 minutes. Without the target of Shane O’Donnell, it would prove …

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Super Sunday ahead for Banner

Munster Senior Hurling Championship Quarter-Final (Extra-Time if Necessary) Clare v Waterford @ Semple Stadium Thurles, Sunday 3.30pm (Colm Lyons, Cork) With a full hand to choose from, Clare would undoubtedly be heading to Thurles on Sunday in confident mood of turning over last year’s All-Ireland Quarter-Final result. Traditionally, Clare wouldn’t have the same innate hang-ups about Waterford as they would to a Tipperary or Cork or in more recent times Limerick. Of course, that’s the same for Waterford who will view this match-up as the best of a bad lot in an ultra-competitive Munster Championship. However, there was the growing sense that things seemed to be falling into place for Brian Lohan and his side at the perfect time to peak for championship. That is overtly seen through their improving performances and results as the National League developed but even positionally, there were less and less question marks over personnel. Captain John Conlon’s switch to centre-back certainly raised some initial …

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FOOTBALL: Battling Banner bow out at the hands of cut-throat Kingdom in Killarney

Kerry 3-22 Clare 1-11 KERRY expectedly marched on to a Munster Semi-Final meeting with holders Tipperary on away soil in a fortnight’s time after keeping Clare at arm’s length in Fitzgerald Stadium on Saturday evening, reports Eoin Brennan. A veritable graveyard for the Banner, the Killarney venue was greeted by a much more entertaining spectacle than their last two attempts. Ultimately however, the cut-throat knock-out nature of the tie meant that any hint of a moral victory was redundant on this occasion for a battling Banner. Things looked ominous in the early stages when Kerry and more pointedly Seanie O’Shea (4) sliced through Clare with ease to kick five unanswered points within the first eight minutes. However, despite facing into a strong wind, when Clare did finally get out of their own half, they were effective and after a potential goal opportunity for Gavin Cooney, substitute Emmet McMahon finally opened Clare’s account just before the water break at 0-5 to …

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‘Clare have the hunger to find way past Waterford’

Following league wins over Dublin and Kilkenny, selector Ken Ralph told Ronan Judge the Clare camp is in a good position ahead of their Munster Championship opener with Waterford on Sunday. CLARE selector Ken Ralph is in upbeat mood as he assesses Clare’s prospects against Waterford in Sunday’s Munster Hurling Championship opener. And the Clarecastle club man says the form among players and management is of a similar vein after Clare closed out their league campaign with high scoring victories over Dublin and Kilkenny. The winning end to what was a sprint of a league came after early defeats to Antrim and Wexford. Ralph says there was never a sense of panic in those early weeks. Rather, management were happy with what they were seeing. Performance levels and effort were going in the right direction. The feeling was the results would follow. “I suppose looking back at the league, we’re happy enough at how things went. You’re never totally happy. …

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Road to recovery leads to Thurles for Captain Conlon

Clare will be looking to build upon their recent momentum when they face Waterford in the Munster SHC this Sunday at Semple Stadium (throw-in 3.15pm). Munster Championship games are notoriously full blooded and intense with this Sunday’s battle expected to be no different as Clare come up against last year’s All-Ireland finalists. John Conlon will certainly be relishing this weekend’s battle as he looks set to taste Championship action for the first time since 2019, due to a cruciate ligament injury that kept him on the sidelines for Clare’s run to the All-Ireland quarter final in 2020. The Clonlara man believes the injury was a “blessing in disguise” as he was able to rehab other knocks and learn more about looking after his own body. “It was a tough injury. I was over a year out with it. It was a blessing in disguise in ways. It gave me the opportunity to grow and work on other injuries. I did …

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One-sided slant to golden championship anniversary

Munster Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final (Extra-Time if Necessary) Kerry v Clare @ Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney, Saturday 7pm (Jerome Henry, Mayo) For all the warranted plaudits earned by the Clare footballers incremental development that brought them to the brink of a potential Division 1 adventure, the cold reality of a paltry record against Kerry cannot be ignored ahead of Saturday’s ultimate showdown. The fact that of the previous 49 championship meetings between the pair, Clare have only recorded two victories over the Kingdom in 1949 and 1992 is not even the worst statistic either. Actually, the one figure that really should be read between your fingers is Clare’s record in Fitzgerald Stadium. During Colm Collins’ tenure, Clare’s average losing championship margin in Ennis has been five points but in Killarney, it’s a whopping 17 which tells its own stark story about the value of home advantage. Of course, Clare won’t be thinking that way heading down to the Kingdom this Saturday …

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Clare are aiming to lay siege to Kingdom

It is a familiar match up that never gets easier. Clare travel to Fitzgerald Stadium this Saturday as they come up against a fancied Kerry side this Saturday (throw in 7pm). Clare are monitoring the fitness of Jamie Malone while Kevin Harnett looks set to miss out with an achilles injury. Colm Collins’ men face an extremely difficult task when they go head to head with arguably the most in form side in Ireland. Clare have no second chances with this year’s championship run on a straight knockout basis and any hopes of Kerry taking their opponents lightly appear slim due to their own exit at the hands of Cork in last year’s Championship. However, Clare will enter this game with some confidence after a courageous display against Mayo, where they lost by four points after trailing by 2-13 to 0-8 at the break. Colm Collins was encouraged by Clare’s second half display but he is aware that if his …

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Clare need to be prepared for trip to ‘the lion’s den’

Former Clare footballer Kieran Considine believes Clare are “going into the lion’s den” when they travel to Fitzgerald Stadium to take on Kerry this Saturday. “It is going into the lion’s den, particularly when you saw what Kerry did to Tyrone. Colm (Collins) will put all that to one side, and he’ll treat it as a one-off game. The bar he will set to the players is to max out on their own ability on the day. That’s all you can ask from any team: play to your max and try to limit the other team. “Kerry are much talked-about as main rivals to Dublin, so it’s always going to be a daunting task. Colm will want to see a performance and players will want that chance to test themselves, and that’s the opportunity they will get.”  However, he believes Clare can take a lot of positives from their four point league defeat to Mayo as they outscored their opponents …

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