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Clare sides motor on to next round of FAI Junior Cup

Clare champions Avenue United made the short journey to Celtic Park in Tuam last Sunday and came away with a 4-0 win. Played in what can best be described as tough conditions both teams went at it straight from the off, writes Derek Dormer. Star striker Ronan Kerin went close early with a well struck free kick forcing a fine save by Tuam keeper Daragh Melia. Similarly, moments later a Ben Carroll free kick tested Tom O’Brien in the Avenue goal. The game was frenetic and with the elements wreaking havoc both teams had chances but it took until the half hour mark for the deadlock to be broken. Midfielder Eoghan Thynne controlled the ball superbly with his first touch before releasing a quality through ball to striker Kerin who duly blasted home with a sweet strike from the edge of the area. Avenue maintained possession quite well and were happy to take a one nil lead to the sanctuary …

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Éire Óg can dismiss The Poor Clares notion in Kerry

Much of my life is in Kerry now and nearly every day it involves a drive into Kerins O’Rahilly’s country — the stronghold and foundation stone of the club on Strand Road. Indeed, so central to the Kerins O’Rahilly story is the place that the club is more often than not referred to as Strand Road. And, Strand Road is littered with football stories about great men who wore the club colors and went as high as any footballer could go — Dan Spring, Paddy Kennedy Jas Murphy and John Dowling, who were All-Ireland winning captains who played for the club; there isn’t enough room for the rest of the All-Ireland winners. We’ll mention four though: David Moran, Tommy Walsh, Jack Savage and Barry John Keane. We mention them because this quartet will be playing on Sunday, with each one of them being a Strand Road All-Ireland alumnus and part of the tradition of putting Sam Maguire up on the …

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Townies look to their relentless work ethic to bring success

AFTER spending last year exclusively on the sidelines, Shane Daniels is back on the field of play and hoping to propel Éire Óg to a first ever Munster final. Before the Townies ended their 15 year wait to lift the Jack Daly Cup, they had consistently fallen at the quarter final stage with questions surrounding whether Éire Óg could win on the big day. They have certainly answered those questions as Daniels believes this team’s mentality is one of their biggest strengths. “Down the years we often lost tight games. Mentally this team is different. Their work ethic is huge and anything they are asked to do is never too much. We try and outwork every team so before a game we look at the opposition and try figure out how to do that.” The Éire Óg shotstopper feels that despite the step up in competition that comes when competing in the provincial series, the Townies are keeping the same …

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Townies boss looks to implement last year’s lessons

Éire Óg manager Paul Madden insists that despite his side facing the arduous task of downing Kerry’s Kerins O’Rahillys in Austin Stack Park, the Townies feel they are capable of producing their best display of the year on Sunday. Despite Kerry and Cork dominating the Munster scene, Madden feels that last year’s campaign showed they were able to compete with any side in the province. His side have learned lessons from their defeat to St. Finbarr’s at this stage of the competition 11 months ago. “The big learning we took is that you cannot switch off. In the previous six or seven games before last year’s game (against St. Finbarr’s) when we conceded a free, the free taker would saunter out and we would reset. “The first free they got they took a short one and got a goal from it. The really good teams look up and see opportunities so that was definitely the major take from last year.” …

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Clare soccer wrap: Tulla bounce back with Celtic thrashing

Ivan Smyth rounds up action from three games in the Maloney Hardware Premier Division starting with Tulla United’s 8-2 beating of Mountshannon Celtic A Dan Withycombe hat trick ensured Tulla United secured a vital victory as their hopes of avoiding a relegation battle received a boost. This result is worrying from a Mountshannon Celtic perspective as they now sit at the foot of the table with no points from their opening seven games. A positive result before the Christmas break is simply a necessity if they are to battle back from a difficult start to their campaign. After defeating Shannon Town in the opening game of the season, Tulla subsequently lost their next five league games despite some encouraging Cup results. However, they had yet to replicate that form in the league until last weekend. The winners did the damage in the opening half as they opened up a 5-1 lead. Dan Withycombe opened the scoring before Liam McInerney quickly …

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O’Shea and O’Sullivan star for Doonbeg in U14 title win

Michael O’Connor reports on the Under 14 Division three football final which saw Doonbeg prevail over Corofin on a score of 2-6 to 1-5 One of the last finals of the Bord na nOg peil calendar took place recently as Doonbeg took on Mid Clare side Corofin in the Under 14 division 3 final played in Cooraclare before a sizable attendance. Conditions on the day were far from conducive for football at underage level yet both sides gave spectators a contest worthy of a higher grade such was the effort on show. Corofin were the better side in the opening half and worked hard in their rearguard to repel the potential of the Doonbeg forwards who had shown up well in earlier rounds of the title race. Tommy Barry struck a vital goal early on for Corofin but the red and whites failed to build on this early promise and added just four more scores in the opening half as …

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Clare’s Rosie honoured at long distance swimming awards

THERE was a poignant moment long distance swimmer Rosie Foley at an awards’ ceremony when she received one of her latest “Triple Crown” awards. Padraic Casey passed away swimming across the English Channel in 2013 and his widow Riana presented Rosie with an award in his honour. The 2022 Padraic Casey Munster Swimmer of the Year award was presented at the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association Awards on Saturday evening. “I met his wife for the first time on Saturday and she presented me with the award, which was a poignant moment,” said Rosie. “Padraic is gone but he is not forgotten in swimming circles. I was very proud to get this award because Padraic was a fantastic person. I never met him, but I met loads of his friends that swam with him so I was honoured to get this award,” she said. She was also presented with a Certificate of Recognition in honour of completing the Triple Crown …

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Clare boxer looks to extend rich vein of form in Poland

Ennistymon boxer Louis Griffin is set to travel to Poland to compete against fighters from across Europe in the Carpathian Cup which takes place this weekend. The Kilfenora Boxing Club member is part of a seven-strong team sent by Munster Boxing Council to fight in Przemyśl. There will be fighters competing from countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania. The young fighter has shown a rich vein of form in recent times. He claimed gold at the Eger Box Cup in Hungary last month. Griffin progressed through to the semi final stage where he downed a dangerous Hungarian fighter to progress through to the decider before receiving a walkover. He has shown his talent domestically also in recent times. The Ennistymon man struck gold once more when he won the Wexford Box Cup recently. Meanwhile, in March, Griffin became a national champion as he secured gold in the 52KG weight division. He stopped his quarter final opponent inside …

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