Sports

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 …

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.” …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Eoin Brennan watched as St Flannan’s College got their Corn Uí Mhuiri campaign back on track with a 4-10 to 2-14 defeat of Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra, Rathmore (Kerry) SAINT Flannan’s College are back in contention for a place in the last eight of the prestigious Corn Uí Mhuiri after finally getting off the mark at the second attempt in Mick Neville Park, Rathkeale on Wednesday afternoon. Agonisingly edged out by Tralee CBS in their opening bout four weeks previously, nothing but a victory was sufficient to stay alive in the competition and they duly responded by leading from start to finish to knock opponents Rathmore out. Four goals in a 15 minute period through outstanding targetman Luca Cleary (2), Fionn Cotter and James Hegarty in the middle third of the contest helped St Flannan’s to ease ten clear by the turn of the final quarter. It should have been enough to finish the tie as a contest but credit …

BOXERS from Ennis and Gort have won medals at the World Youth Boxing Championships in Spain this week. Gort boxer Cliona D’Arcy defeated her Polish opponent in the semi finals of the 81kg+ category on Wednesday evening, advancing to the gold medal bout on Saturday Earlier this year she was the winner of a gold medal at the European Youth Championships. On Wednesday afternoon Ennis boxer Jim Donovan came up just short in his semi final, losing out on a 3-2 split decision to his Kazakh opponent. Donovan was clearly devastated as the result was announced, as he fell to his knees in the ring and punched the canvas. Speaking to the Clare Champion afterwards Martin Donovan, Jim’s uncle and trainer, said that while he had come up short, the Ennis fighter has achieved a lot in recent days. “I’m a bit disappointed today but it’s great that he’s coming home with a world medal.” He felt that Jim had …