Sports

THREE Clare players Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell and David Fitzgerald have secured PwC GAA/GPA All Star awards for their excellent campaigns this season. Kelly becomes only the third Clare man to secure four All Star awards, joining Brian Lohan and Jamesie O’Connor in achieving this feat. Kelly and Lohan are the only two Clare men to have been named as an All Star for three consecutive seasons. Meanwhile, O’Donnell and Fitzgerald scooped their first All Star awards after the pair produced top quality displays throughout the Championship. Fitzgerald plundered 2-18 during Clare’s run to the All Ireland semi final while O’Donnell scored 0-15. The Éire Óg man was named Player of the Month for May. O’Donnell’s return to the fold for this year’s Championship was a major boost for Lohan’s side and he certainly adapted quickly, with his aerial prowess and sniper like ability in front of the posts key to Clare’s run to the last four. Fitzgerald secured Inagh-Kilnamona’s …

Ennis Dons edged a hard fought derby to take the first silverware of the season. On a wet as windy night in Frank Healy Park, Ryan Jennings’ header early the second half ultimately proved the difference between the sides. The goal appeared to give Dons renewed energy and belief, qualities that were required to withstand everything Hermitage threw at them in the game’s final moments. This was a sold all round team performance from Ennis Dons with the individual moments of quality supplied by Jack Devitt at fullback, Kingsley Maokombe and Barry Woods in midfield. In an entertaining and fast paced contest, there was little to separate the teams. Hermitage had enough chances to take the lead and will reflect on those periods either side of half time when they played their best football. Much of what was good about Tage flowed from the performance of Davie Keenan who quickly set about making his mark on the final. Keenan already …

A TRACTOR belonging to soccer club Shannon Hibernians was the target of vandals last weekend with the culprits even putting petrol in to its diesel tank. “They must have jumped over our fence, we have a fence around the pitch, but they went in and smashed up the tractor. They smashed the windows, they broke off the exhaust pipe. It runs off diesel, and they put oil and petrol into the diesel tank,” said club PRO Aaron Leahy. Gardai were called and have visited the scene, but the culprits have not been identified. The club put a post on social media about it this week, in the hope that some parents may be prompted to realise what their children have been doing. “Some parents might have seen their kids going back into the house with oil or petrol on their hands. “We would hope that parents would deal with it, we just wanted to highlight what has happened. There is a …

John Kelly was in Cusack Park as Ballyea defeated Éire Óg by 2-14 to 1-16 in the Clare senior hurling championship final

Eoin Brennan reports from Cusack Park as Ballyea found an extra gear to retain their title against Éire Óg on a score of 2-14 to 1-16 Ballyea’s title-winning know-how proved essential once more when firing the last four points to pip neighbours Éire Óg to the Clare Senior Hurling Championship post in Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon. Having successfully come from behind in their previous three Canon Hamilton triumphs since 2016, one shouldn’t have doubted the champions. However, having hit three successive wides in the final ten minutes, Ballyea still trailed by three by the 58th minute but still refused to yield. Points from substitute Martin O’Leary and a Tony Kelly ’65 were supassed by the decisive moment of the contest in injury-time when Kelly’s excellent hook stopped Shane O’Donnell from firing Éire Óg two clear, only for Paul Flanagan to pick up the break and unleash Cathal O’Connor to equalise from halfway. With that, Niall Deasy earned and converted …

THE 2022 Claregolf.ie junior golf season will draw to a close at the end of this month, after the staging of its final two junior events.  The first of these events will be the under-13 short-course junior league taking place at Shannon Golf Club this Sunday, October 23. This development league was introduced after the short course summer series proved to be very popular. The league has been run over eight weeks at four different courses in the county, Spanish Point, Lahinch, East Clare, and Shannon, and to date, it has proven to be very popular and hugely beneficial in the development and growth of the junior game here in Clare. The second and final event takes place on Sunday, October 30, at the new-look Dromoland Castle, with the staging of the under- 14, 16 and 18 County Matchplay finals. This event brings together the top eight junior boys within our county who will compete for the four titles on offer that day. Eoin Magill, …

Eoin Brennan believes Ballyea’s guile and experience may just see them over the line against Éire Óg in the Clare Senior Hurling Championship Final Much has been made of the rarity of Ballyea and Éire Óg’s clashes but while the concentration has been on the Townies’ early spanner in the works of Ballyea’s momentous 2016 season, what hasn’t really been dwelled on was that Ballyea actually relegated their neighbours in 2008. Five points down with only minutes remaining in their understandably anxious relegation decider in Clarecastle, Ballyea somehow pulled it out of the fire to devastate Éire Óg and leave them in the tricky waters of intermediate for three seasons. The question is how would Ballyea’s narrative have altered had they been the ones to go down as with a rich crop of talent coming through, it was essential for Tony Griffin and Co. to hang onto their senior status by whatever means neccessary. Fast forward 14 years and the …

The newest member of Ballyea’s well-oiled backroom machine also shares the bulk of the coaching responsibilities. Adrian O’Brien’s initial Strength & Conditioning role for 2021 has been fleshed out to include hurling coaching in what has been another storming season thus far for the holders. Being the first time that Ballyea have reached back-to-back finals, their latest historic leap is one that Limerick native O’Brien modestly isn’t willing to take credit for. “To be honest, I’d never get too excited about the good days or too low about the bad ones because in reality we are just there to support the players. “Once these lads get to senior level, the majority of work is done so it’s the lads who coached and mentored them from Under 6 all the way up to minor and Under 21 that should take most of the credit. “From a strength and conditioning standpoint, a big part of the remit here is just managing training …