Sports

WHATEVER the result of the 2011 county final, it will be nigh on impossible to unseat St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield’s year as the story of the season. Their place in Sunday’s final, which throws in at Cusack Park at 3.30pm, comes on the back of on and off field tribulations, which could have justifiably resulted in St Joseph’s parking their GAA aspirations for the year.Losing one of their most talented footballers, the late Niall White, shook the club and particularly his similarly aged teammates, to the core.Hammered by Doonbeg in the Cusack Cup semi-final, having reached the last four in their first season of Division 1 league football, was the first on-field setback to hit St Joseph’s.Their early championship displays hinted at worse to come as they lost their opening games to Miltown and Cratloe. Facing into their third group game against Shannon Gaels, Doora-Barefield’s priority was to somehow avoid finishing bottom of the group.Instead they cut loose, winning 3-10 to …

WHEN the O’Brien family decamp to Cusack Park on Sunday, their day there will represent a remarkable twist in what has been an evolving sporting journey.Three months ago, there wasn’t a single person in the whole of Clare who had an inkling that St Joseph’s would feature in the parish’s first senior county football final for 113 years. Three years ago, when the O’Brien brothers, David, Johnny and Chris, transferred from Clooney-Quin to play football for Doora-Barefield, they could hardly have imagined how their move would pan out.From day one though, they were salivating at the prospect of merely playing senior club football. The sport is, after all, in their blood.“Our father, Seán is an ex-Tyrone footballer. We play soccer together as well, so we’re a very close-knit family. We’re massively into our football and our sport,” David told The Clare Champion, a distinct Northern twang still evident.“We’d been living in Belfast. Our mother and father are Tyrone people but …

Scariff caster Ruairi Costello literally has the world at his feet. The Ballycorban angler has just returned from Japan where he pitted his casting skills against the best in the business and triumphed. Ruairi picked up two gold medals and four silver medals in addition to setting a new trout 6 weight single handed world record of 52 metres.Competing in the prestigious JCA Anglers Class Masters casting competition in Tokyo, Ruairi collected the gold medals in the 6 weight trout distance and the 18 foot speycasting, a remarkable achievement for someone who only fishes for trout during the Mayfly season on Lough Derg. There were 120 entrants in the competition and Ruairi came out on top. He has now won in three continents – North America, Europe and Asia and is officially recognised as the best all round caster in the world.  Ruairi has developed a unique casting style. He is self-taught and has a powerful final delivery. When asked …

Ollie Baker is to manage the Offaly senior hurlers for the coming year and included in his backroom team will be another Clare man, Alan Cunningham from Shannon.This will be Baker’s first appointment as an inter-county senior manager. In recent times, he served as a selector in Clare under Anthony Daly and under Mike McNamara while he was part of the Antrim backroom team last year under Dinny Cahill.Speaking to The Clare Champion this week, the Tullamore-based garda sergeant said he was “looking forward to the challenge. I hope to continue the good work done over the past four years by Joe Dooley.”An outstanding midfielder, he helped Clare to three Munster and two All-Ireland titles in the ’90s when he also played a leading role in helping his club St Joseph’s to Clare, Munster and All-Ireland club titles.Baker confirmed this week that Alan Cunningham from Wolfe Tones will be part of his backroom team. The St Caimin’s Community school teacher …

St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield stunned Clare football when they beat Doonbeg by a point in the championship quarter-final. That day Colm Mullen showed his big match temperament is still intact when he stroked over the winning point. Five years living and working in the US and Australia hadn’t dulled his love of the club, be it as a footballer or hurler. “I’d often contemplated coming home for a couple of games. That didn’t pan out but I really missed it and it was great to get back into it. I came back into a different club in a lot of ways. The success was gone and we were struggling in both codes. “Having said that, we knew that the talent was there, definitely with the footballers. It was just a matter of getting it out of the squad that was here. It’s great that we have done that and I’m glad to be part of it,” he smiled. Before St Joseph’s …

PLAYERS who are prepared to put their bodies on the line often decide big championship games.One of the greatest compliments ever paid to former Galway hurler, Brendan Lynskey was that he was prepared to put his head where others wouldn’t put their hurley in a bid to win possession.It might be a different code but Peter O’Dwyer is a player in the same mould as Lynskey. A vital block in the closing minutes of the recent Clare Senior Football Championship semi-final illustrates his great work-rate throughout the field and willingness to make the hard tackle when it matters most.Conor McGrath was ready to pull the trigger and split the posts to send Cratloe in front two minutes from the end after beating his marker on the 30m line. However, the South-East Clare dual star hadn’t bargained on the intervention of the Kilmurry Ibrickane midfield general, who smothered the attempted shot. Kilmurry Ibrickane have got used to expecting impressive displays from …

IN 2006 and for part of 2007, former Kilmurry-Ibrickane player and mentor, Martin Keavey coached the St Joseph’s senior side. Among his backroom team was another Kilmurry-Ibrickane man, CJ Sexton, who is still coaching some of the juvenile players at the club.At the time, Martin was residing in “The Parish” and answered the call when approached to get involved.“They (St Joseph’s) have had a lot of young talent coming through in the past decade in particular. Some of the older fellas, who were playing when I was involved, are still playing and are as good as ever. “With the underage talent that has been coming through, there is huge potential there. If they could win one senior championship they would be around for a while and they are certainly a huge threat,” he said at his home in Quilty.Martin suffered a broken leg in 2007 and this led to him stepping down from his role as coach to the Doora-Barefield …

IT is difficult to locate a corner-back who doesn’t think that he would be capable of seamlessly slotting in higher up the field. Critically evaluating their attacking colleagues, from a distance, can lead to corner-backs thinking they could do an offensive job if only their manager would give them a run up front.Now we must be clear and state unequivocally that St Joseph’s Sean Flynn, a recognised defender, made no such claims. Not verbally at least. Yet, when he was shunted from corner-back to centre-forward for St Joseph’s must-win group game against Shannon Gaels, he turned in a superb performance. It was a good day for frustrated corner-backs. Actions speak louder than words. This was a corner-back who knew what he was doing in what should have been an alien role.“It makes a change from spending 60 minutes pulling lads’ jerseys,” is how Flynn contrasts playing centre-forward to corner-back.On the off-chance that a corner-back doesn’t add to his team’s attack, …