Sports

JOHN Conlon and Shane O’Donnell have been named on the PWC Hurling All Star team for 2023. It is the second All Star for both, with Conlon winning one in 2018 and O’Donnell in 2022. Limerick dominate the selection with seven of their All Ireland winning team taking All Stars, with beaten finalists Kilkenny picking up five and one going to Galway’s Conor Whelan. Conlon was named at centre back and the Clonlara man enters a distinguished club of players who have been honoured as forwards and defenders in their career after he was named full forward in 2018. Famously he had to leave his brother’s wedding in April to face Limerick, and with victory and the man of the match award secured, he returned for the evening celebrations. The All Star caps a great year for Conlon which also saw him pick up his second county senior championship. O’Donnell was in sparkling form for much of the summer with …

It was clearly Clonlara’s day but undoubtedly John Conlon’s too as the sole survivor of the 2008 breakthrough had finally gotten his hands on a second Canon Hamilton. Having arguably been made to suffer more than any other club in the county when it came to the business end of the senior championship, that the sequel came in a year in which little was expected of the side obviously made the achievement all the more special for the 2018 All-Star. “I just dropped to my knees [at the final whistle]. Look, I never thought at the start of the year that we’d be in this position. I suppose we had been playing Senior B for the last few years and not performing really well but it just goes to show you the work that has gone in. Donal [Madden] and his management team have just put in a serious effort and all the players have bought into everything they’ve done. …

Poet and GAA man Brendan Kennelly once told a great story about his undergraduate days in Trinity College when he lined out for a motley crew of footballers that had the good fortune to be sprinkled with the stardust, belligerence, and derring-do of the great Kevin Heffernan. Kennelly was a county minor in his day and even played in an All-Ireland final in the grade, but the ‘Uncrowned King’ of Marino and the Big City that was Heffo was the nonpareil — the man apart and above all his peers on that Trinity team that tried to put it up the traditional powers of the universities’ game like UCD, UCC and UCG, even Queen’s. And in putting the Dublin legend on this pedestal the Ballylongford bard recalled one game in the late 1950s when he and others felt humbled and were left “humiliated by Heffo’s greatness” in the way he just bent proceedings to his will, just because he could …

While Killimer will be out to win a famous first Junior A title, the Éire Óg Townies are no strangers to the winner’s enclosure in this grade as they contest their seventh decider since the turn of the millennium and go for a fifth title in all, writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh Éire Óg have been here many times before and when Saturday comes will be hoping to claim what would be a landmark fifth Junior A title and move just one behind Coolmeen in the roll of honour in the grade. Of course, it’s the Townies’ second team as they bid to keep up their recent record and strike rate of winning a title every five years, with the most recent successes coming in 2013 and ’18 when they beat Cooraclare and Michael Cusacks respectively. However, for the players involved this is their team and the Townies’ record in this third tier of Clare club football has been impressive, especially …

For Killimer it’s a huge day and a huge opportunity as they bid to go where no team from the parish has gone before and claim a Junior A title — a success they have been striving for over a long number of years and different generations writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh There’s always an early start on Sundays back Knockerra and Killimer way — for some like Pat Culligan it’s the same every day as there are cows to milk, cattle to feed and there’s mass to go to, never mind picking up the Sunday papers for a glance. This Sunday gone though, there was something extra for the people of Killimer and Knockerra, especially the followers of the green and gold as they were out in force to ensure that as much of it as possible was visible and proudly flying around the parish. Sunday, October 22, was Mission Sunday, but the big mission for the likes of Pat …

Doora-Barefield’s Ethan Coughlan made his first competitive start for Munster as the province started their defence of the United Rugby Championship (URC) with a victory, writes Ivan Smyth.. Coughlan also managed to cross in the left corner for his first Munster try as the home side defeated The Sharks 34-21. The Ennis RFC graduate lined out alongside Irish international Joey Carbery in what was his fourth appearance in the URC for Munster. His try came in the 77th minute as John Ryan produced a fine pass out wide. Alex Kendellen sucked in the defence before finding Antoine Frisch. The centre took the ball into the tackle before offloading to Coughlan as the scrum half dived over in the corner. Shannon RFC’s Kieran Ryan was one of three Munster players to make their competitive debuts. The game was also notable for Andrew Conway’s first Munster start since June 2022. It was a shaky start for the reigning URC champions with Shane …

Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final Clonlara 3-18 Crusheen 2-16 It was the perfect Cinderella story as arguably having suffered more heartbreak than any other team in the county, Clonlara soared to a first Clare Senior Hurling Crown since 2008 in Cusack Park, writes Eoin Brennan. Three agonising final and six semi-final reverses in the intervening 15 years were wiped away by a commanding final performance that saw them lead from Micheál O’Loughlin’s emphatic breakthrough goal in the 18th minute to the finish. Having somehow been denied a hat-trick of goals up to that juncture including a break taking Donal Tuohy stop from Colm O’Meara in only the fifth minute, O’Loughlin’s strike following great work from Aidan Moriarty and Ian Galvin felt like a weight was lifted off Clonlara’s shoulders as they outscored Crusheen by 1-3 to 0-2 for the remainder of the half. Again Moriarty raced through the centre, this time offloading to Colm Galvin to flick to the net from …

Another hero from 2010, Gearóid O’Donnell, feels that maiden title was a moment that will stay with him forever. “It’s truly a moment I’ll never forget, walking under the bridge with the Canon Hamilton for the first time in the history of the club. We had lost a final in 2007, a semi-final replay in 2008. 2009 was all about soul searching. It was a hurtful campaign after not getting out of the group. Like this current group we used that hurt and 2010 was our deliverance day. We had been coming but to finally get over the line was an unreal feeling, one I’ve told the young lads about, one that will live forever.” His successful side were on a path to the title for a couple of campaigns but this current crop have been transformed in literally a matter of weeks. It really has been Roy of the Rovers stuff. “Let’s be honest this was definitely out of …