Tag Archives: cusack park

ONE of Clare’s short-term goals this year was to get promoted, according to team captain Cian Dillon. “One is always looking at what can be achieved. Last Sunday week, we had a great result [victory over Limerick] and we are hoping to achieve the same this week,” the team captain told The Clare Champion. “It will be a step up. Tipperary are a formidable outfit and they always perform very well but we are relishing the challenge. It’s massive to be at home again. There is always a great crowd and a superb atmosphere in Ennis. The game with Limerick was something special and, hopefully, it will be the same again,” the Crusheen man said. “The injuries seem to be increasing, mainly due to wear and tear,” he said, going on to point out that the absence of regulars is providing other panel members with an opportunity to impress. “Look at it from the other side, there is serious competition …

DIVISION 3 has emerged as a particularly congested and unpredictable league this season. With just two rounds left to play, the only team that cannot be relegated in Kildare. They are on eight points from five matches followed by four teams on six points including Clare and Longford, who meet in Cusack Park on Sunday. Tipperary and Offaly also sit on six points, which leaves five teams, including Kildare, vying for the two promotion places. Clare’s three wins have been achieved against the bottom-three teams, Limerick, Westmeath and Sligo, while they have lost away to Tipperary and Offaly. This weekend’s game is a very significant one on several fronts. The winner will be potentially one game away from promotion, while the loser could, in a worst-case scenario, end up relegated. Clare will play Kildare away in their final league fixture and definitely do not want to have to travel looking for a win to ensure their divisional status. If Clare …

FROM the moment the schedule of games for this season’s hurling league was published, today’s (Sunday) final group game between Shannonside neighbours Clare and Limerick was ear-marked as the tie that would decide who will be promoted to Division 1A for 2017. Clare, it must be said, were unlucky to be relegated from the top flight at the end of last season’s league, when they lost by the minimum margin to Kilkenny on successive Sundays. Limerick have been stuck in Division 1B for the past few years, falling narrowly at the final hurdle on a few occasions. They made some changes to their management team back in the autumn, bringing in Joe O’Connor as team trainer and appointing Tipperary man Dinny Cahill as team coach. O’Connor is widely recognised as a trainer and he filled that role for Clare when the Banner men won the All-Ireland title in 2013. Such is the attractiveness of Sunday’s tie that a crowd of 10,000 is …

Clare 1-18 Westmeath 0-10 WITH just three fixtures left to play in division 3 of the NFL, Clare took a huge stride towards promotion with a comprehensive win over Westmeath in Ennis on Sunday. They now sit joint second in the table, along with Tipperary. The Munster teams are two points behind Kildare, who have won all four of their games to date. Clare travel to O’Connor Park in Tullamore next Sunday, where they play Offaly who are currently on four points. Clare blitzed Westmeath who were completely off the pace, particularly in the first half. Such was Clare’s dominance they led 0-7 to 0-0 after 23 minutes with David Tubridy, Eoin Cleary, Pearse Lillis and Cathal O’Connor putting over those early points. Westmeath, who reached the 2015 Leinster final and were expected to at least contend for promotion, didn’t kick their first point until eight minutes before half time when substitute Shane Dempsey scored. They did come within four …

The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht has given a red card to Clare GAA’s latest plans to redevelop Cusack Park. The department has lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanála to proposals by the Clare GAA County Board to carry out works immediately adjacent to Ennis Friary. The appeal raises architectural heritage and archaeological concerns stating, “The design of the development does not satisfy the sensitivities associated with development adjacent to a national monument”. The Cusack Park plans, phase two of a major redevelopment of the county grounds, include the demolition of ruined buildings and part of an orchard wall and the construction of a new car park within the ‘Cloister site’. Also included in the plans is the demolition of a section of the western boundary wall of Cusack Park and a construction of a new 2.8m high boundary wall with turnstile housing, ticket kiosk and exit gates; the construction of a new toilet block and concession …

THE 2015 Clare Senior Football Championship final has the potential to be one of the most intriguing for many years. Miltown haven’t seen Jack Daly for 25 long seasons, while Cooraclare’s memories of their last win in 1997 are also fading into the mists of time. This year’s final has a fresh look to it simply because it has been so long since either club were in one and because there are players on both sides who have more than paid their dues to their clubs and, indeed, to Clare football. Nobody necessarily deserves anything but it is fair to say that a cohort of players on both panels have more than earned their county final day experience. So who will win it and why? Based on their respective semi-final performances, Cooraclare should start as clear favourites. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they will win it. While their semi-final display against Clondegad was not flawless, they played the game …

SUNDAY will be a particularly special day for Miltown, St Joseph’s GAA chairman, Gerry Curtin. He will travel to Cusack Park with the club’s senior team for their Clare football final date with Cooraclare. Understandably, he wants to see his beloved club emerge victorious, a result that will see him “hand over the baton of captain of the last team to bring the title to Miltown.” Twenty-five years ago, Miltown last won the blue riband of Clare football, beating Kilmihil in a final played at Cusack Park. “The final score on that occasion was 1-6 to 0-7 and Sean Burke’s goal proved decisive,” he said. Recalling that success, the Miltown chairman said, “We had won the title in 1985 and the guts of that team were still there. A lot of us were coming to the end of the road. It was a tough struggle and Kilmihil had us on the rack in the first half and again in the …

Football takes centre stage in Clare this weekend, as Cooraclare and Miltown St Joseph’s prepare to battle it out for the Jack Daly Cup, and the honour of being crowned senior football champions for 2015, at Cusack Park, Ennis on Sunday. To mark the occasion, The Clare Champion has published a 16-page supplement, Reaching for the Stars. Sports editor, Seamus Hayes and football correspondent, Peter O’Connell have interviews with players and well-know club figures on both sides, as well as opinion pieces and the match preview. It’s an all West Clare affair between two teams from traditional football strongholds that have not featured on the senior champions’ roll of honour for some time. Both clubs have enjoyed success at underage and other grades this year, however, which augurs well for their futures. Miltown’s 1990 Clare championship winning team will be honoured at half-time during the final at Cusack Park. A number of players have sons bidding to follow in their footsteps …