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Tag Archives: Semple Stadium

Ballyea preparing for All-Ireland semi-final

THE Ballyea panel, winners of the Clare and Munster senior hurling titles for the first time in the club’s history in 2016, are back in full training ahead of their All-Ireland semi-final date with St Thomas’ from Galway. The game is scheduled for Semple Stadium on Saturday, February 4. “We took two weeks off over the Christmas but we have done a bit on the ball wall and a bit on the Astro Turf, just to keep ticking over. The county lads did a bit with the county and it was important for them to re-group,” Ballyea manager Robbie Hogan told The Clare Champion this week. He continued, “We are hoping to play a few college teams in the next few weeks ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final. We are injury free at present but there are a lot of flus and coughs and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we will stay clear of these”. A few of the …

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Ballyea set for ‘field of dreams’

AT this time of year, Robbie Hogan would normally be spending his Sunday afternoons at home watching the club games on TV and aspiring that some day Ballyea would be in that position. Well, now they are. “In fairness, while it’s a bit surreal, it’s all happening so fast the last few weeks. You win something and there is another challenge put in front of you straight away. I have to be honest and say that preparing for a Munster final as the end of November approaches wasn’t on my mind when we set out at the start of the year.” How did he find himself in the position of senior team manager with Ballyea? “I got a call from Michael Keane [club chairman at the time] five years ago. Tom Ryan was coming from Limerick at the time and Michael said it’s a great opportunity to see how these fellas work. Tom came and went and myself and Reggie …

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Ballyea’s season of comebacks

HAIL the Comeback Kings! Ballyea’s fairy tale run to capture their first Canon Hamilton trophy and qualify for their maiden Munster club final has been fashioned with some unbelievable comebacks when all seemed lost. Having lost their first-round clash with Éire Óg, Ballyea had to win the rest of their games to remain in contention for a place in the knock-out stages. This was in sharp contrast to 2015, when the men in black and amber won their first two outings and advanced straight through to a quarter-final. Now in his third year as club chairman, Pat Moylan acknowledged that his charges have produced some extraordinary fight-backs this year during the championship, which culminated in an amazing late flourish to force extra time against Tipperary kingpins Thurles Sarsfields before registering a memorable two-point win. “Ballyea went seven points down against Crusheen early on in that game. The lads dug deep and ground out a result. They did the same against …

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Davy’s third goal in sight

Sitting down to plan out Clare’s programme for the 2016 hurling season, manager Davy Fitzgerald underlined three goals – get out of Division 1 B, do well in the league, be ready for the championship clash with Waterford. It’s so far two-from-two, with the third objective looming large on Sunday. The two league meetings have added to the game, Fitzgerald feels. “Waterford went on about frees the last day. Look at the stats in relation to the frees they had the last day and the day before, you will see that Clare came out at the wrong end of both of them. It was even enough the last day but we were well down the day before. Our possession was higher than Waterford. “Waterford have a certain way of playing. It’s going to be very hard for this to be a high-scoring game, we got good scores the last day when there was very little space in the middle third …

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Clare well beaten by Tipperary in Thurles

Tipperary 2-11 Clare 1-8 CLARE’S chances of involving themselves in the contest for promotion to division 2 suffered a big setback in Thurles on Saturday afternoon when they fell to Tipperary, who now join Clare on four points from four games. Once Tipperary scored their first half goal Clare never looked likely to push the county county and the nearest they came to them was four points, six minutes from full-time. In a display which had echoes of their first half performance against Sligo, Clare simply gave the ball away too often when they went into contact. Tipperary were also more adept at funelling back and then breaking forward at pace. Tipperary led 1-5 to 0-4 at half time with Conor Sweeney netting in the 11th minute. Liam Casey delivered a long ball, which Sweeney flicked to the net as he was challenged by Gordon Kelly. Michael Quinlivan, who went off with a hamstring injury in the opening half and …

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Eleven Clare players nominated for team of the year

Eleven Clare hurlers have been nominated for this year’s U-21 Team of the Year Awards, which will be broadcast live from Croke Park on Saturday, October 11 on TG4. In addition, two players from the Clare team that won three-in-a-row All-Ireland titles, are also nominated for the Player of the Year Award. Colm Galvin has been nominated for the award for the second successive year, while he is joined by Aaron Cunningham and Wexford star Conor McDonald on the three man list. A Player of the Year from the ‘B’ championship will also be announced as part of the live broadcast. Five players who were named on the inaugural Team of the Year in 2013 are again in line to be honoured. Clare trio, Seadhna Morey, Colm Galvin and Tony Kelly, who won both the senior and young player of the year award for 2013, are looking to add this honour to the All-Ireland medals they won following their win …

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A great day for young fans

THE most telling moment in Thurles on Saturday evening was when hundreds of determined Clare youngsters, mostly under the age of 10, lined up four or five deep on both sidelines in Semple Stadium. It should be noted that they leaped over the hoardings with a minute or two still left on Colm Lyons stopwatch, determined to position themselves in the scramble for photo opportunities and autographs. It underlines the depth of interest engendered in the children of Clare when Podge Collins is still on the field at 7.30pm, well over an hour after the game finished. It’s likely that Antrim were well up the road towards Belfast and the famous Glens, by the time the Clare players eventually made the dressing room. Perhaps that’s where the real value in Clare’s facile win was. It gave an opportunity for the children of the county to storm onto Semple Stadium, surround their heroes and make sure that they didn’t get away …

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