Sports

Derrick Lynch Ailish Considine is Australia bound in the coming week as she prepares to link up once more with her Adelaide Crows teammates for the 2021 AFLW season. The Kilmihil woman first signed for the Crows in 2018 after taking part in the Crosscoders International Rookie camp. She enjoyed immediate success with victory in the 2019 Grand Final, with the former Clare ladies football star kicking a first quarter goal en route to the title. The outbreak of Covid-19 earlier this year saw her return home to West Clare, but the continued uncertainty surrounding the spread of the virus meant that her planned return down under was put on hold. She is now due to head back to Adelaide on December 8 but while she will reach her destination in plenty time for Christmas, quarantine rules mean that she will spend the big day in a hotel room with her isolation period not due to expire until December 26. …

Derrick Lynch The 2020 Annual Convention of Clare Camogie will held virtually on Monday night next, with just one position on the executive set to be decided by election. Marie Louise Kaiser is stepping down as secretary of the board, with two names in the hat to succeed the Newmarket-on-Fergus clubwoman in the role. Ann Sanz of Banner and Ciaran Sheehan of Tulla are seeking election to the position with the result set to be announced on the night. All other officers are expected to be returned to their positions unopposed, with Cratloe’s Joe O’Donnell continuing for another term as chairman. In his address to this year’s Convention, he reflected on the fact that 2020 had begun in a positive manner for Clare camogie with some great wins in the National League for the senior and junior sides, while the Munster final victory for the minor squad was also a highlight of the year. He outlined that the outbreak of …

Derrick Lynch 21 motions will be debated by clubs at this year’s annual Convention of Clare GAA which will be held virtually on December 15. A directive in recent weeks from Croke Park urged clubs and county boards not to submit motions of a contentious nature for discussion at this time, given that debate online would be of a limited nature. None of the motions for this year’s Convention relate to league or championship structures, with that issue set to be debated at a later date when the annual structures meeting is held. New formats for both the hurling and football championships are on the cards after the decision not to relegate any teams in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic potentially having an impact on player availability. Tulla GAA club have submitted the largest number of motions for discussion, including that “Clare GAA set up an independent body to look at how our underage hurling development squad system is …

Derrick Lynch Clare’s 2020 Munster minor football campaign is finally set to get underway in the coming weeks. It emerged on Tuesday evening that the GAA had been given the green light to resume action at the minor and U-20 grades following the implementation of Level 3 restrictions. All activity at those levels had been suspended since the country entered lockdown in late October, just days before Clare were due to begin their Munster minor football campaign against Tipperary. That game now looks set to be played within the next two weeks with Munster GAA understood to be holding a meeting on Wednesday evening to finalise a fixture schedule. It is believed that some of the games could be played on weekday evenings under lights, with Clare potentially beginning their campaign on the weekend of December 11. The squad are understood to have returned to training this week. Clare are due to travel to take on Tipperary in Semple Stadium …

Derrick Lynch One of Clare football’s longest serving stalwarts has called time on his intercounty career. Miltown’s Gordon Kelly has announced that he has retired his county jersey after 15 years of service to the cause. He made his debut during the 2006 season after being called into the panel by joint managers Donie Buckley and Michael Brennan. Kelly, who captained Clare during that time, outlined that wanting to spend more time with his family was one of the main factors in his decision to step back. “I was looking at the fact that I am 38 next year but a lot of it comes back to family reasons too. I have a wife and two young children which takes up a lot of time. When you are playing both club and county, you are looking at a 10 or 11 month long season and it is unfair on your family to be gone that amount of time so I …

Derrick Lynch All Ireland Ladies Intermediate Football Semi Final: Meath 4-13 Clare 0-4 2020 came to an end for the Clare ladies footballers on a day when it was clear that their quota of luck had been used up in reaching this stage. Events on the final day of the group campaign had seen the Banner navigate the most unlikely path to the last four, but while it might have been a case of bonus territory, there will still be a sense of regret at the opportunity lost. In the lead up to the game, the focus was on producing a performance, but on a day when nothing seemed to go to plan, it will be that, rather than the result, that will be the biggest disappointment. The other side of the coin is that Clare simply met a more experienced and powerful opponent who were streets ahead in terms of their development curve, with their defeats in the last …

The Clare ladies footballers make their bid to reach a first All Ireland Intermediate final since 2016 this weekend as they take on Meath in their last four tie in O'Moore Park Portlaoise.

Derrick Lynch When Clare ladies football manager James Murrihy set out his stall for 2020, you can be certain that facing into the last week of November was not something he had budgeted for. The Kilmurry Ibrickane man is in his third year in the role having taken over from Neil Moynihan, who also led Clare to this stage of the championship in 2016. He admits it has been a season like no other, and has meant that everyone has had to adapt to a different way of working in all walks of life. He feels the innovations forced on people over the last few months have also led to unexpected opportunities of how to take things to the next level. “When we met in the Temple Gate on October 15 2019, little did we think that over 14 months later we would still be playing competitive football in the 2020 championship. Everything that has transpired over the last seven …