Sports

Derrick Lynch: COMMENT I am not sure how familiar the Desert Rose Band are with either Ladies Football or Camogie, but their big hit from 1987 goes a long way in describing the manner in which the two associations operate. It is becoming increasingly clear that at national level, it really is a case of One Step Forward And Two Steps Back when it comes to trying to coax them to work together for the good of the most important resource they have; their players. How many times over recent years have the two associations been the sole architects of negative headlines in the face of fixture controversies? Just take the most recent cases of Orla O’Dwyer in Tipperary and Caoimhe McGrath in Waterford. Both are equally talented in both codes, but both have also found themselves in the situation where they have either had to choose which team to play with, or in the case of O’Dwyer, undergo the …

Derrick Lynch When the half-time whistle blows in Cusack Park on Sunday, it will mark the exact halfway point of Clare’s National Football League Division Two campaign. Depending on how other results are going, it could also see them having made the jump from the bottom of the league standings into the top half of the table. That might be a hypothetical situation but it sums up just how inconsistent and unpredictable the second tier division has been so far in 2020, and chances are that will hold true until the last whistle is blown in the final round of games. Inconsistent and unpredictable are also two terms which could be used to sum up how Clare have been so far in this three game old campaign. In fact, you could argue that they have been that way for a number of years when it comes to the National League. Since gaining promotion to Division Two, Clare only managed back …

CLARE camogie manager Ger O’Connell has labelled the treatment of female athletes playing GAA as ‘ridiculous’. O’Connell was speaking to the Clare Champion before his side’s trip to Kilkenny this weekend and he aired many grievances he has with the current situation for his side as well as the lady footballers. He believes there is a lack of respect shown to female athletes, “who train so hard in every county,” by officials and supporters and that something that needs to change urgently. “After the farce of what happened in Limerick, it is just not right. For two teams to be warming up and the crowd leaving – what kind of a message does that show the girls. The girls train so hard in every county to get that bit of respect that is deserved and needed. It’s not right. “I think people that go to games can show a bit of respect and stay for 20 minutes of a camogie …

Derrick Lynch Clare will be hoping to make the most of home comforts on Sunday when they host Meath in Doonbeg in their National Ladies Football League Division Two encounter. It has been a difficult opening to the campaign for Clare, with three games against senior Ulster opposition resulting in three defeats. Sunday is Clare’s first time back in Doonbeg since the opening round and their Leinster opponents are a fellow intermediate side. Clare selector Enda O’Halloran says while results have not gone their way, they have been more focused on tracking progression of performances. “It has been a really tough start. We have had three hard games with Armagh at home and then two away games in Ulster. We have looked to improve in all three games and we are confident that has happened. We have reviewed what we have done so far and maybe on the scoring front we need to improve a bit more and create a …

CLARE welcome Wexford to Frank Healy Park this Saturday in the last eight of the Oscar Traynor Trophy and while the counties are miles apart, they are plenty familiar with each other. Not only did Clare defeat Wexford 2-0 in the 2017 Oscar Traynor semi-final en route to winning the competition, Clare’s manager Shane Keegan was at the helm of Wexford Youths for five years. Under Keegan, many of the current Wexford team won the League of Ireland First Division and Keegan knows the quality of the players his side will face this weekend. “I’d say at least half of the team, if not more, would have played for me at one stage or another at Wexford Youths, where I was manager for five seasons. A lot of their stronger players; Craig Delaney, Gary McCabe, Paul Murphy and more, played for me. They are a very strong side and maybe it is a little bit of a help to us …

Tulla United go in search of a place in the last four of the FAI U17 Cup this weekend. The East Clare outfit make the short trip to Galway on Saturday to take on Mervue United at their home grounds in a quarter-final tie. Tulla have been in fine goalscoring form in this competition so far this season, beating Coole FC 3-2 in the opening round before a 3-0 win over Shannon Town. They faced a tricky assignment in travelling to Waterford to face Tramore, but edged a high scoring tie 5-4, before beating College Corinthians 6-5 on a penalty shootout after finishing 1-1 in extra time. Emmet Lynch and Sean Withycombe will be their chief scoring threats in a game that gets underway on Saturday at 2pm. Elsewhere this weekend, Bridge United Youths welcome Charleville FC from the Limerick District League to Sixmilebridge on Saturday at 2pm hoping to secure a semi final place in the Munster Youths Cup. …

For Clare’s elite soccer clubs, February is generally a month for fine tuning and preparing for the business end of national and provincial competitions. Unfortunately for all supporters of Clare soccer, this is the first year for quite some time that there is no representative in the latter stages of the standard bearing competitions. These are competitions that all Clare clubs are striving to win in order to be the first to claim that major title, which has eluded so many great Clare teams in the past. It is hard to believe It’s now 30 years since the great Avenue Utd team played in the FAI Junior Cup final, and while Newmarket Celtic have played in a number of Munster Finals in that time, Clare are still no closer to having a club win that big one. This year is no different, and I think even the most avid supporters of Avenue United, Newmarket Celtic and Shannon Town will agree …

CONOR Mullen knows what it takes to win Oscar Traynor titles as he right back has done so twice with Clare and the captain thinks his side can go all the way once again. Clare face a tough Wexford side riddled with class but Mullen says the knockout stages hold no fears for his side. “Since we have progressed past the group stages, we have the pick of all of Clare now, which is ideal. It is great to have lads that have been there and done that to come back into the side. To have two junior internationals returning to the side [Stephen Kelly and Eoin Hayes] is going to make a huge difference. “Soccer in Clare is very strong at the moment with Newmarket doing so well, Avenue are getting back to where they should be – the standard in this county is very strong. Obviously, the standard in Wexford is very good too but with all the …