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Clare clubs represented at All-Ireland 7’s

BANNER Ladies’ Football Club hit the road this weekend when both the seniors and the U-14s participate in All-Ireland seven-a-side competitions in Dublin.Both teams will part company at the Red Cow as the seniors, who are the current All-Ireland Intermediate Champions, head north for Naomh Mearnóg/St Sylvester’s in Portmarnock and the U-14s head south to the Kilmacud Crokes grounds in Stillorgan to join teams from all over the country. Banner have taken the laurels in the Kilmacud Crokes’ U-14 All-Ireland seven-a-side competitions only once, in 2006, when they also claimed the Football Féile Division 1 title, which they had previously won in 2005 and 2001 at Division 2 level. The seniors have just attained their third county championship in four consecutive appearances and are pencilled in to meet Cappawhite in the Munster Senior B Club semi-final on October 1. The Banner beat Cappawhite in last year’s All-Ireland seven-a-side intermediate final, adding another element of spice to the Munster club match. …

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Injury time strike ends Magpies’ reign

St Joseph’s  0-7 Doonbeg  0-6 A powerful last quarter at Lissycasey on Saturday saw St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield cause the shock of the 2011 Clare Senior Football Championship by ousting the defending champions, Doonbeg.The Magpies may have been most people’s favourites to win this one but few will deny St Joseph’s were deserving winners on a day when a strong wind and driving rain made conditions very difficult for the players.Shrewd changes in the second half played a big part in this win, with substitutes Christy O’Brien and Colm Mullen kicking the final two scores of the match. From his juvenile days, Mullen was noted as an accurate and skillful forward. With Saturday’s game in the first minute of injury time, the ball was delivered to the St Joseph’s man and from 40 yards out on the right wing he made no mistake for what proved to be the winning score.Doora-Barfield looked to be in a strong position when they trailed …

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Time for West Clare clubs to amalgamate?

ST Joseph’s Doora-Barefield’s stunning defeat of county champions Doonbeg has underlined the changing demographics of Clare football. Couple this with Cratloe’s advancement to the semi-final and the fact that Wolfe Tones should really have beaten Kilkee and there is clear evidence that West Clare’s football power base is eroding rapidly.It is a common belief in the west that this development is not good for Clare football. The fact that many Cratloe, Doora-Barefield and Wolfe Tones footballers are dual players is held as evidence against them. The view is that these players will opt to play hurling, rather than football, for Clare if they have a choice to make.However, before anybody in West Clare suggests that the rise of East and Mid-Clare football is bad for the game in the county, they should examine why many players from their own areas don’t represent the county. If some of the top footballers in West Clare can’t be bothered playing for Clare, why …

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Late Harte attack keeps Kilkee afloat

  Kilkee   0-12 Wolfe Tones  2-6 FOUR points down and a man short two minutes from the end of normal time, Kilkee looked to have kicked their last ball in 2011. Another team might have accepted that they were gone and thought about heading for home but Kilkee stuck at it and three Michael O’Shea frees drew them to within a point of Wolfe Tones. Following the third of these frees, which was kicked in the fourth minute of injury time, Wolfe Tones goalkeeper Jason Casey lined up the kick-out. Unfortunately, for the Shannon men, the kick-out went straight down the middle where Barry Harte was waiting. The Kilkee centre-forward didn’t need much encouragement to run at Wolfe Tones and angle over a magnificent equalising left-footed point.Seconds later, Michael Talty called for the ball, meaning St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield would have to wait at least a week to find out who their semi-final opponents will be.The plus for Wolfe Tones is …

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Kilmurry’s second string do the business

Kilmurry Ibrickane  0-7 O’Curry’s  0-5 AS praiseworthy as this result is from Kilmurry Ibrickane’s viewpoint, it is not a great sign of the strength of the intermediate football championship when a club’s second team reaches the final. There is no doubt but that Kilmurry fully deserve their place in the final against Clondegad. They have won all four of their games and nobody can argue with that.Having been relegated from senior last year, O’Curry’s would have been hoping for an immediate return. This result rules that out and O’Curry’s will now have to hope that their older players don’t retire and that some of their younger ones keep developing.In a game played in exceptionally difficult conditions in Kilrush, Kilmurry led 0-4 to 0-2 at half-time, with Odran O’Dwyer scoring all four points, while Ger Quinlan was the only O’Curry’s man to get on the scoresheet in both halves.O’Dwyer scored again for Kilmurry early in the second half to extend their …

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Kilmurry’s second string do the business

Kilmurry Ibrickane  0-7 O’Curry’s  0-5 AS praiseworthy as this result is from Kilmurry Ibrickane’s viewpoint, it is not a great sign of the strength of the intermediate football championship when a club’s second team reaches the final. There is no doubt but that Kilmurry fully deserve their place in the final against Clondegad. They have won all four of their games and nobody can argue with that.Having been relegated from senior last year, O’Curry’s would have been hoping for an immediate return. This result rules that out and O’Curry’s will now have to hope that their older players don’t retire and that some of their younger ones keep developing.In a game played in exceptionally difficult conditions in Kilrush, Kilmurry led 0-4 to 0-2 at half-time, with Odran O’Dwyer scoring all four points, while Ger Quinlan was the only O’Curry’s man to get on the scoresheet in both halves.O’Dwyer scored again for Kilmurry early in the second half to extend their …

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Gaels and Kilrush through to final (Senior B)

Shannon Gaels  1-10 Ennistymon   1-6 WHILE neither team wanted to play in the Senior B Championship and would ideally have much preferred to have been playing championship quarter-final football last Saturday, they served up a competitive hour’s football in Quilty. Following this four-point win, Shannon Gaels will play Kilrush in the final on Sunday week.Brian Cunningham, John Paul O’Neill and Noel Kennedy kicked early Gaels points before Michael Houlihan and Seán McGonigle, with a well-worked goal, replied for Ennistymon.However, Shannon Gaels added a brace of points to take a one-point, interval lead, 0-5 to 1-1.John Paul O’Neill netted the crucial score of the second half, when he goaled 15 minutes from time.Shannon Gaels: Keith Ryan; Brian Bermingham, John Neylon, Fergal Kenny; Michael Coughlan, Frank Cleary, Tomás Cleary; Michael O’Donoghue, Noel Kennedy; Fergal O’Neill, Brian Cunningham, John Bermingham; Brian O’Shea, John Paul O’Neill, David Neylon.Subs: Seán Reynolds for Fergal O’Neill and Fergal O’Neill for Brian O’Shea.Ennistymon: Noel Sexton; Michael Devitt, Laurence …

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