Sports

Kerry 0-13 Clare 1-7 Better that Clare received an alarm call last Saturday in Killarney than next Sunday in Carrick-on-Shannon. That’s one of the few pluses the county footballers took home from the 2011 McGrath Cup final. Don’t take too much notice of the final scoreline. Clare were outplayed in most sectors and could have lost by up to 10 points. as Kerry kicked a dozen wides and were without several of last year’s championship panel. Gary Brennan was definitely a huge loss to Clare, though. Without the Clondegad midfielder, they were totally outplayed in that sector, where only Cathal O’Connor made any inroads. Of equal concern was the manner in which the Clare attack malfunctioned. David Tubridy, Rory Donnelly and Alan Clohessy found that the Kerry full-back line was a much hardier line than what they had encountered recently from UCC, CIT and Waterford. That said, the quality of ball kicked into them was very poor. It was often …

Waterford 2-19 Clare 2-18 When Clare went to the half time break in Sunday’s Waterford Crystal senior hurling tournament semi-final with an 11-point lead, the odds suggested that they were on their way to next weekend’s final. Midway through the second half, the picture had taken a dramatic turn and it was clear that the home side would struggle to finish on top. They failed to match the commitment of the visitors in the second half and, more accurately, to deal with the threat of Seamus Prendergast after he moved to full-forward when the teams came out for the resumption of play.The physically strong Waterford man caused a lot of problems for both Cian Dillon and James McInerney and his ability to win possession led to a lot of Waterford scores. While Clare can argue that referee Johnnie Ryan awarded a few ‘soft’ frees to the visitors, the reality is that the home team failed to maintain first half form …

History was made in Clonmel on Wednesday when a track-bred dog won the Boylesports.com derby for the first time. The history maker was Central City (Ballymac Maeve-Baby Hazel) owned and trained by Brendan Duffy, Derry.In a one-sided final, he led Kyle Ranger (Matt Hyland-Ballyorgan) owned in Patrickswell by Marie Field. In his semi-final, Kyle Ranger tumbled and appeared to pick up a bad injury after his three lengths win over Needham Skill. However, contrary to expectations, there was a final but there was only one dog in it once the pair left slips. An August pup, Central City had a short but amazing coursing season, winning a cup in his first outing before qualifying for Clonmel from the Kilcreevin-Ballymote meeting.For the first time in recent years, Clare owners drew a complete blank at the national meeting. There was no Clare dogs left in the derby after the first round on Monday but Tromora Darkie, Windfarm Swift and Ocean Tolula made …

St Flannan’s  2-7 St Brendan’s  0-6 A storming opening quarter during which time they scored 2-2, laid the foundations for St Flannan’s merited win over St Brendan’s in the opening round of the Frewan Cup, Munster Colleges Junior A Football Championship, played at Croagh in Limerick on Monday.As a result of this win, St Flannan’s, who are managed by Benny Duggan and Donal Vaughan, are through to a semi-final date with either Clonmel or Coláiste Chriost Rí.Because the Ennis side includes two members of their Harty Cup team, Shane O’Donnell and Martin O’Leary, who will be in action in the semi-final this Sunday, the football tie was brought forward by two days.Both made valuable contributions to the win, with O’Leary contributing 2-2, the opening goal coming from the penalty spot after he was fouled in the square.St Brendan’s had the game’s first score but St Flannan’s went in front within a couple of minutes when O’Leary converted from the penalty …

The masters fixtures schedule for 2011, as outlined at the January board meeting, was ratified at this week’s GAA county board meeting despite strong opposition from Doonbeg’s Michael Neenan.The county senior football champion’s delegate voiced strong opposition to the proposed 10-week gap between the first and second rounds of the championship and he called on clubs to defer making a decision and spend more time examining the schedule with a view to change. “We can’t support this but I haven’t the answers,” he told the meeting. “Ten weeks between rounds is not acceptable. None of our county teams have benefitted from this,” he added. “Why should we rush. There is no reason why we can’t play when we are out of the Munster championship. It’s backwards we are going,” he said.Neenan then questioned the make-up of the committee that drew up the plan. “There was no football club represented,” he said. Chairman Michael O’Neill asked him to withdraw that statement, …

KILDARE man, Niall Browne is one of the three footballers to have linked up with Clare under the GAA’s parentage rule. Browne, who plays with Kildare junior club Two Mile House, started at wing-forward against Kerry in the McGrath Cup final. He ended up at midfield at the start of the second half, having also spent first-half minutes in the full-forward line. Browne, who works in recruitment in Kildare and Dublin, is eligible to play for Clare because his mother Nancy Hassett is from Cooraclare.Before he joined the Clare panel he had travelled in Australia with county captain, Gordon Kelly and Ennistymon’s Laurence Healy.“I went travelling with them in Australia for a good few months and I got to know them very well. We were all interested in football and spent a lot of time talking about it,” the 28-year-old former Kildare footballer told The Clare Champion.This was how Micheál McDermott became aware of Browne’s Clare connection. Once Central Council …

FROM the moment the draws for the play-off stages of this season’s Dr Harty Cup (Munster Colleges Senior A Hurling Championship) were made, the possibility of a meeting  between title holders, Ard Scoil Rís, Limerick and competition specialists, St Flannan’s sparked huge excitement.With both winning their quarter-finals last week, the stage is set for what could well prove to be one of the games of the season as they meet in the semi-final on Sunday.The Gaelic Grounds in Limerick will host both semi-finals, with the clash of Ard Scoil and Flannan’s opening proceedings at 2pm to be followed by the meeting of Our Lady’s Templemore and Charleville CBS at 3.30pm. Noel Cosgrove, Tipperary will referee the Flannan’s v Ard Scoil game, with Limerick’s Mike O’Connor in charge of the other semi-final.Leaders in the Harty Cup roll of honour with 21 titles to their credit, St Flannan’s haven’t won the title since 2005. Last year’s win by the Limerick school, who …

The effects emigration is having on GAA clubs in the county was highlighted again at this week’s county board meeting when a letter from Wolfe Tones was read.The Shannon club outlined that only 14 of last year’s senior panel of 25 will be available this year due to emigration and retirements. As a result, 11 members of their intermediate panel will be promoted to the senior squad, along with three from their junior B panel. “This will leave six or seven of our intermediate team from last year in limbo,” the letter said.They will not be in a position to field at intermediate level and instead of having three adult teams, they will now have two. They proposed that in addition to a senior team, they would field at junior A level. Addressing the delegates, Wolfe Tones delegate Joe Kelly said, “In the last 24 hours two more of our players have indicated that they plan to emigrate to Canada …