Sports

THERE was more than one Clare man wearing a blue and white top in the Waterford dug-out last Monday. While Davy Fitzgerald was directing operations for the Munster finalists, Naomh Eoin man Michael Liddane was also experiencing close up what Munster championship hurling entails.

CLARE’S dream of a place in the Munster Intermediate Hurling Championship final was shattered at Semple Stadium in Thurles on Monday when a better-balanced Waterford outfit came out on top.

BASED on their recent Garry Cup and O’Gorman Cup form, Lissycasey seem to have regrouped superbly after a disappointing 2009.

IF league form is to be taken as a guide then Shannon Gaels and Wolfe Tones should emerge from group two for the play-offs but followers of Gaelic games will be the first to admit that, for the most part, league form is rarely an accurate indicator come championship time.

Same stage and same venue. Last year, Kilrush beat Cooraclare in the championship group stage in Doonbeg and that’s where the teams meet again in their opening championship game on Saturday.

CAN Kilkee take advantage of Kilmurry Ibrickane’s managerial uncertainty and pick up a crucial opening championship win this weekend? Kilkee will definitely be hoping to pick up any advantage they can glean from Clare manager Micheál McDermott’s decision to step down from his club post last Tuesday week. While the Clare manager hadn’t formally been ratified at the Kilmurry Ibrickane AGM, he had returned to the job in real terms.

Ballyea will make their first appearance in the race for the 2010 Clare senior hurling championship title when they take on Clonlara at Shannon this Sunday.

While Newmarket are fancied to top group three, with opinion is divided as to who will join them from the group in the quarter-finals.