Clare seniors face Cork in Clarecastle

THE Clare senior ladies football team enter the championship arena next Wednesday evening in Clarecastle, when Cork come visiting. The match will throw in at 8pm.
Cork recently won the national league division 1 title, while Clare beat Fermanagh in the Division 3 decider. So it would appear at first glance that Clare have little chance of winning this weekend. When the teams met in last year’s Munster final, Cork won by 13 points but were subsequently beaten by Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
Clare also reached the quarter-final stage where they lost narrowly to the Dublin team who went on to win the All-Ireland.
While Clare’s league status and last year’s defeat to Cork doesn’t augur well for them, they do have some outstanding attacking talent in their panel. Eimear Considine, Niamh O’Dea, team captain Niamh Keane and Naomi Carroll are among the best forwards in the province, while if Louise Henchy and Marie Considine link up at midfield, they are both capable of kicking crucial scores.
Defensively, Clare will be reliant on goalkeeper Emma O’Driscoll, full-back Lorraine Kelly, Sineád Eustace and Laurie Ryan.
O’Dea and Carroll, along with Ryan haven’t played much football lately as all three having been sitting the Leaving Cert. They will be available next Wednesday, although Coolmeen’s Grace Lynch will be absent. She picked up an ankle injury about six weeks ago and has yet to recover.
Dual players Róisín McMahon and Fiona Lafferty will be playing for the county camogie team against Galway in Athenry on Saturday before togging for the footballers on Wednesday.
Valerie Mulcahy, Briege Corkery, who has not played for a year, Geraldine O’Flynn, centre-back Bríd Stack and full-back Angela Walsh are amongst the league champions’ leading players.
The winners will play Kerry or Tipperary in the Munster final, while the losers will enter the All-Ireland qualifiers, which operate on a similar basis to the mens.