Fixtures controversy as Clare ladies hammered

Kerry 8-25   Clare 1-10

THE Clare ladies’ Munster Senior Football Championship campaign concluded in an abrupt 36-point defeat in Scartaglin last Saturday. On top of a 12-point defeat to Cork a week earlier, the latest result capped an awful week for the sport in the county.

Seconds after losing to Cork in Shannon last Friday week, a county board officer said it wasn’t a bad loss, given that Cork are reigning All-Ireland champions. That’s the absence of ambition that has led Clare from competing in the last eight of the All-Ireland series to a 36-point hammering against a side they have competed evenly with in recent years.

The starting 15 against Kerry showed six changes from the team beaten by Cork.

“No fault of the team management but rather that of the fixtures officer, who had somehow got the fixture date wrong. Thus players had arranged and paid for holiday breaks for this weekend, only to learn at a late stage of the actual confirmed date of the game,” is how the Clare Ladies Football County Board explained the absence of players.

However, Clare fixtures secretary James Lafferty hit back, claiming he was given incorrect information last March.

“When I was doing my fixtures plan, I got the Munster Council fixtures. I went by the Munster fixtures for my draft plan. The date that Munster Council gave me for the Kerry match was July 16.

“When John Bourke [Clare manager] was talking to the Tipperary manager about a recent challenge match, it was brought to his attention and then to mine, that when Munster Council secretary Marie Halvey checked her fixtures, she discovered that she had made a mistake. The date should have been July 6,” James Lafferty told The Clare Champion on Monday.

“She was big enough to apologise to me,” he added.

Kerry were well ahead at half-time, leading 5-11 to 1-5. Niamh O’Dea scored the Clare goal in the sixth minute and while it was a quality effort, Kerry didn’t let up once they assumed control of the game.

The home county added 3-14 in the second half, with Clare responding with a mere 0-7 by way of a fragile riposte.

Two years ago, Clare competed in an All-Ireland quarter-final against Dublin; now many of the same players were part of a team annihilated by 36 points.

Clearly their level of preparation has dwindled and this is something that the Clare County Board must take responsibility for. They appoint management and when they had decent management, under David O’Brien, they didn’t work hard enough to keep him on board. The game in Clare deserves more than this shambles.

Clare: Grace Lynch; Marie Foran, Aisling Corbett, Niamh Cavanagh; Róisín Looney, Niamh Keane, Kayleigh McCormack; Minnie Considine (capt), Eimear Considine (0-2); Amy O’Brien, Niamh O’Dea (1-3), Katie Connole; Ailish Considine (0-5), Emer Hillary, Niamh Lardner.
Sub: Orlaith Lynch.
Kerry: Edel Murphy; Cáit Lynch, Aislinn Desmond, Gina Crowley; Breeda Lane, Caroline Kelly, Julie Brosnan; Megan O’Connell (0-2), Bernie Breen (0-1); Sarah Houlihan (0-3), Margaret Fitzgerald (2-4), Laura Rogers (2-2); Patrice Dennehy (1-3), Louise Galvin (1-3), Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh (1-5).
Subs: Deirdre Corridon (1-2).