Kilkenny present tough test for Clare

CLARE travel to Kilkenny for their opening match in the National Camogie League on Sunday, hoping to avenge the seven-point defeat they suffered from the Leinster side in the championship last summer.

Both sides are under new management for the 2012 season and Clare’s John Carmody will be hoping his charges will not be on the receiving end of a backlash from a Kilkenny side, who suffered a gut wrenching 3-14 to 0-6 defeat from Cork in their opening game.
Brendan Williams will want to forget that outing to Cork and secure his first win as the manager and he will be hoping scores will come more easily that they did they last day. Five of Kilkenny’s six points came from placed balls, with Aoife Neary displaying the accuracy she is reknowned for.
Clare are under no illusion that they will meet a side determined to bounce back from that heavy defeat. With players on the Clare panel, who have met and suffered at the hands of Kilkenny in All-Ireland minor finals in 2008 and 2009, this could be an opportunity for Clare to bag an opening win in the league and maybe settle an old score or two also.
The Clare team will be selected from the following panel Shónagh Enright, Claire McMahon, Denise Lynch, Emer and Ailish Considine, Katie Cahill (Kilmaley); Fiona and Siobhán Lafferty, Sinéad and Patricia O’Loughlin, Brid McCarthy (Inagh-Kilnamona); Orlaith Duggan, Aisling Hannon (Clooney Quin); Chloe Morey, Naomi Carroll, Máire McGrath, Sinéad Tuohy, Kate Connor (Sixmilebridge); Carol O’Leary, Róisín and Sharon McMahon, Aimee McInerney (Newmarket-on-Fergus); Kate Lynch (Kilkishen); Susan Vaughan, Marion O’Brien, Mairéad Scanlon, Danielle Sheedy (Scariff-Ogonnelloe); Suzie O’Shea (Ballyea); Susan Fahy (Whitegate); Sarah Sherlock (Truagh-Clonlara); Ann Marie McMahon (Crusheen) and Evelyn Glynn (Killanena).