Minors to maintain momentum

Clare and Dublin will make history at Croke Park on Sunday when they meet in the All-Ireland minor hurling semi-final for the first time.

After a disappointing start to their campaign in April, when they lost to then-defending Munster champions, Waterford at Walsh Park, Clare have bounced back. Wins over Kerry and a fancied Tipperary side gave them a semi-final date with Limerick and having come out on top at the Gaelic Grounds, they had another opportunity against Waterford last month, this time in the provincial final at Semple Stadium.
A powerful performance from the Banner boys saw them avenge the first round loss and give them their first Munster title in 21 years.
Having lost to competition favourites Kilkenny in the Leinster final, the Dubs bounced back when they defeated Antrim in a quarter-final tie at Crossmaglen two weeks ago.
At the time of writing, Clare hadn’t finalised their line up for Sunday, due to injury concerns to two of the side that started in the provincial final.
Goalkeeper Ronan Taaffe suffered a dislocated shoulder in training on the August Bank Holiday Monday. He was treated at Connolly hospital in Dublin that evening and has been receiving regular physiotherapy since then. He has made a lot of progress and there is now a strong likelihood that he will be ready to take his place in the team. However, a final decision won’t be made until later in the week.
In the event the Tubber teenager is not fit in time for the game, Newmarket’s Niall Woods is on standby. The St Flannan’s goalkeeper impressed in the Harty Cup last season.
The other doubt is forward Cathal Malone from Ennistymon. Malone suffered a leg injury in training at the weekend and, as with Taaffe, his progress is being monitored this week.
Alan Mulready replaced Malone for the final 12 minutes of the Munster final and he will be among the contenders to get the call up if Malone is ruled out. Also believed to be strongly in the running are Aaron Cunningham from Wolfe Tones and Cathal Doohan from Ballyea, while Cathal O’Connell from Clonlara, who played the closing minutes of the Munster final, is also in the hunt for inclusion.
The defence is expected to be unchanged from that which played in the Munster final when Clare had five points to spare over Waterford, winning on a score of 1-16 to 1-11. Team captain Paul Flanagan will continue at full-back flanked by Haulie Vaughan and Seadna Morey while the half-back line will see Enda Boyce and Stephen O’Halloran flank Kevin Lynch. Colm Galvin and Tony Kelly are expected to continue in the middle of the field, while the forward line appears certain to include Jamie Shanahan, Paudge Collins, Dara Keane, Niall Arthur and David O’Halloran.
To succeed this week, Clare will have to, at least, repeat the form shown in the Munster final. On that occasion, the Clare defence was superb with midfielders Tony Kelly and Colm Galvin also doing very well. A repeat performance will be needed if the Munster champions are to get a grip on this week’s tie.
At this stage of the championship, Kilkenny have been installed, as the hot favourites to win the All-Ireland title but neither Clare nor Dublin are looking further than Sunday at this stage.
With so little known about the Dublin outfit, it is difficult to predict the outcome but given the experience Clare gained on the way to this stage with five games played, they should be ahead at the final whistle.
The throw-in time on Sunday is 1.30pm.

The nitty-gritty of victory
Attention to detail has been at the top of the list with the minor hurling management this season and things are no different as preparations are completed this week ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling semi-final against Dublin.
Joint managers Gerry O’Connor and Donal Moloney travelled to Crossmaglen last week to see their opponents in their quarter-final tie with Antrim.
“Physically, they are way bigger than us; they are similar to Limerick. We watched DVDs of their games. Dublin matched Kilkenny far better than Galway did. The only place they didn’t match Kilkenny was on scoreboard. They are very good in the air and we are facing a difficult test,” according to Gerry O’Connor.
The Éire Óg clubman was very impressed with Danny Sutcliffe at centre-back. “Their corner-backs are also very good. Ciarán Kilkenny and Glen Whelan are good in attack. They brought in an U-16, Cormac Costelloe at corner-forward and he scored 2-1 against Antrim who had five or six very good hurlers and were extremely very competitive.
“We have a tough challenge on our hands. Underage hurling in Dublin is good and it is also strong at colleges level. Their U-21 team are the Leinster champions. Hurling is going well in Dublin,” Gerry said.
“Limerick really worried us with a huge physical presence and Dublin are a bigger team so this is a concern for us. We really have a tough challenge ahead of us,” O’Connor added.
Was it difficult to get the players back into training after the Munster final win? “In fairness, the lads enjoyed themselves for a day or two but it was straight into the minor club and senior club championships. Munster is over now and we are in another competition and this is the first match in that phase. We don’t look too far ahead or too far back. Its all about the next match,” he replied.
The situation going into Sunday’s match is similar to the week ahead of the Munster final. “There are a number of players showing very good form in training and these include Alan Mulready, Aaron Cunningham and Cathal Doohan who are pressing hard for places in the starting line up,” he added.
There are concerns ahead of Sunday’s game with regard to the fitness of goalkeeper Ronan Taaffe and forward Cathal Malone. A final decision on the starting line up won’t be made until later this week.
“We are waiting for fitness reports on Ronan Taaffe and Cathal Malone. They are the two main concerns at present. It’s a catch-22 situation really. If you push too hard in training it may not help their recovery. We are working closely with the physio and we will decide later in the week,” he said.
Taaffe suffered a shoulder injury in training last week, while Malone was injured in training over the weekend. Both were in the starting line up in the Munster final with Taaffe between the posts and Malone at wing-forward.
“They are the only two worries at this stage. We have bee lucky enough all year to get through without injuries. I suppose this is why there is a panel and we must accept that it will happen at some stage of the season that a player will get injured,” concluded O’Connor.