New senior management team

At the November meeting of Clare Camogie Board on Monday night, a senior management team comprising Flan McInerney, Sixmilebridge; Trisha O’Grady, Newmarket and Peter Casey, Lisdoonvarna, was ratified for the 2012 season.
Flan McInerney has a long involvement with Sixmilebridge Camogie Club, coaching and managing teams from underage up to senior level. Newmarket’s Trisha O’Grady is a former Clare camogie player and has a long involvement with the Newmarket-on-Fergus club. Trisha was the Clare goalkeeper for a number of years and more recently has helped guide Newmarket to winning back-to-back county titles. Peter Casey is games development officer with Clare GAA and has been involved with the development of skills training at underage level over the years and last year coached Corofin hurling team.
Clare Camogie chairperson Orla Considine proposed the new management team at Monday night’s meeting and this was unanimously accepted by the delegates present. Addressing the meeting, Ms Considine paid tribute to the committee, which had been put in place to assist with the finding of new management. She also paid tribute to the outgoing management, who had worked hard with the senior panel and wished the incoming team good luck in their term ahead.
A new structure for the senior championship for 2012 has been proposed. There will be two groups of four teams, with the teams in Group 1 playing the four teams in Group 2, giving each team four games at the group stage. The teams who top each group will automatically qualify for the semi-finals, with the second team in each group going through to the quarter-finals. The third and fourth-placed teams in the groups go into play-offs for the other two quarter-final spots. This means Clare will have a minimum of five games in the 2012 senior championship.
A similar system will apply for the league, which will have two groups with teams playing the teams in the other group.
Clare have been included in Group 2 along with Kilkenny, Offaly and Wexford and they will play the teams in Group 1 who are Cork, Dublin, Galway and Tipperary.
In the league, Clare have been drawn in Group 1 along with Cork, Wexford and Dublin and they will play the teams in Group 1, Galway, Kilkenny, Offaly and Tipperary. The top two in each group will contest the semi-finals.