Tag Archives: All Ireland Senior Hurling Final

As Clare’s flagship hurlers make their final preparations for a first All-Ireland Senior Championship Final appearance since winning it in 2013, manager Brian Lohan is hoping that the county will make a united stand in Croke Park this Sunday (3.30pm). Having led the Banner to All-Ireland success as a player in those unforgettable groundbreaking years in 1995 and ’97, the four-time All-Star is now hoping to do so as a manager aided by a Banner backing that has had a remarkable bond with the four-time All-Star since the first sighting of that famed red helmet in a saffron and blue jersey. Amidst a wave of buoyancy, bunting and banners throughout the county these past two weeks, Lohan is looking to give the Clare support something more to cheer about this Sunday. “Clare hurling is a great brand in the county so it’s brilliant to be involved in Clare hurling and it always has been. I think there’s a real affinity …

It’s 2019 and the Dublin footballers are trying to go where no other team has been before in the history of the GAA: ‘Five in a row, five in a row, never again will there be a five in a row’. And all that! Dublin are marching behind the band and their great free spirit Jack McCaffrey is smiling and looking all around him – he’s almost waving at the crowd. Enjoying it. Embracing it. Inhaling it. Encouraging others to do the same. Tony Kelly is a hurling free spirit. A generational talent like McCaffrey, but he’s different. There will be no smiling, court jesting or enjoyment. Just business. The business of the hurling match. The biggest match of his life. “It’s for everyone else to enjoy; we have a job to do,” he says. “The players can enjoy it after if we go and actually do the business. When we get there it’s important to win. That’s all we’re focused on.” …

When it comes to the greatest stage in hurling no Clare person is more experienced than Davy Fitzgerald. Having witnessed both sides of the emotional rollercoaster that is All-Ireland final day Davy has won and lost All-Ireland finals as a player (Winner 1995 1997, Runner Up 2002) and as a manager (Waterford 2008 runner up, Clare winners 2013) and knows exactly what it takes to bring Liam McCarthy home. The three time All-Star goalkeeper feels that to win at the highest level you need special players. “It’s quite simple really. You have to have the players. No amount of hard work or tactical know how will turn a team into All-Ireland champions. You have to have that raw material that is quality players and we definitely possess those players in Clare. This Clare team have been very unlucky not to have won an All-Ireland in the last five or six years and that’s despite the fact that they had to …

On September 28, 2013 eighteen year old Shane O’Donnell sensationally wrote his name into hurling history when scoring a never to be forgotten 3-3 from play which secured the Banner their fourth ever All-Ireland Senior hurling title. Eleven years on from that glorious Saturday evening Clare are back in the greatest show and as if it was written in the stars it’s the rebels of Cork that stand in the way once more. It’s Hoggy versus O’Donnell, it’s the Reds versus the Saffron and Blue, it’s the Banner versus the Rebels but as far as the man who holds a PhD in microbiology  is concerned the 2013 final will count for absolutely nothing once Limerick referee Johnny Murphy throws in the sliotar on Sunday. “On a superficial level there’s so many parallels between now and then but on a hurling level it’s almost chalk and cheese to be honest about it. It’s very hard to draw much relevance from the game …

Conor Cleary will become the first Miltown Malbay man to play in an All-Ireland senior final since 1934 – 90 years on from Georgie Comerford’s big day he’s eagerly looking forward to it writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh. Just 30 seconds into the spinetingling promotional video posted on Clare GAA’s social media channels accompanying the announcement of the team for the All-Ireland semi-final told you how far hurling has come in the county over the past 30 years. With the backdrop of ‘The Mighty Rio Grande’ by post-rock band This Will Destroy, it cuts to stunning mural of pipers Willie Clancy and Michael Talty on the Ennis Road into Miltown Malbay and then to a young girl holding the number three jersey aloft opposite the statute to Clancy on the Main Street. All this just days before the 2024 Willie Clancy Summer School, but as Anthony Daly might say about Miltown Malbay by recalling his lines from the Ard Comhairle of …

John Conlon is the elder statesman of the Clare team in his 16th year of senior inter-county hurling but the Clonlara titan is kept young by those around him within the set up writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh. There aren’t many players who last the test of time by getting to play senior championship hurling in three decades, but that John Conlon has managed this feat is a testament to his endurance, longevity and ability to better himself into his mid-30s. It’s All-Ireland final week and as the elder statesman of the side the Clonlara titan has seen it all in his 16 years since stepping up to the senior ranks after the 2008 Under 21 campaign. That he’s still there and a rock on which Brian Lohan has built his team over the past five years is easy to understand. Attitude. Humbleness. In Brian Lohan’s own likeness in many ways. Then there’s the fact that the primary school teacher in …