Tag Archives: All-Ireland

John Galvin, managing director of the Clare Champion presents Louise Dunworth of Tulla and her son Harry (2) with a pair of tickets for the All-Ireland hurling final replay in Croke park, first prize in the Clare Champion facebook competition. Log onto our website clarechampion.ie for live updates during Saturday’s match and follow us on twitter @clarechampion

WHILE tens of thousands of Clare fans will watch their team in Croke Park this Saturday, many more will be cheering from around the world. Some will be shouting at big screens from bar stools early in the afternoon. Others will be wiping sleep from their eyes while cowering beneath mosquito nets. More will be shouting into the silence while clinging to their headphones. PE teacher Jayne McMahon from Ennis is living in Ulsan, an industrial city located on the south-east coast of Korea. There are some Irish there but none from Clare, as far as she knows. She will watch the match alongside a Cork man. The Gort Road woman hopes this will enhance the atmosphere. “Unfortunately, due to the time difference, I had to stream the last game on my laptop at home at 11pm Sunday night. I wasn’t in the most exciting atmosphere but I was still sitting on the edge of my seat with the tension …

Don’t forget to buy your Clare Champion tomorrow to read our special supplement in advance of Saturday’s replay. ‘Burning Desire’ will give you everything you need to know about the upcoming clash between Clare and Cork.

Clare 2-28 Antrim 0-12 UNPRECEDENTED times for Clare hurling. A second successive All-Ireland under-21 title, and a third in five years, has given Clare fans reason for celebration but for the majority of the players the celebrations will be put ice for another few weeks. On Sunday, its back to training for 14 of the squad, as they turn their thought to Saturday week’s senior final replay against Cork. Clare dictated matters from beginning to end at Thurles, as Antrim were routed. It was a total mismatch. To their credit, however, the Ulster champions never gave up. Apart from the opening five minutes, when the sides when players were settling in, Clare had their third All-Ireland under-21 title wrapped up midway through the opening half when they had a six point lead. Antrim were clearly struggling to keep with them. Seven minutes from half time, the opening goal came from corner forward Davy O’Halloran and four minutes later his Éire Óg club-mate …

THE most telling moment in Thurles on Saturday evening was when hundreds of determined Clare youngsters, mostly under the age of 10, lined up four or five deep on both sidelines in Semple Stadium. It should be noted that they leaped over the hoardings with a minute or two still left on Colm Lyons stopwatch, determined to position themselves in the scramble for photo opportunities and autographs. It underlines the depth of interest engendered in the children of Clare when Podge Collins is still on the field at 7.30pm, well over an hour after the game finished. It’s likely that Antrim were well up the road towards Belfast and the famous Glens, by the time the Clare players eventually made the dressing room. Perhaps that’s where the real value in Clare’s facile win was. It gave an opportunity for the children of the county to storm onto Semple Stadium, surround their heroes and make sure that they didn’t get away …

  THERE  is one change in personnel on the Clare under-21 hurling team from the side which started against Galway for Saturday’s All-Ireland final clash with Antrim. Cathal Malone retains his place at wing forward in place of Aaron Cunningham. The Ennistymon man replaced Cunningham when the Wolfe Tones player suffered a hamstring injury in the semi-final. Cunningham is named among the substitutes. The Clare team is: Ronan Taaffe (Tubber); Paul Flanagan (Ballyea) captain, David McInerney (Tulla), Jack Browne (Ballyea); Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge), Alan O’Neill (St Joseph’s) Stephen O’Halloran (Clarecastle); Colm Galvin (Cratloe), Tony Kelly (Ballyea); Peter Duggan (Clooney-Quin), Paudge Collins (Cratloe), Cathal Malone (Ennistymon); Cathal O’Connell (Clonlara), Shane O’Donnell (Éire Óg) Davy O’Halloran (Éire Óg). Subs: Keith Hogan (Clooney-Quin), Niall Arthur (Inagh-Kilnamona), Aaron Cunningham (Wolfe Tones), Jarlath Colleran (St Joseph’s) Enda Boyce (Cratloe), Mikey O’Neill (Kilmaley), Kevin Lynch (Sixmilebridge), Darragh Corry (Tulla) and Daire Keane (Kilmaley). Seamus Hayes

  THERE  is one change in personnel on the Clare under-21 hurling team from the side which started against Galway for Saturday’s All-Ireland final clash with Antrim. Cathal Malone retains his place at wing forward in place of Aaron Cunningham. The Ennistymon man replaced Cunningham when the Wolfe Tones player suffered a hamstring injury in the semi-final. Cunningham is named among the substitutes. The Clare team is: Ronan Taaffe (Tubber); Paul Flanagan (Ballyea) captain, David McInerney (Tulla), Jack Browne (Ballyea); Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge), Alan O’Neill (St Joseph’s) Stephen O’Halloran (Clarecastle); Colm Galvin (Cratloe), Tony Kelly (Ballyea); Peter Duggan (Clooney-Quin), Paudge Collins (Cratloe), Cathal Malone (Ennistymon); Cathal O’Connell (Clonlara), Shane O’Donnell (Éire Óg) Davy O’Halloran (Éire Óg). Subs: Keith Hogan (Clooney-Quin), Niall Arthur (Inagh-Kilnamona), Aaron Cunningham (Wolfe Tones), Jarlath Colleran (St Joseph’s) Enda Boyce (Cratloe), Mikey O’Neill (Kilmaley), Kevin Lynch (Sixmilebridge), Darragh Corry (Tulla) and Daire Keane (Kilmaley). Seamus Hayes

FOR much of Sunday’s game it looked like Clare were shaping up as winners. With Clare dominant around the field and leading by five points in the second half, it looked like the Banner were well on the way to a fourth All Ireland, but Daniel Kearney never felt it was gone from Cork. “There was always belief there. Four or five points is nothing in an All-Ireland final,” he noted. To say the very least, there was a lot of speculation in the build up to the final about tactics and virtually everyone expected the Banner to at least try to use Pat Donnellan in a free defensive role once more. That didn’t happen and Kearney felt that Cork might have focussed too much on tactics, forgetting about the very basics and the attitude they needed to bring to an All-Ireland final. “Clare set up in a traditional format, maybe we weren’t expecting that and maybe it threw us …