Tag Archives: Banner

Colm Collins says the Banner panel are ready to make the most of their opportunities THE longest winter in GAA history certainly rivalled anything that Game of Thrones could threaten. However, while spring has been essentially bypassed, it does open up a summer of possibilities albeit that it’s predicated on hitting the ground running, particularly when it comes to football. With the championship being straight knock-out and the imminent National League halved, Clare have only five guaranteed competitive matches in 2021, something which Colm Collins is only too aware of in advance of his eighth season in charge. “The games will be coming at us thick and fast over the next three weekends so we just have to be ready and make the most of the opportunity and I think we will, being honest. “There’s a great energy around the whole camp and that’s to be expected because if you look at it, the majority of them haven’t played a …

THE Clare hurlers are set to begin their National League campaign on the weekend of May 8/9, while the county’s footballers will return to action the following weekend, according to the GAA fixture calendar released today. Intercounty teams are to resume training on April 19, and the football league will see a regionalised format this year, with Clare facing Cork, Laois and Kildare in Division 2 South. They will begin with an away tie against Kildare. After the action begins the hurlers will have five league games, but the competition will not have a specific final this year, with the winners of Divisions 1A and 1B being joint winners, or if they meet in the championship, this will double as a final. As in 2020 the Munster and Leinster hurling championships will be knock out, with a back door qualifier system. The football championship will be knock out, with no qualifier system. Both the football and hurling championships will get …

COLM Collins said he thought “long and hard” before committing to a return as Clare senior football manager for another season. Collins confirmed this week that he would be staying on in the role that has seen him lift Clare from division four to division two and to the brink of a place in football’s top tier. It means an eighth year at the helm for the Cratloe man since succeeding Mick O’Dwyer, making Collins the longest serving manager with the same county in Gaelic football. Clare’s preparations for a season unlikely to have a definitive roadmap for weeks to come are at a very early stage. Collective training is not allowed under the current level of restrictions so players are currently undertaking individual strength and conditioning programmes. Collins and his backroom team have also started preliminary work on tactics via Zoom meetings The Allianz leagues are expected to be pushed back from the original start dates of February 27 …

  Clare remains on red alert as emergency services finalise preparations for the impact of Hurricane Ophelia. Mean wind speeds in excess of 80 kilometres per hour and gusts in excess of 130 kilometres per hour are expected, potentially causing structural damage and disruption, with dangerous marine conditions due to high seas and potential flooding. Hurricane conditions may last until midnight, according to the weather forecast. Gale-force winds are expected to begin across southern parts by early Monday morning and gradually spread northwards across the country during the day. Hurricane-force winds are expected to reach southern coastal counties by late Monday morning with storm force winds spreading inland and northwards across the country during Monday. Preparations to protect lives and property should be taken if possible. Wind speeds atop and on the windward sides of hills and mountains are often up to 30 percent stronger than the near-surface winds indicated in weather arnings and in some elevated locations could be …

SHE’S only 25 but when Ailish Considine totted up the figures, the Kilmihil girl realised that she has been playing adult football for 12 years. As the club approaches their second successive county final against Banner Ladies on Sunday, Considine somewhat reluctantly acknowledged that she is not far off the veteran category. “It’s mad. I didn’t think it was that long. I probably am one of the oldest on the team now, which is a scary thought,” she laughed uneasily. This weekend’s final will be just the fourth club championship game of 2017 for both clubs, who met in the two team group stages. While Considine gets plenty of games at county level, she knows that club players simply don’t get sufficient matches. A senior or intermediate club team play three championship games at most, if they don’t make it out of their group and lose their B or shield semi-final. Throw in the fact that clubs often have to …

IS the public perception of Davy Fitzgerald very different to who he really is? RTÉ Radio ONE’s Documentary on One had unique access to follow Clare’s 2016 hurling year and experience it through Davy’s eyes. So much has been said and written about Davy Fitzgerald. All Ireland winning manager, player, All Star awards, he’s done it all. As a manager, he brought Waterford to an All Ireland final in 2008, their first appearance in the final since 1963. After leaving Waterford he took on the Clare management job in 2011. Within two years, he brought the Liam MacCarthy cup back to the Banner for the fourth time, this time as a manager. The previous two times the trophy made its way to Clare were in the 1990s when, as the goalkeeper, he captured the imagination of the country. The documentary is a project that began as the summer of 2015 drew to a close. Clare were knocked out of the championship …

A NEW survey has found that only a quarter of people in Clare are on Facebook. Each of the 26 counties in the Republic were included in the survey carried out by eightytwenty.ie, which showed that 25.6% of the Banner’s population are on the world’s most popular social network. This is way lower than Dublin, where three quarters of people are on Facebook, and not only that but it is far less than neighbouring Limerick, where just over half of the public have signed up. The only counties with lower Facebook penetration are Mayo (24.5%), Laois (24.83%), Roscommon (19.04%) and Leitrim (18.87%). It also carried out a study of Twitter activity in Ireland during July. By looking at the 5% of tweets that were posted in Ireland and geo-tagged in July they identified where most Twitter activity comes from. These figures didn’t take account of the Twitter users who don’t tweet, but indicated what counties most tweets were coming from. While …

IN all of her years representing Banner Ladies and Clare, Emma O’Driscoll has never been so close to playing in an All-Ireland senior club final. The Clare, Munster B and Munster A champions are just one hour from qualifying for the biggest day ladies club football has to offer. Their thrilling one-point defeat of St Val’s from Cork in the Munster A final, three weeks ago, qualified The Banner for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final. The Niamh O’Dea-captained team will play Monaghan, Ulster and reigning All-Ireland champions, Donaghmoyne, in Corofin at 1.30pm and are hoping that a huge crowd will travel to North Clare to roar them on. “I think this is a game that we will get a few neutrals at and our own county colleagues will come too and, hopefully, some of the girls from other clubs,” the Kildysart National School teacher told The Clare Champion.   “People who have any interest in Clare ladies football might come. It’s very …