Tag Archives: Clare football

THE Clare senior football team to play Leitrim in Cusack Park on Sunday at 2pm is the same team that was named to start against Waterford last Sunday. Kilmurry Ibrickane’s Enda Coughlan couldn’t line out in Dungarvan, due to a back injury, but is expected to be fit for Sunday. However, there are doubts over Kevin Hartnett, who picked up an injury in training this week and David Tubridy (hamstring). If they cannot start, it is likely that Stephen Collins and Michael O’Shea may start against the Connacht county. There is also a doubt over the match venue. Friday night’s likely storm may mean that the game could be moved to Miltown Malbay. The team named to start is: Pierce Deloughrey (Cratloe); Dean Ryan (Éire Óg), Kevin Hartnett (Meelick), Martin McMahon (Kilmurry Ibrickane); Óige Murphy (Cratloe), Enda Coughlan (Kilmurry Ibrickane), Shane Hickey (Kilmurry Ibrickane); Gary Brennan (Clondegad), Cathal O’Connor (Coolmeen); Shane Brennan (Clondegad), Shane McGrath (Thomas Davis), Seán Collins (Cratloe); Martin O’Leary (Kilmihil), David Tubridy …

CLARE full-back Kevin Hartnett has a couple of short-term aims. The Meelick man, who returned from the US at Christmas, is very keen that Clare pick up a home win against Leitrim on Sunday. However, he is equally focused on trying to secure employment as soon as he can. Although he has a Bachelor’s degree in fitness from Tralee IT, Hartnett isn’t fussy about what he works at. Before he resumes the job search though, Hartnett is concentrating on this weekend’s league opponents. “Leitrim is the next stepping stone. It was great to get the result against Waterford but you always have to be moving forward. Leitrim on Sunday is all we’re focusing on now. We’re not worried about what’s coming after that or what has happened before. It’s about how we attack Sunday. They had a good win against Antrim. We know they’re going to be good and we just have to prepare ourselves right, give a good whack …

Clare 3-9 Waterford 1-10 TWO second half goals, put away by substitute Michael O’Shea and centre-forward Shane McGrath, helped Clare to an excellent opening win in the 2014 division 4 NFL. Playing into a stiff breeze in Dungarvan, Clare led 1-5 to 0-6 at half time. Kilmihil’s Martin O’Leary, making his senior inter-county debut, scored the first half goal for the winners, while Gary Brennan and Cathal O’Connor dominated the Waterford kick out. Full forward David Tubridy pointed twice from play while McGrath and Shane Brennan put over a point each in the opening half. Waterford upped their game considerably in the opening minutes of the second half but the introductions of O’Shea and hurling All-Star Podge Collins helped to settle Clare. In fact it was Collins who kicked Clare’s opening point of the second half, a superb left footed effort. From that moment on Clare regained control with the goals securing the points. Waterford’s goal, scored by Paul Whyte, …

PAUDIE Kissane will spend much of this weekend behind his steering wheel. The 33 year old Clare coach, who retired from inter-county football in 2013, will be in Miltown Malbay on Friday for Clare training, while they are due to play Castlebar Mitchels in a challenge on Saturday. The following day Kissane’s club, Clyda Rovers from Cork, play Mayo and Connacht champions, Kiltane in the All-Ireland intermediate club semi-final in Ballinasloe. All going well, next week Kissane will be preparing for an All-Ireland club final and Clare’s opening league game away to Waterford on Sunday week. In recent weeks the 2010 All-Ireland winning wing back has had to prioritise his county coaching role above his club commitments. “If I’m going to do the Clare job right, I have to be fully committed to it. If there has been any clashes, over the last few weeks, Clare had to come first. The club have been very good trying to arrange a …

GROWING up in Sydney, Chris Delooze could not have envisaged that come 2014, he would be responsible for the physical conditioning of the Clare senior footballers. Gaelic football didn’t register on his radar in those years. Ironically, even rugby was only an after-thought at that stage, as Delooze concentrated on swimming, winning two national medals in open water events. One would almost need to sit down on hearing details of his training schedule as a young man. “At that stage of my life, I was training 16 times a week. I was swimming every morning and had three track sessions in the middle of the day. Then I had training most afternoons and on a Saturday and race sometimes on a Sunday. That was through the summer. Rugby was a hobby during the winter just to keep fit,” Delooze told The Clare Champion this week. A change of school edged him towards rugby, which ended up having a profound affect …

St Joseph’s Miltown 1-8 Currow (Kerry) 1-7 STEELY resolve, ice-cool temperament and bouts of flowing football edged Miltown Malbay into the Munster Intermediate Club Football Championship final on Sunday week. Playing in front of a crowd of 1,050 people in Miltown, the home club started superbly and led 0-6 to 0-0 after 23 minutes. While the Kerry intermediate champions kicked six wides in the opening half, they could not match Miltown’s fluency, support play and all-round work rate for all but the last seven minutes of the half. Deploying Eoin Curtin as an extra defender worked exceptionally well for Miltown. Curtin’s reading of the game in the opening half was flawless. He cut out several Currow through balls and afforded his full-back line reliable protection, while Curtin’s distribution and support play was also very impressive on a difficult day for football, considering the weekend rainfall and tricky breeze. Down field, Eoin Cleary showed his class in the third minute when …

WHEN is an apparent walkover not a walkover? Possibly when the team benefiting from said walkover won’t come out of the dressing room and say they don’t want it anyway. Although the majority of people parking their cars in the Kilmihil GAA Club car park must have been aware that their visit would be a short one, they were keen to witness what turned out to be a rather intriguing non-event. Anybody who arrived in Kilmihil unaware that Cooraclare were not showing up would have realised that something was up when their entrance to the car park was free and, more significantly, when they detected the absence of county board gate checkers. Doonbeg warmed up for their quarter-final against Cooraclare as if they were certain their neighbours were doing likewise at the far end of the field, on what was a wintry late October day. Knots of curious supporters from several clubs, including Doonbeg and Cooraclare, indulged in whispered conversations …

WERE it not for Colin Lynch, Lissycasey may not have been playing senior football at all in 2013. Lynch, who is part of the Ennistymon management, along with Mark Shanahan and Cathal Crowe, came out of football retirement last year to assist his native club in retaining their senior status. He kicked three points in their relegation final replay defeat of Miltown. An integral component of Lissycasey’s 2007 championship winning team, Lynch has to put his personal affiliations aside on Sunday in Clarecastle. Everyone involved with Ennistymon will remember how poorly they played at the same stage last year, when they lost to Kilrush in Quilty. Memories of that implosion will motivate them this weekend as they attempt to reach the semi-final stage of the senior championship. When that will be played nobody knows but that doesn’t dilute the desire of Ennistymon and Lissycasey to reach that stage. To reach the quarter-final Ennistymon defeated St Breckan’s in Round 1 and …