Tag Archives: Clare football

WHEN a sports person breaks a collarbone, they generally leave it to the professionals to guide them in their recovery. It can get a bit tricky, though, if the sports man nursing a collarbone injury is also a physiotherapist. Clare and Clondegad footballer Shane Brennan earns his living as a physiotherapist. Self-employed at the Clareabbey Primary Health Centre in Clarecastle and working part-time for the HSE, he’s the man to talk to if you break your collarbone. He’s probably not the man to treat you though when he has a broken collarbone himself. “A little bit of knowledge is an awful thing. I would be more aware of certain aches and pains and what they might mean. That leads to me asking a few more questions. I was up with my consultant the other day and I’d say I drove him mad asking questions,” Brennan was honest enough to admit. He broke his right collarbone playing for Clare against Limerick …

IN recent weeks, Clare football supporters have had to brush up on their knowledge of cruciates, dislocations, groins and shoulders, such has been the spate of injuries that have afflicted the county team. Clare were without key players David Tubridy, Shane McGrath and Enda Coughlan for their two-point win over Limerick three weeks ago, while during that game Shane Brennan, brother of team captain Gary, left the field with a collar bone injury, which will sideline him on Sunday. The bulletins have not been great since then either. Podge Collins snapped his cruciate playing club hurling for Cratloe against Ballyea last Saturday week in Cusack Park and his absence leaves a huge void in the Clare attack. If Tubridy, McGrath and Coughlan are still not match fit, the collective injuries leave Clare with significantly depleted options in attack. Kilmihil’s Martin O’Leary, who plays hurling for Ballyea, dislocated his shoulder against Cratloe and is also out this weekend. On the plus …

Clare senior football manager Colm Collins received a double whammy at the weekend with news that both Podge Collins and Martin O’Leary will be injury absentees for the county’s Munster senior football semi-final clash with Cork the weekend after next. Podge Collins was forced to retire 15 minutes into Cratloe’s opening game defence of the Canon Hamilton Cup against Ballyea on Saturday evening. He sustained a cruciate knee ligament injury and had his worse fears confirmed as regards the seriousness of the injury following a scan in Dublin on Sunday. The 23 year-old talisman had decided to throw in his lot with the Clare footballers this year who are managed by his father Colm. The news is that he may be out for the rest of the season as he faces reconstructive surgery followed by a prolonged period of rehabilitation. Given that scenario it’s unlikely that he will return to competitive action again this year. In fact, Podge Collins had …

Clare 0-15 Limerick 0-13 ALTHOUGH not as fluid in the second half, during which they lost their shape at times, Clare showed that when it mattered they had enough to get over Limerick and qualify for a Munster semi-final with Cork in Pairc Uí Rínn on June 14. The impact from the bench was key to Clare’s second successive championship win over Limerick. Rory Donnelly and Cathal McInerney put over two points each with the latter scoring Clare’s final points, which secured the result. [doptg id=”69″] In fact all of Clare’s substitutes made an impact with Davy O’Halloran getting on plenty of ball at centre forward, although he did kick one wild wide. While Keelan Sexton was only on the field for a couple of minutes, he found McInerney with a superb cross field pass for Clare’s last score. Inspired by Gary Brennan in the opening half, Clare led 0-9 to 0-4 at half time. The Clare captain scored the …

DOUBLE All-Ireland winning manager Ger Loughnane is adamant that it’s not too late for Podge Collins to play hurling for Clare before the end of the 2015 campaign. The Sunday Game analyst says that people he meets outside of Clare are “flabbergasted” that the 2013 All-Star and hurler of the year nominee isn’t hurling for the county this year. Collins, who is on the county football team, is available and willing to play hurling for Clare but hurling manager, Davy Fitzgerald has ruled out players fulfilling a dual role. Loughnane also told The Clare Champion that this Clare team must win a second All-Ireland to dispel the belief that they are on the slide and to salvage their “long-term reputations”. Clare didn’t win a championship match in 2014 and were relegated to Division 1B earlier this year, having won just one game from six. Loughnane also bemoaned the absence of Colm Galvin, who has emigrated to the US and believes …

Clare senior football manager, Colm Collins, could be confined to the stands for his side’s provincial championship opening tie against Limerick, as he is serving a 12-week ban. The Clare Champion has learned that the Competition Control Commitee (CCC) handed down a three-month suspension arising out of an incident with a linesman during Clare’s victory over Fermanagh in their last National Football League game in Cusack Park. It is understood that the suspension, which the Clare manager has accepted, was delivered a few weeks ago. Efforts to contact Colm Collins for a comment on Wednesday proved unsuccessful. Senior Clare GAA County Board officials had remained tight lipped about the suspension until board chairman, Michael McDonagh, was contacted with details about the ban, which only emerged about 10 days before the county footballers take on the Shannonsiders in Cusack Park. Clare GAA supporters will be left wondering why details of Collins’ suspension are only coming to light this week in the …

Kerry 0-14 Clare 0-3 Kerry’s dominance over Clare in underage football continued at Austin Stack Park in Tralee on Wednesday evening, when the sides met in the opening round of the provincial championship. The gap in standard was evident from an early stage and Kerry had secured their passage to the semi-final, where they will play Cork, long before the final whistle. The fact that Clare failed to score from play is an indication of the dominance enjoyed by the Kingdom side. Clare have another chance, however and they now await the winners of the game between Limerick and Waterford, who also suffered first-round losses. Clare’s next outing will be on Wednesday, April 29. The writing was on the wall for Clare from an early stage, as a slicker Kerry side created too many opportunities. The Banner defence was under a lot of pressure whereas, at the other end, the Kerry back-line dominated. Their full-back trio were particularly strong, while …

Davy O’Halloran, who left the Clare hurling panel in controversial circumstances a few weeks ago, has accepted an invitation to join the county senior football panel. He linked up with the squad this week as they resumed training, having taken a week’s break after the conclusion of their league campaign recently, a campaign that ended with Clare retaining Division 3 status for next season. Together with the O’Connell brothers, Nicky and Cathal, the All-Ireland U-21 medal winner was disciplined for a breach of the senior hurlers’ strict code of conduct. Both O’Halloran and Nicky O’Connell opted to leave the hurling panel as a result. Football manager Colm Collins confirmed that O’Halloran is now part of the football panel. “He is an excellent footballer and worthy of his place in the squad,” the Cratloe team boss commented. O’Halloran played at centre-forward for Éire Óg last season, when they progressed through the championship to the final, where they went under to Cratloe. …