Tag Archives: Clare Senior Hurlers

Brian Lohan has introduced ten new players to the Clare hurling squad for 2023 and points to the ambition among the new recruits and the established stars as they bid to take county seniors to the next level and win trophies, writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh It’s hard to believe that it’s now a quarter of a century since one of the greatest examples of the real difference between league and championship was provided by a Clare team that had current manager Brian Lohan as a totem. It was 1998, when the great team that Ger Loughnane built rocked down to Semple Stadium for a joust with Cork in the National League semi-final on the first Sunday in May. Summertime had just kicked in and Clare had their chance to book a final place against Waterford. It was 20 years since the team that Ger himself was part of won the league for the second successive year — why not mark …

All-Ireland winning Clare hurler Patrick O’Connor has retired from inter county duty. The defender, who started when Clare secured All Ireland glory in 2013, has decided to step away from the inter county set-up after a nasty knee injury. He suffered the injury during a challenge game against Limerick in May 2021 which ultimately meant he was unable to see Championship action for the past two years. The Tubber native brings the curtain down a career that also saw him win Munster and All Ireland U-21 titles. He also lined out in the full back line when Clare won the National Hurling League title in 2016, ending a 38 year gap since their previous success in the competition. O’Connor made his senior debut under Ger O’Loughlin in 2011 and captained the county in 2017. His first game at senior inter county level was in the opening round of the Allianz National Hurling League in 2011 against Limerick. He made his …

THREE Clare players Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell and David Fitzgerald have secured PwC GAA/GPA All Star awards for their excellent campaigns this season. Kelly becomes only the third Clare man to secure four All Star awards, joining Brian Lohan and Jamesie O’Connor in achieving this feat. Kelly and Lohan are the only two Clare men to have been named as an All Star for three consecutive seasons. Meanwhile, O’Donnell and Fitzgerald scooped their first All Star awards after the pair produced top quality displays throughout the Championship. Fitzgerald plundered 2-18 during Clare’s run to the All Ireland semi final while O’Donnell scored 0-15. The Éire Óg man was named Player of the Month for May. O’Donnell’s return to the fold for this year’s Championship was a major boost for Lohan’s side and he certainly adapted quickly, with his aerial prowess and sniper like ability in front of the posts key to Clare’s run to the last four. Fitzgerald secured Inagh-Kilnamona’s …

Clare’s run to an epic Munster final and to the All-Ireland semi-finals is reflected in a haul of eight nominees for the PwC All-Star Hurling awards of 2022. The Banner county has four defenders nominated in the shape of Ballyea’s Paul Flanagan, John Conlon of Clonlara, Cratloe’s Diarmuid Ryan and David McInerney of Tulla. Inagh Kilnamona’s David Fitzgerald and Clooney Quin’s Ryan Taylor are nominated in the midfield. While in the forward line Tony Kelly of Ballyea and Shane O’Donnell of Eire Og are in line for awards. Dating back to 1971, the All-Stars are selected by a team of GAA journalists from across print, radio, digital, tv and broadcast media. There will be two additional hurling selections honoured to cover outstanding players in the Joe McDonagh Cup and a Champion 15 from across the Ring, Rackard and Meagher Cup campaigns. The PwC All-Stars will be presented at a black-tie banquet in Dublin’s Convention Centre on Friday, October 28 shown …

The Clare team that won the 1997 All-Ireland final will be celebrated in Croke Park this Sunday. Joe Ó Muircheartaigh recalls a success that came at the height of hurling’s Revolution Years when the Banner County shook up the world, on and off the field.   IT’S a cliché to say that hindsight is 20/20 vision, but looking back on things from a remove of 20 years it’s true to say that 1997 was the apex of the Revolution Years – the title of the book written by celebrated hurling commentator Denis Walsh that captured a remarkable decade of change in the game. For a host of reasons, it was always going to be a huge hurling year. For the bluebloods like Tipperary, Cork and Kilkenny who agitated against change because they considered All- Irelands to be their birthright. They wanted to restore the old order. For the new order of Offaly, Clare and Wexford who had won the three …

With the way the championship has unfolded, fate has been rather favourable to Clare. It goes without saying that Brian Lohan’s side would have loved to have captured provincial silverware and certainly would have appreciated lifting the inaugural Mick Mackey Cup much more. However, apart from that set-back, the hand of destiny has thrown up Leinster duo Wexford and Kilkenny, two sides that Clare would arguably have handpicked themselves if they had the choice to potentially tee up a historic fifth competitive outing against Limerick in the All-ireland decider. All that speculation aside, the reality is that while the Wexford game was expectedly close, they were possibly the perfect team for Clare to pip at the post too. Not reaching anywhere near the heights of their previous provincial displays would have meant an early exit against a much clinical side. However, Wexford left a wounded Banner in the contest so when Brian Lohan’s side did manage to find their groove …

Former Kilkenny hurler Eoin Larkin feels both his native county and Clare have something to prove as the race for Liam MacCarthy has come down to the final four. Larkin, who certainly knows about winning in Croke Park, having claimed eight All Ireland titles with his county, feels that Kilkenny will be keen to show that their defeats to Galway and Wexford in the round robin series were only momentary blips. Meanwhile, he also believes that Clare will want to confirm that their performance for the first 60 minutes against Wexford was simply a hangover from the Munster final. The James Stephens clubman argues this is the more unpredictable of the two semi finals as both sides lie just 70 minutes away from an All Ireland decider. “It probably is the more unpredictable semi final. Clare produced a performance in the Munster final. What Clare will turn up in Croke Park though? Kilkenny are in the same boat because they …

Two-time All-Star John Callinan thinks that the key to success on Sunday is matching Kilkenny’s legendary physicality and then letting Clare’s speed take over. BACK in 2018 Justin McCarthy gave a stirring speech at Clare County Council headquarters in Ennis when the Clare team he coached to beat Kilkenny in the National League finals of 1977 and ’78 were accorded a civic reception. In it, he told a story about a fellow countyman of his — the greatest to ever wear the jersey in fact — being behind the goal at one of the finals telling a Kilkenny selector what needed to be done to beat Clare. The moral of the story was that the heavyweights wanted to keep things to themselves — interlopers upsetting the status quo were allowed or wanted. That attitude mightn’t have gone away completely, but it has been blown away over the past 40 or so years with the successes of Galway, Offaly, Clare, Wexford …