Tag Archives: Cratloe

Sports Editor Seamus Hayes THE race for the 2014 Senior Hurling Championship begins this weekend and while all 20 teams aspire to winning the title, the battle to hold onto senior status takes on a new focus this season. In the current format, one team is relegated at the end of the campaign. This year, however, there are major changes, with five teams to lose their senior status. Following a competitions structures review in 2011, a new format for the championship was put forward and accepted by delegates for 2013. However, at a special meeting of clubs, as Clare progressed to the All-Ireland senior and U-21 finals last year, delegates unanimously voted to defer the change for a year. For 2015, the Clare Senior Hurling Championship will be run in the same format that was introduced for the senior football last year, which has been retained for this season. The group system is being replaced by a format that will …

By Seamus Hayes THERE was great excitement and debate following the 2014 GAA championship draws at the West County  Hotel on Friday evening. A great deal of attention focused on the senior hurling and football champions, Sixmilebridge and Cratloe respectively, and who would challenge them in the group stages. Football champions Cratloe were first to learn who their opponents will be in the opening round as the draw for the Jack Daly cup was the first to take place. Its a repeat of last year ‘s as the champions will take on Eire Og in what many believe will be the game of the round. Doonbeg, beaten finalists in 2013 will take on Ennistymon. Neighb ours Cooraclare and Kilrush will clash in the opening round for the second year in succession. Cooraclare were victorious last year on a scoreline of 0-11 to 0-8. Hurling cham;pions Sixmilebrige have been drawn in the same group as Crushen, Cratloe and Kilmaley. “A very …

IF the fixtures are structured properly in the county, it is possible for players to play hurling and football with success at club level. That’s the view of Cratloe star Conor McGrath, who left Pairc na nGael in Limerick bitterly disappointed. “If the fixtures are structured properly in the county, it’s possible to do both. If they are structured the same as this year, there’s not a hope. The way the championships were run off this year was not conducive to a football and a hurling team doing well. “We’d be hopeful that the county board will do something about this and a couple of matches in the football and hurling would be played in May, June and July every year, so that we won’t have a situation we had this year,” said McGrath, who was outstanding in attack on Sunday. Asked if it’s possible to play both codes at inter-county level, the All-Star hurler replied, “I’m not involved in …

Dr Crokes 0-13 Cratloe 0-12 NOBODY noticed the December 1 sky darkening over the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday afternoon. Not a sinner in the 2,384 attendance was concerned about anything other than the unfolding drama they had paid €15 to witness. They probably had to seek a second opinion to back up what they were seeing, as Cratloe fought until the last kick of what has been an epic 2013 for their club and their multi-decorated men in blue. Eight points down after 24 minutes (0-10 to 0-2), Cratloe led the now three in-a-row Munster champions (0-12 to 0-11) with just four minutes left of what has been a mind-blowing season for Clare and Cratloe GAA. With Dr Crokes on the ropes, history beckoned invitingly for the first-time Clare senior football champions. Yet despite having only registered a single point in the preceding 33 minutes of football, the Kerry champions didn’t buckle. Even with Colm Cooper sitting in the Mackey …

IN the aftermath of Cratloe’s county semi-final win over Éire Óg, Óige Murphy issued a few words to the media that were steeped in honesty, albeit somewhat eyebrow-raising. “I suppose we’re known as a hurling team, who kind of dabble in the football,” the Cratloe wing-back said in the middle of the pitch in Clarecastle on Sunday, November 3. Just over a month later, that statement could be justifiably revised. Now that Cratloe have established themselves as a football club that dabbles in a bit of hurling, the demands on their most capable dual players will increase exponentially. If the Clare senior football team is to have a realistic chance of emerging from Division 4, they need the input of players such as Cathal McInerney, Conor Ryan, Liam Markham, Podge and Seán Collins. All of them have played football for Clare from U-14 to U-21 levels and, in fact, the latter three have already played inter-county senior football. Let’s not …

By Seamus Hayes Dr. Crokes, Kerry 0-13  Cratloe 0-12 Hot favourites Dr.Crokes had to rely on an injury time point from Kerry player Johnny Buckley to overcome Cratloe in the Munster senior club football championship final at the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick on Sunday. A magnificent second half performance from the Clare champions which saw them turn a seven point half time deficit into a one point lead with two minutes remaining wasn’t enough for the South East Clare side to make history. Two late points for the defending champions from Daithi Casey (free) and Buckley saw the Killarney side retain the title and crushed Clare dreams.     Cratloe, winners of their first Clare title just three weeks ago, started well and kicked the first two points of the game. However, for the last twentyh minutes of the opening half they played second fiddle to the winners who dominated the midfield exchanges on their way to kicking ten unanswered …

EVER wonder how far Cratloe football has progressed inside a decade? Eleven years ago, the club’s Junior A team defeated Doonbeg in the 2002 county final. That winning panel was Cratloe’s first team, while their opponents were The Magpies’ juniors. Come Saturday afternoon, Cratloe will compete on an equal footing with their vaunted rivals when they take on Doonbeg for the 2013 Clare Senior Football Championship. Then aged 17, the now 28-year-old Michael Hawes lined out at corner-forward in 2002. “It’s some jump in 11 years. A lot of the credit has to go to Colm [Collins] for that. I know Martin Murphy was there all along bringing us to that level but Colm really brought us the next step. There were a lot of us involved back in 2002 and we’re still tipping around today,” the Connacht Hotel account assistant reflected. “I remember going to county finals in the late ’90s and watching the likes of Doonbeg and Kilmurry. …

SATURDAY’S county football final, which throws in at 2.30pm, brings disparate parts of Clare together in pursuit of Jack Daly. Doonbeg, hugging the Atlantic coast, are zoning in on their 19th championship since 1955 while Cratloe, with the local wood their most iconic landmark, are trying to grasp Jack Daly for their first time. The fact that the clubs have only met once in senior championship, and never in a county final, adds further intrigue to this weekend’s showdown. Ironically, this will not be Cratloe’s first appearance in a county final, although nobody is around to reveal what happened when they lost to Newmarket in the July 10, 1887 final. What is known is that Cratloe didn’t score in that game and some of their players didn’t show up because much of the Cratloe team had to herd cattle to a fair on the same day. While nothing else may be certain about the 2013 final, it is spectacularly unlikely …