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WHEN Gordon Kelly barrels out from underneath the stand in Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon, he will be minutes away from taking on Kerry in the championship arena for the third time in his career. A regular with Clare since 2006, Kelly faced Kerry in 2008 in Fitzgerald Stadium and in the All-Ireland qualifiers in 2012. Clare were well beaten in both games although Kelly, who played corner back in 2008, held the currently sidelined Colm Cooper to just 1-0 in Clare’s 1-14 to 0-5 defeat under the management of Frank Doherty. Kerry’s visit to Ennis on Sunday will be their first championship tie in Clare since their 2-10 to 0-9 defeat of Clare on May 23, 2004. Enda Coughlan started at full forward that day and is the only player from that game who will start this weekend. Although beaten by seven points in that fixture ten years ago, Clare at least were competitive and that’s their priority this …

  Clare 3-11 Waterford 0-12 CLARE secured a place in next Sunday’s Munster semi-final following a comprehensive win over Waterford in the teams quarter-final replay. Second half goals from Shane Brennan and Rory Donnelly sealed the win. They were very much on top during the second period where they were inspired by Gary Brennan who played superbly at midfield. They will now play Kerry next Sunday in Cusack Park at 3.30pm. Clare started very slowly and in fact they trailed 0-4 to 0-0 after eleven minutes. However Waterford were dealt a savage blow in the second minute when midfielder Shane Aherne was black carded following a tackle on Martin McMahon. To make matters worse for Waterford his midfield colleague Tommy Prendergast was black carded three minutes before half time. Paul Whyte kicked three of Waterford’s first half points, two from play, while JJ Hutchinson kicked the remaining three from open play. Shane McGrath was in excellent first half form for …

THE Clare junior football team to play Waterford at 5pm on Saturday in Ennis was named on Friday night by manager Joe Garry. Gary Leahy (Wolfe Tones) will captain the team for the provincial quarter-final in Cusack Park. The team is as follows: Eamon Tubridy (Doonbeg); Jack O’Dea (Kilfenora), Seán O’Driscoll (Ennistymon), Craig O’Brien (Wolfe Tones); Seán Haugh (O’Curry’s), Brian Carrig (Clondegad), Stan Lineen (Kilmihil); Darren O’Neill (Éire Óg), Keith O’Connor (Kildysart); Tom Downes (O’Curry’s), Thomas Downes (Cooraclare), Eoin Brew (O’Curry’s); Cathal Lillis (Cooraclare), Gary Leahy (Wolfe Tones – captain), Kieran Malone (St Joseph’s, Miltown).

Clare 1-28 Galway 1-16 FIELDING a completely separate team in each half, Clare scored a comprehensive win over Galway in a senior hurling challenge game played in Quilty on Sunday evening. The game was the first to feature an All-Ireland hurling winning team playing in west Clare and was played to mark Kilmurry Ibrickane’s 100th anniversery celebrations. The Liam McCarthy Cup was on display throughout the game. Clare led 0-12 to 1-7 at half time, largely thanks to 0-6 from Colin Ryan, who also impressed in open play. Damien Hayes scored the Galway goal in the opening half, while Jason Flynn put over five points from frees and play for Anthony Cunningham’s team. Galway introduced Joe Canning at half time and while he scored an early point from play, Canning didn’t look very sharp with David McInerney retaining the upper hand on the Galway captain. Amongst those to impress for Clare were Seán Collins and Colin Ryan in the opening …

Peter O’Connell Tipperary 1-16 Clare 1-15 CLARE put in a brave, unyielding display in Saturday evenings NFL division 4 league final in Croke Park. The highlight was a magnificent goal, early in the second half from Kilmihil’s Martin O’Leary who was played in by fellow U/21 Jamie Malone. At that stage Clare led 1-11 to 1-8 and backed by a strong wind, it looked as if their first appearance in Croke Park since 2004 would end in victory. However they added just four points in the closing half hour with Tipperary tagging on 0-8 during the same spell. The game was watched by a crowd of 8,654 people. Conor Sweeney was the winners main man in attacking scoring their goal in the opening half and kicking an array of impressive points. Tipperary led 1-7 to 0-9 at half time, thanks to Sweeney’s 19th minute goal. In fact were it not for two excellent blocks from Kevin Hartnett, Tipperary could have …

THE  GAA still has a lot of questions to answer over its deal with Sky Sports for TV rights,   Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Sport Timmy Dooley said this Tuesday. Under the agreement, Sky has been given exclusive rights to 14 games, including two All-Ireland Football quarter finals involving the Leinster and Ulster champions. GAA director general, Paraic Duffy and president, Liam O’Neill appeared before the Oireachtas Transport and Communications Committee earlier today to outline the rationale behind the new broadcasting contract. Deputy Dooley said, “Despite the appearance by Mr Duffy and Mr O’Neill, there are still a lot of questions about the decision to sell off national games to an outside broadcaster.  The association says it has to base its approach on the significant number of fans living abroad, but I would argue it could do that without alienating its fans at home.  The deal with RTE digital will allow fans in the UK and US access to games, while …

INTRODUCED at half time, Podge Collins made an invaluable contribution to Clare’s promotion winning second half display in Creggan. The All-Ireland winning All-Star hurler kicked two crucial points from play and along with players like Shane McGrath, his brother Seán, Ciaran Russell and Dean Ryan, the UL student worked exceptionally hard on and off the ball. Speaking afterwards Podge said that the passion evident in the dressing room inspires him. “You can tell by the way lads talk in the dressing room, before games and at half time, how passionate they are about it. I know it doesn’t sound too glamorous after winning the All-Ireland hurling but it’s absolutely huge, especially in my house. It’ll be a happy house for the night,” he laughed. Collins acknowledged that it took him a few minutes to get up to the pace of the game after his introduction for Jamie Malone. “Coming up to Antrim we didn’t really know what to expect. I’d …

Clare 0-10 Antrim 0-6 A MAGNIFICENT second half display helped Clare to a four point win over Antrim in Creggan on Sunday, ensuring promotion to division 3. Having played division 4 football since 2008 this win was a huge boost to Clare football as it was the county teams fourth recent attempt to secure promotion on the final day of the season. They lost out in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Clare’s second half display was led by excellent performances from half time substitute Podge Collins, who scored two points from play, Shane McGrath, Gary Brennan, along with wing back Ciaran Russell, who had a superb game. Things didn’t look quite so positive at half time though. Clare led 0-4 to 0-2 having played with a very strong breeze at the Antrim venue. Incredibly the game was scoreless until the 19th minute when Martin O’Leary pointed a free. Clare kicked 13 first half wides, while David Tubridy, Seán Collins McGrath added …