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Tag Archives: Gerry O’Connor

O’Connor steps down as joint hurling manager

CLARE joint senior hurling manager, Gerry O’Connor, has announced his decision to step down from the role. The former All-Ireland winning joint U-21 manager has filled the role for three years, along with Donal Moloney. Clare reached successive Munster finals in 2017 and 2018, losing both to Cork. They were also very unlucky not to reach an All-Ireland final in 2018, losing narrowly to Galway in a replay. This season they failed to emerge from the round robin series of games in the Munster senior hurling championship. Tuesday’s Clare County Board meeting heard that no decision has yet been made with regard to the make up of the incoming management team.

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Donal Moloney and Gerry O'Connor.

A do or die game in Pairc Uí Chaoimh

CLARE and Tipperary both know Saturday could be their last outing for the 2017 season. “It’s a do or die game for both. We feel we have a huge amount we can improve upon from our last performance, in terms of our defence set-up, our puck-out strategy, our shot selection from the middle third and our decision-making as a whole,” joint team manager Gerry O’Connor said ahead of the panel’s second last training session. “Ultimately, if you look at the amount of scoring opportunities we created against Cork, they were significant and we didn’t take a high enough percentage of them,” he added. He conceded that David McInerney’s chances of playing are slim. “At best, his chance is 50-50. Right now we are considering him as unavailable. Anything else will be a bonus. We will know more following training.” McInerney is the only serious injury worry. “There are the usual knocks and bruises following our game in training on Sunday …

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Belief erodes further that hurlers have it

Comment WHO dreamed up, implemented and then didn’t change Clare’s puck-out strategy? Why did Clare seemingly set out to stop Cork and neglect to concentrate more fully on playing their own game? Why was Tony Kelly left on penalties and why was Oisin O’Brien started on Alan Cadogan, when surely Seadna Morey was the man for that job? These and a few other questions abounded on Sunday evening and Monday morning as the dwindling Clare hurling public digested what had just happened in Thurles. Since winning the 2013 All-Ireland title, Clare have beaten Limerick and Laois (both twice) and Offaly in championship hurling. Any time they have met a top tier county, including Cork, Galway or Waterford, they have not cut it. Repeatedly this panel have shown that they are not as good as people in this county thought. Their 2013 win must now be consigned to the ‘lucky, flash in the pan’ category and while their All-Ireland medal cannot …

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Tug of war over hurling manager’s post

A TUG of war is developing between two-time All-Ireland winning captain Anthony Daly and the duo who guided Clare to three All-Ireland U-21 titles in-a-row for the vacant senior hurling manager’s position. According to board chairman Joe Cooney, Clare GAA is in the process of putting an interview panel in place to meet with the nominees. He told The Clare Champion that the candidates “will be interviewed over the next couple of days and we will then bring a report back to the executive and hopefully we will come up with some conclusion”. The chairman confirmed that there are just two nominations for the post vacated by Davy Fitzgerald a few weeks ago, after a meeting of the players had expressed a view that a change was required. Asked if he expects to have a decision for next Tuesday’s October board meeting, he replied “if possible, yes”. However, he added, “This may not be possible, as some of the nominees …

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Clare hurlers have ambitious streak

THE U-21 hurlers and management team are an ambitious bunch, according to joint team manager Gerry O’Connor. “We are very ambitious and we set ourselves ambitious goals at the start of the season. Number one was to win the first game in the Munster championship, get to the final and win that, get to an All-Ireland final and try and win that. That’s why we are here on a Sunday evening, getting everybody back in to assess their injuries and get a recovery programme in place. The management team met over the weekend to plan how to put a performance together that will beat Wexford,” he said at last week’s press evening. Clare have analysed the Wexford and Galway semi-final to death, O’Connor points out. “We have also watched the Dublin v Wexford U-21 Leinster final. Wexford have strengths and weaknesses. They have two very obvious strengths, they have conceded very little goals and the one against Galway was the …

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