Tag Archives: hurling

Clare under 21 A hurling champions, Feakle-Killanena will begin the defence of the title with a game against their neighbours, an amalgamation of Bodyke-O’Callaghans Mills. The draw was made at this Thursday evening’s county board meeting with nine teams in the hat for the A title. Clarecastle and Kilmaley will meet in a preliminary round with the winners going through to face Wolfe Tones in a quarter final. The full under 21 A draw is; Preliminary round; Clarecastle v Kilmaley; Quarter finals; 1—Wolfe Tones v Clarecastle or Kilmaley; 2-Feakle-Killanena v Bodyke/O’C.Mills; 3-Inagh-Kilnamona v St. Josephs; 4-Newmarket v Sixmilebridge’; Semi-finals; 4 v 3; 2 v 1; Under 21 B; Byes to A-Cratloe; B-Scariff-Ogonnelloe; C-Smith O’Briens; Round 1; D-Broadford v Clooney,-Quin; E; Ballyea v Clonlara; F Whitegate v O’C.Mills; G; Corofin-Ruan v Tulla; H; Crusheen-Tubber v Eire Og; Quarter finals; 1; F v D; 2; B v H; 3; A v C; 4; G v E; Semi-finals; 2 v 3 and 4 …

CLARE referees are getting old and their representative association in the county is very keen to recruit up to 30 new whistlers for an upcoming training course. There are 39 active referees currently, with 70% of them over 40 and 10% over 60. Inter-county referees Rory Hickey and Rory McGann are adamant that a new injection of younger folk in black is imperative, with just five referees aged under 30. “We’re getting older. Clubs might be sick of looking at us but there is no one else. In Clare, we have an older demographic in our referees’ association. We need to be pumping new people into it,” Rory Hickey told The Clare Champion this week. Hickey has been refereeing since 2000 and has taken charge of seven county finals, while Rory McGann took charge of the 2016 drawn hurling final. Both are aiming to make it back to the list of inter-county referees this year and will know this weekend, …

A “one-size-fits-all approach” to training was instrumental in Brendan Bugler’s decision to retire from inter-county hurling at the end of 2017. In an article he penned last week for AIB’s website, the Whitegate man said he was annoyed at this approach to training. “Motivation and enthusiasm are two key ingredients to becoming an inter-county player. It’s grand when you’re 19 or 20 years of age and you’re sitting there in a lecture hall counting down the hours until you can go training, buzzing to get out onto the field, irrespective of what time of the year it is, no responsibilities; but that can’t go on forever. “Physically, the pre-season hard slog was never a problem but as the seasons passed, it became mental torture. That motivation and enthusiasm wasn’t there in the last year. How could it be? As you grow older in life, you pick up more and more responsibilities, so your family and your career have to become …

Beaten by a point by Cork in last year’s final, Limerick will be keen to go a step further and capture the Munster Senior Hurling League title. While Cork followers were ultimately disappointed when the side didn’t go on to contest the All-Ireland decider, patrons will point to the fact that following their Munster league win, they won the Munster championship title, beating Clare in the final. This statistic is something that will not have escaped either Clare or Limerick. In the overall picture, winning the Munster league isn’t a priority but both Clare and Limerick have used the competition to give game-time to players. Many will argue that both sides have used a greater number of regulars than other counties currently competing in their respective provincial leagues, so it’s reasonable to assume that both will name fairly strong line-up for Sunday’s final. Clare and Limerick clashes tend to be lively affairs, whether it be a challenge, provincial, national league …

The Clare senior hurling team to play Cork tomorrow in round 2 of the Munster league shows ten changes to the starting line up from that which faced Kerry last week Patrick Kelly (Inagh-Kilnamona) replaces Donal Tuohy in goal, Eoin Quirke (Whitegate) and team captain Patrick O’Connor (Tubber) come in for Jack Browne and Rory Hayes in the corner back positions while David Fitzgerald (Inagh-Kilnamona) and Seadna Morey (Sixmilebridge) are named aright and left wing back respectively in place of Diarmuid Ryan and Mikey O’Malley. David Reidy makes way for Colm Galvin (Clonlara) at midfield while Colm’s brother Ian Galvin comes in for clubmate John Conlon at wing forward, Cratloe’s Billy Connors will make his debut at corner forward in a line completed by Peter Duggan (Clooney-Quin) and Conor McGrath (Cratloe) and this trio replace last week’s full forward line of Cathal O’Connell, Shane O’Donnell and Gary Cooney. Cork have also made a number of changes from the side which …

THE Munster GAA Council has announced details of the 2017 Development Grant Scheme, which has provided €1,004,700 in funding for club and school capital development projects. Clare received €118,600 from 10 applications, Cork received €344,229 from 38 applications, Limerick received €185,258 from 18 applications, Kerry received €93,308 from 15 applications, Tipperary received €202,413 from 23 applications and Waterford received €60,886 from seven applications. Funding is allocated based on the amount spent and on the category of development. Local clubs were presented with their cheques at Clareabbey on Monday. According to council chairman, Jerry O’Sullivan, “These grants have supported an impressive range of capital development projects, with clubs investing close on €7,750,000 million in upgrading their facilities. This level of expenditure is testament to the strength of the GAA in the province and reflects the impressive vision of our clubs to continually improve facilities for players and supporters alike. The grants provided would not be possible without the great support we …

TO many GAA followers in the county, the championship semi-final meeting of arch rivals Sixmilebridge and Newmarket was the game of the year, so it’s not surprising that there is a lot of interest in Saturday’s Clare Champion Cup final between the two sides. Even though it is too late in the season to be playing such games, the attractiveness of the pairing should ensure a big crowd in Clonlara for 1pm. After almost two months without a competitive fixture, Newmarket accounted for Kilmaley in the semi-final of the league two weeks ago. Their opponents in the final haven’t had a competitive outing since they bowed out of the Munster club championship last month at the semi-final stage, going down by a point to Ballygunner from Waterford. When the teams clashed in the championship, Sixmilebridge won 3-17 to 2-18, and went on to claim the county title. For much of that game, a draw looked the likely result. The ’Bridge …

Clare hurling star, Anthony Daly is to take over as senior manager at Kilmacud Crokes in Dublin, succeeding his formercounty team-mate Ollie Baker, who had held the position since 2013. Richie Stakelum, a former Tipperary player, and former Kilmacud player Adrian Crean will be part of the sideline set up. Daly had been director of coaching role at the Limerick underage hurling academy up to a few months ago. An iconic figure in Clare sport, the Clarecastle man captained the Banner to All-Ireland titles in 1995 and ’97. As Dublin manager, he steered Dublin to a Leinster title in 2013.