Tag Archives: hurling

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.

SINCE the introduction of the provincial and All-Ireland club championships across all grades, their popularity has grown enormously and one of the main reasons for this is that they provide players with the opportunity to represent their parishes at the highest level, while playing beside their best friends and family members. Kilmaley have that opportunity this week when brothers and cousins will line up side by side as the Clare intermediate hurling champions face their Cork counterparts Kanturk in the procvincial club finals in The Gaerl grounds, Limerick at 2pm. Kilmaley will be led by team captain Colin McGuane, who will have his brother Aidan as a team mate, while family members will be in the stand supporting the team and will include their father Noel, a member of the team that brought the Canon Hamilton Trophy to the parish for the first time in 1985. “The club is a real family affair and that makes it more special, as …

Galway man Gavin Keary is the new Clare senior hurling coach. A player with Loughrea up to last year, he was introduced to the Clare players at training on Saturday. He replaces Donal Og Cusack who stepped down from the post just under two weeks ago. In the past two weeks a number of people were interviewed for the post before Keary, a member of the Galway minor backroom team for the past two years and manager of the Irish under 21 shinty team this year was chosen by joint managers Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor. While all three outgoing inter county Clare hurling managers were re-appointed at a recent board meeting, there will, it is understood, be changes to all teams. Under 21 boss John Carmody has to replace Kevin O’Grady and Colin Lynch, joint coaches of the 2017 team as both have stepped down. There is speculation that minor (under 17 this year) boss Sean Doyle is also …

Ballygunner, Waterford 1-18 Sixmilebridge 1-17 Sixmilebridge’s dream of contesting the Munster senior club hurling final ended at Walsh park in Waterford this afternoon when they went under by the minimum margin to a fancied Waterford side, Ballygunner/ It was a heartbreaking defeat for the Clare champions who, when the review the game, will reflect on missed chances and on whether or not they could have made changes which would have benefited the team. As reported last week, the Clare champions went into this game without their injured captain Paidi Fitzpatrick and while he took part in the team pre match warm up on the pitch, he played no part in the game. His absence was a blow to the team’s hopes of progressing to the final. What was mainly a crossfield breeze helped the visitors in the opening half but they finished the half strongly to led by five points, 0-11 to 0-6, when the half time whistle sounded. Their …

Inagh-Kilnamona 1-14 Kilmaley 1-10 Inagh-Kilnamona bridged a nine year gap when they captured the minor A hurling championship at the expense of their neighbours and great rivals Kilmaley at Cusack Park this Saturday afternoon. In a game played in very difficult weather conditions of bitterly cold and heavy rain showers, they dominated in the key areas. They led by two points at half time having played against the breeze and by the three quarter stage they had pushed their lead out to eight points and looked set for a comfortable win. Kilmaley then hit a purple patch and they scored 1-3 without reply to move to within two points of the winners with six minutes to play. The winners were clearly under pressure at this stage and with two minutes remaining they conceded a penalty. Goalkeeper Ronan Callinan came up to take the free but his effort was turned behind by his opposite number Eugene Foudy. Top scorer and the …

Donal Og Cusack has stepped down from his role as coach to the Clare senior hurling team. The Cork man made the announcement on his twitter page earlier this evening when he also confirmed that he has stepped down from his role with Sport Ireland with immediate effect. The announcement was expected and had been predicted for the past week. In the wake of his admission that he wrote a character reference for former Irish times journalist Tom Humphries who pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation and defilement, speculation that Cusack was to step down from his role as coach to the Clare senior hurlers had been rife. The former All-Ireland winning Cork hurling goalkeeper, in a statement on Twitter at the weekend, apologised “for any hurt caused”. “I absolutely condemn the crimes he has committed. I cannot begin to imagine the terrible suffering of the victim. I apologise for any hurt or offence caused by my action. My intention was …