Tag Archives: hurling

Ballyea’s Tony Kelly will captain the Clare senior hurlers in their first competitve outing of 2016 when they face Cork in the opening game in the Munster senior league on Sunday. The game will take place at Sixmilebridge where the throw in will be at 2p.m. Inagh-Kilnamona’s David Fitzgerald will make his competitive senior debut having been named at corner forward completing a line which includes Clonlara duo John Conlon and Darach Honan. Another newcomer is Newmarket’s Eoin O’Brien who has been named at corner back. Tubber’s Pat O’Connor has been named at full back. The backline includes three Ballyea players with Paul Flanagan at corner back while Jack Browne and Gearoid O’Connell will fill the wing back positions, flanking Cratloe’s Conor Ryan. The team is Donal Tuohy (Crusheen); Eoin O’Brien (Newmarket-on-Fergus), Pat O’Connor (Tubber), Paul Flanagan (Ballyea); Jack Browne (Ballyea), Conor Ryan (Cratloe), Gearóid O’Connell (Ballyea); Colm Galvin (Clonlara), Shane Golden (Sixmilebridge); David Reidy (Éire Óg), Tony Kelly (Ballyea), …

THE addition of former Cork goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack to the senior hurling management team for 2016 is one of the reasons for the increased interest in this season’s Munster Hurling League, which gets underway this weekend. The fact that Clare’s opening game will be against Cusack’s native county is further adding to the interest to the game, which is scheduled for O’Garney Park, Sixmilebridge at 2pm on Sunday. Cork are under new management, with Kieran Kingston at the helm backed up by Diarmuid O’Sullivan, a Cloyne clubmate of Cusack, Pat Hartnett and Pat Ryan, All-Ireland medal winners with Leeside teams. Sunday’s game is the first of four games Clare will play in the coming weeks. A disappointing 2015 when relegation to Division 1B of the league was followed by an early exit from both the Munster and All-Ireland championships, led to criticism of the Clare management team, led by Davy Fitzgerald. The Sixmilebridge man’s decision to add Cusack to …

CLARE historian Daniel McCarthy is playing a key role in seeking approval for hurling to be included on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list. The Cabinet has approved the application and it is due to be ratified by the Dáil in early 2016. A formal application for inclusion on the list must then be submitted to UNESCO by March 31 next. In outlining their interpretation of Intangible Cultural Heritage, UNESCO maintains cultural heritage does not end at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from ancestors and passed on, including oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events. Lissycasey man Daniel McCarthy is manager of the GAA’s Heritage Framework Policy, which identified the merits of seeking UNESCO designation for hurling. He believes that if UNESCO recognition is granted for the game, it will expose hurling’s merits to a world-wide audience. “The GAA is unique amongst world sporting bodies in that it upholds, …

CLARE dual player Podge Collins is targeting a return to the football and hurling fields in March or April 2016. The former hurling All-Star snapped his anterior cruciate ligament in late May, playing in a club championship game for Cratloe against Ballyea in Cusack Park. He underwent surgery on July 7 and has since embarked on an intensive recovery programme. Collins subsequently missed the remainder of 2015 with both club and county. “I had it tested last Monday week in Santry. It was to test the power in the knee and they were very happy with how everything went. I’ve been put on a new programme for the next few weeks. Seán O’Meara (physiotherapist) is working very closely with me and it’s great to have him back from Australia. He’s doing great work with me. Everything is positive and I’ve had no setback so far and, hopefully, it’ll keep going in that direction,” Collins told The Clare Champion this week. …

Donal Og Cusack from Cork is the new coach to the Clare senior hurling team. In a statement issued this Bank holiday Monday, the former Cork custodian has been named as coach selector in Davy Fitzgerald’s management team for 2016. A winner of minor, under 21 and three All-Ireland senior medals, five Munster senior medals and two All-Star awards as goalkeeper the Cloyne man has been a member of the RTE Sunday Game panel for the past two seasons. During the Cork senior hurlers strike action a few season’s back, Cusack was one of the chief spokesmen for the players Another new member of the backroom team is Jimmy Payne from Waterford who is to be a strength and conditioning coach along with Kelvin Harold who is employed full time by Clare GAA. He worked with Fitzgerald during the Sixmilebridge man’s tenure as Waterford senior hurling team manager. He has also held the role of Strength and Conditioning Coach with …

PODGE Collins is on his way back to the Clare senior hurling panel for 2016, but he will also remain with the county footballers. Manager, Davy Fitzgerald has refused to confirm or deny that the Cratloe man, who is currently recovering from a cruciate knee ligament injury, is about to rejoin the hurling panel but The Clare Champion has learned this is the position. “No comment” was the manager’s response, when asked about this and about speculation as to who has been let go from the panel, which is expected to begin training next month. Collins, one of the stars of the 2013 All-Ireland success, after which he was honoured as an All-Star and was shortlisted for the Hurler Of The Year award, was omitted from the hurling panel last year, after the management opted not to include any dual players. The return of Collins to the hurling panel, while still being available to the senior football side – which …

Sixmilebridge 1-21 Clonlara 0-15 A haul of 0-13 from Niall Gilligan played a key role in Sixmilebridge winning back the Canon Hamilton trophy after a lapse of one year, as they overcame Clonlara in the Clare senior hurling championship final at sunsplashed Cusack Park on Sunday afternoon. [doptg id=”82″] The Sixmilebridge veteran, who won the first of his five Clare senior championships 20 years ago in 1995, was presented with the man of the match award at the end of a game his side won convincingly While Sixmilebridge carried the favourites tag into this game, much was expected of Clonlara but their fans went home disappointed at the end of a contest in which Clare All-Ireland winning heroes from 2013, Colm Galvin, Darach Honan and Domhnaill O’Donovan failed to make an impression and this was a big talking point after the game. Disappointed with the result, Clonlara manager Sean Stack accepted thst there was no argument about the outcome. “They were …

Hot Property is The Clare Champion’s special supplement for the 2015 Clare Senior Hurling Championship Final to be played at Cusack Park, Ennis on Sunday. With previews, analysis and interviews by Sports Editor Seamus Hayes and Peter O’Connell, it sets the scene for one of Clare’s biggest annual sporting occasions. Sixmilebridge, one of the powerhouses of club hurling, meet Clonlara, a team that has grown in strength over the past couple of seasons. Both sides have a wealth of talented players, who play along side each other on Clare teams. With players that have a high skillset, a good sod should make for a thrilling game to showcase the very best of Clare hurling.