Tag Archives: hurling

NEXT Thursday, Limerick Institute of Technology will honour Davy Fitzgerald by making him one of the first five people to receive an honorary fellowship from the college. The Clare manager and four others will be honoured at a ceremony that will be held at the Limerick College of Art and Design. On the night, his citation will be read by Sean Kelly, past president of the GAA and now serving as an MEP. Davy has been associated with LIT for a number of years and was over their Fitzgibbon Cup winning sides of 2005 and 2007. He is still over the LIT side and they will be in action again on Tuesday.

MEELICK GAA Club is in a battle to hold on to three of their more prominent players, it has emerged this week. The Clare Champion has learned from sources within the club that Oisin Hickey, Eanna Mulvihill and Damian Moloney have indicated their desire to transfer to neighbouring clubs Clonlara, Cratloe and Parteen. Already working from a small panel, the loss of any players would undermine the club’s ability to be competitive. Indeed some argue that they would struggle to field at adult level if they were to lose players. This week Clare GAA delegated three of the officers board, Ger Hickey, Sean O’Halloran and Gerry Lynch, to meet with officials of the Meelick club to discuss the current situation. Meelick compete at intermediate hurling level and also compete in junior A football. Just last year the South East Clare club purchased additional land, adjacent to their playing pitch at Knockalisheen, and they have plans in place for further development …

CLARE GAA County Board chairman, Michael McDonagh, believes the player haemorrhage from Clare is far worse than official records show. Fifty-six players departed the Banner County in 2013 and 45 transferred to clubs abroad in 2012, according to figures posted on the GAA website, meaning a total of 101 hurlers and footballers left the county over the past two years. However, the county board chair feels the level of emigration is much higher than the official figures suggest. “One of the worst hit clubs I’d say is Kilmihil. They have lost nearly a team themselves. In West Clare alone, I’d be surprised if it stopped at 100 because I think that there are an awful lot of people gone who haven’t transferred. My honest opinion is you’ve 100 who transferred but another 100 or 150 who have gone but haven’t transferred. They’re not bothering with hurling or football; they’re just gone. I’d say there’s probably between 200 and 300 players, if not more, …

SHANNON Airport’s most popular passengers on New Year’s Day were All-Ireland Champions Clare as some dedicated fans turned up to wish them bon voyage on their  team holiday to the US and Mexico. Some 300 Banner supporters grabbed photos and autographs as the 80 strong party arrived  for the 1.30 p.m. departure to Cancun, Mexico, via Boston. Manager Davy Fitzgerald, with McCarthy Cup in hand, was first to walk through the doors and, more than three months after they claimed the county’s fourth All-Ireland title, was still immediately besieged by young Clare fans eager to get their photograph taken with him. Fitzgerald ensured his young charges were at Shannon early to ensure no fan was left disappointed. There was even a pleasant surprise for the manager himself as among those who stood in for a photo with him and the McCarthy Cup was none other than one of Ireland’s most successful music stars Dolores O’Riordan, fresh from her performance on …

IF the fixtures are structured properly in the county, it is possible for players to play hurling and football with success at club level. That’s the view of Cratloe star Conor McGrath, who left Pairc na nGael in Limerick bitterly disappointed. “If the fixtures are structured properly in the county, it’s possible to do both. If they are structured the same as this year, there’s not a hope. The way the championships were run off this year was not conducive to a football and a hurling team doing well. “We’d be hopeful that the county board will do something about this and a couple of matches in the football and hurling would be played in May, June and July every year, so that we won’t have a situation we had this year,” said McGrath, who was outstanding in attack on Sunday. Asked if it’s possible to play both codes at inter-county level, the All-Star hurler replied, “I’m not involved in …

Newmarket-on-Fergus 2-20 Inagh/Kilnamona 0-16   Newmarket-on-Fergus completed the first three-in-a-row in the Clare Champion Cup for over 30 years on Saturday, their club pocketing the €3,500 winners prize in the process. The Blues were without doubt the better side and as early as the ninth minute, when Shane Liddy had their second goal, it was hard to see them being beaten at a Clarecastle venue that was in great condition for the time of year. Inagh/Kilnamona trailed for nearly 90% of the game, but they fought as best they could and did mange to cut an eight-point half-time deficit to four but, crucially, they never brought the gap back to a single score, which could have really tested Bob Enright’s men. The early goals were crucial and the Blues had clearly decided to focus on green flags. After seven minutes they trailed 0-3 to 0-2, but had already gone for majors on three occasions when points were there for the …

By Seamus Hayes Na Piarsaigh, Limerick 4-14 Sixmilebridge 0-8 Sixmilebridge’s dream of a fourth Munster club senior hurling title was well and truly buried at Cusack Park in Ennis when they had no answer to the power of their Limerick counterparts Na Piarsaigh. Before an attendance of 3,689, the Clare champions were beaten in all sections and Na Piarsaigh had secured their place in the All-Ireland final long before the final whistle sounded. Managed and coached by Sixmilebridge man Sean Stack, the Limerick champions dominated in almost every sector and they led from the first minute when Kevin Downes found the net in their first attack. They were six points clear at half time when the score was 1-8 to 0-5 and any hopes of a Sixmilebridge fight back were rocked thirty seconds after the resumption when the visitors had their second goal, Kevin Ryan deflecting a Shane Dowling delivery past Derek Fahy.         Goal number three arrived …

  Youghal 1-16 Whitegate 0-8 WHEN Ian Fahy was ruled out with appendicitis, it represented a serious blow to Whitegate, and while they stayed in contention for a long time, the Cork side were rampant in the final quarter. At least two more Whitegate players had been sick in the run up to the game, but in fairness Youghal were short two regular starters and had been missing four for the draw. Sunday was a terrible day in Fermoy, heavy rain falling both before and all the way through the match, although the pitch held up as well as could be expected. Speaking afterwards, Whitegate manager David Considine said he didn’t want to put the defeat down to the poor health of some of his charges. “I don’t want to be making excuses, we hurled as hard as we could,” he said. The first half was quite even and entertaining with some very good spells of hurling. Whitegate, who actually …