Tag Archives: hurling

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 …

Sixmilebridge 1-20 Clooney-Quin 1-14 Sixmilebridge are tonight celebrating a third Clare senior title in five years when they proved too strong for Clooney-Quin in the Clare senior hurling final replay. Before an attendance of 5,892, up by just over three hundred from the previous week’a drawn decider, they showed improved form and deservingly captured the Canon Hamilton trophy for the thirteenth occasion in this the anniversary of their first win which was achieved back in 1977. A sharper and hungrier Sixmilebridge made no mistake on this occasion and emerged as deserving winners on a day when veteran Niall Gilligan captured his sixth success. The All-Ireland medal winner with Clare in 1997 was in the starting line up this afternoon from the start and he made a valuable contribution to the team’s victory. According to Clooney-Quin mentor Dave Barry “They were just stronger than us. They won an awful lot of ruck ball and that was pure power. Once you are …

Sixmilebridge 0-19 Clooney-Quin 1-16 For the second year in a row, the Clare senior hurling final has ended in a draw. Before an attendance of 5,455 patrons at Cusack Park this afternoon, Sixmilebridge and Clooney-Quin shared the spoils having been level on nine occasions during the hour. At the end of a most entertaining contest, a draw was probably a fair result but both sides will point to chances at crucial times, In the lead up to this final many had wondered if the occasion would prove too much for Clooney-Quin. The last time the blue riband of Clare hurling rested in their parish was back in 1942, all of seventy five years ago while Clooney last contested the senior final in 1944. They made the better start today and were never headed until the final minute and then they showed great composute in battling back for a merited equaliser. “Its another day out and its great to be playing …

Kilmaley 2-20 Tubber 0-11 After one year out of senior hurling Kilmaley are back in the top flight in Clare. At Cusack park this afternoon they were comfortable winners over Tubber in the final of the intermediate championship, justifying the favourites tag they have carried since the beginning of the season. Sadly for Tubber they failed to trouble their opponents and the result of this one was clear long before the final whistle. Cian Moloney gave Kilmaley the lead after just a minute and by the end of the first quarter they were five points clear with the score at 0-6 to 0-1. As the game went into injury time at the end of the half the scoreline read 0-8 to 0-4 in Kilmaley’s favour and Tubber followers held high hopes that they would be in contention for honours. In the one minute of ‘injury time’ that was signalled at the end of the half, Kilmaley struck for a point …